The trauma of the green....

Am I the only mom that had NO IDEA it was St. Patrick's Day last Friday until about 10 minutes before school? Gulp. My mom and dad always did fun things on the holidays and I remember more then one green meal on St. Patrick's day. I decided to make a green dinner and start the tradition in our home. I have seen other blogs where the moms serve actual green food....broccoli, grapes, peas and the like. I just did it the lazy way and used food coloring.

Lauren fell asleep during the afternoon (my first clue) and didn't wake up until I had our dinner on the table. She came up to the table to see her green macaroni and cheese with peas, toast w/ green butter and of course, shamrock milk. There was even a note from O'Malley, the classroom leprechaun, telling her that he had sprinkled lucky leprechaun dust on her food. Cool mom, right? I ran upstairs to get the baby up (what can I say...he naps until 5:30....) and by the time I got downstairs she was quietly sobbing at the table. She wouldn't tell me what was wrong but kept crying. Her cheeks were bright red and she was clearly not well. I plopped Jacob in his high chair (but didn't do the straps....) and went to figure out what was wrong with Lulu. It seems that she didn't want to eat her green food because LAST time she ate green food, she threw up. She has eaten green food before? I may not be the most observant mom, but I am pretty sure that I haven't served green bread or cheese anytime recently, had I?

It turns out that Lauren had experience with green food. Last year, Derek and I went to NYC for a long weekend and Lulu stayed with my good friend Suzi. Suzi and Gordon have the cool parent thing down. Last year they made green waffles for the kids for dinner. Apparently, Lauren threw up all night. I tried to explain to Lauren that she threw up because she was sick, not because the waffles were green, but she wasn't buying it. She was not going to be eating that green meal (but she was mildly concerned that she would offend the leprechaun). Back to the drawing board. I went to the kitchen to make something new and realized that it was too quiet. I hadn't said "SIT DOWN JACOB" for at least 30 seconds.

Sure enough, the high chair was empty. This was not a surprise at all, because Houdini can escape from anything. More then once I have been driving down the road only to feel a small hand on my shoulder and "hiiiiii" in my ear. The boy can escape from his 5 point Britax carseat with the straps so tight they almost cut off circulation. A high chair is nothing. I have posted before about Cubby's propensity to hide in small spaces. Finding him usually involves some aggressive searching. An impromptu game of hide and seek wasn't exactly in my schedule. The good news is that it didn't take me long to find him. This is the perfect small space for him. He still feels like he is squished in somewhere AND he is in plain view. Oh, and the fact that he hadn't been fed before the great escape was no problem. By the time I found him, he was chewing on an old banana peel and some cold french fries FROM THE GARBAGE. Whatever, at least it was food.

The boy was returned to the high chair, tied down this time, and I gave HIM the green dinner. He wouldn't eat it either. This is a child that I have actually caught gnawing candy off the bottom of my shoe. This is the child that not 5 minutes before was foraging in the trash for tasty tidbits. Green macaroni was not edible to him?

Two very important lessons were learned on St. Paddy's Day at this year. The first, that we will never be having green food at our house again. The second is that toddlerhood has officially begun at our house. Excuse me while I hide all the remotes, the car keys, my wallet, the plunger...