Friday, August 05, 2005

For all you cereal lovers out there...

Ok, so I actually cooked a meal today. It has been a long time since I have done this. I really love to cook, but I don't plan ahead enough to do it as often as I should. Plus, in the summer it is just too hot. Anyway, tonight I decided to cook dinner. Besides making a meal for my family, I also proved a theory that I have always suspected. If you do something good, you will pay for it eventually. I say this half in jest, of course, but have you ever noticed how one day your kid will be charming and take a really long nap--allowing you to get a lot done. The next day they will be cranky and just want to sit on your lap all day. It is just the price you pay for the good day. At least with my kids it is pretty black and white. Maybe some day I will teach them to just be gray everyday.

Back to the subject...so I am grilling chicken (with the yummiest marinade EVER--and no points if you are a Weight Watchers person). I also made a summer squash couscous casserole. YUMMMY. Everything tasted good and the kids even ate. I spent some time talking to my sister while I cleaned the kitchen. The kids were in the family room which is totally babyproofed so I can usually leave them alone in there........
Apparently, 10 seconds after dinner, my daughter decided that she was hungry and needed a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Who doesn't need an enormous bowl of cereal after a yummy dinner? She isn't entirely to blame, my husband does the same thing. He gets RIGHT UP from dinner and pours a bowl of cereal. I guess she also decided that she didn't need to use a bowl, she would just use the floor. When the babies started bugging her for cereal, she gave them some too. Also on the floor. Before long an entire box of Honey Nut Cheerios was on the floor and the children in all its sticky glory.

This is the sight that greeted me. My nephew had Cheerio's stuck all over his body, an especially cute one in his little bum crack above his saggy diaper. Jacob was sitting in the middle of the biggest pile shoving them into his mouth as fast as he can (I might add that he is teething so all that drool provided a wonderful adhesive for yet more cereal). Lauren was trying to see how many she could make stick to the bottom of her feet, she then threw herself backwards and shook her legs so that they would rain down all around her. The boys were sitting under her legs trying to catch them in their mouths.

Charming.

We got the kids wiped off and the cereal vacuumed up (after clogging the vacuum more then once). Of course I grumbled at them. When I asked my daughter WHY she did this she just looked at me and said "I don't know" and not in a snotty way, it sounded like she really didn't know. She did however manage to tell me that "a drop of golden honey is what makes them sweet". How mad can you be when your child is quoting the commercial verbatim? Ironically, if I hadn't actually cooked dinner for them, they would have been fed cereal.

The moral of this story is that instead of spending time cooking, I should have taken the kids to the pool!!! I could have sat on the couch and just thrown cereal at THEM. It would have been much more satisfying to clean it up if I had some fun making the mess.

P.S. We are well on our way to Fairy-Lou 5. For those who don't know, Fairy-Lou is Lauren's fish. They keep dying and we keep replacing them. The fish are winning (or loosing depending on how you look at it).

7 comments:

Carrie Ann said...

I LOVE the cereal on the bottom of the feet. I HATE having cereal on the bottom of MY feet, but for some reason it's cute on the bottoms of YOUR kids feet on YOUR floor. None of this would have been cute had it happened at my house...although, having two dogs, clean up would not have even been an issue. Dogs don't mind sticky or drool-mushy or even stuck to a crack unsanitary...next time you have a mess, don't bother with the vacuum...just give me a ring...

Bek said...

I keep telling my husband that we need to get a dog or a cat. My daughter is an animal person. The problem is that when pets come to our home, they die. We don't actually kill them, but there is some wierd karma here. That is why we are on Fairy-Lou 5.

Maybe the fish died of shame. What Japanise Fighting Fish wants to be named Fairy-Lou? We wouldn't keep repalcing them except Lulu's great grandma is going to die any minute and the new baby is coming. We didn't want to add one more thing to her list of things to stress about.

My son is like a puppy. He drools, he loves me unconditionaly, he pumps his leg when he is eating or sitting on my lap. He pants when he gets excited. He even loves it when people rub his little head and scratch his hair. He is like a puppy that will eventually learn to do the dishes.
Sweet!

wendysue said...

Love it! Love it! I'm sure Lulu's "I don't know" was the same as Molly's when I asked her why she was drinking the bubbles!!!! Love the pictures too!

Lisa said...

I have a theory that the amount of time you put into creating a meal is proportionate to the child's dislike of said meal.

I heart cereal.

Bek said...

I would have to agree with that.

Suzie Petunia said...

I love that you thought it was funny and worthy of pictures WHILE IT WAS HAPPENING! If only I had the photos to prove the red juice box juice sprinkled around my living room...or the baby powder-coated floor...or the poop smeared on the crib and walls. Kids are funny...(most often in retrospect).

topher clark said...

On my mission I had two fish named Fish and Chips. One day I woke up and Chips had eaten Fish. I always thought it was because they were ashamed of their names! And also because I never fed them.

Lisa is right. The more interesting and delicious our meals are, the more the kids get woozy and find excuses to leave the table.