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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Tomato Incident & The Cinnamon Incident

Part 1: The Tomato Incident

Last night we had dinner with the BYU kids in Reid and Karen's ward at a park. Karen spent all day preparing the meal—slicing cheese and tomatoes, ripping lettuce, mixing lemonade—and then we transported it all over to the park. When we arrived the girls were ready to just hop out and zoom over to the playground but I told them that we should help carry things. There was plenty that was both possible and appropriate for them to carry—bags of chips and loaves of bread, for example. Rachel, however, chose to carry a container of tomatoes.

She had picked it up from the backseat and had only carried it as far as the middle seats (in the van) when the lid popped off and tomatoes went flying everywhere. The majority of them ended up in one pile so we scooped up the top layer and put them back in the bowl.

It was a lovely mess.

As it turns out, Rachel had misinterpreted the tab on the lid as a handle. She thought it was to make carrying easier when in fact it is to make pulling the lid off easier. And, boy, did that tab ever do its job!

Part 2: The Cinnamon Incident

This evening we had leftovers. Crepes, rice, chicken, tortillas. It was a hodgepodge of flavours. Rachel and I had chicken, rice, and pineapple with barbecue sauce, wrapped in tortillas. Miriam had hers mixed in a bowl. When that was gone, Rachel wanted more but there wasn't, so she started getting a crepe ready for herself—with apples and cinnamon.

Miriam always wants what everyone else is having so she, naturally, wanted a crepe with apples and cinnamon as well. I told her that she had to finish her "first course" first, so until her bowl was empty the crepes were off limits.

Sometimes my kids take so long to eat that it pains me to sit there. So because we had planned on going to see the bunnies and I still had some things to do (like take the trash out) I told the girls to finish eating while I collected the trash from around the house. And how long does it take to empty a couple of garbage cans, really? Too long, apparently.

By the time I had emptied the office and bathroom garbages, Miriam had helped herself to the crepes and the cinnamon and sugar.

The best part is that Rachel had used up the rest of the cinnamon and sugar on her crepe but had wanted more so I had just remixed some and put it into the container...so when Miriam got her hands on it it was completely full. She was very generous to her chicken and rice. Too generous, really. She also shared a goodly portion with the table and floor.

"Miriam!" I shrieked when I walked back into the kitchen. "What are you doing?! Oh, you are driving me crazy! Just because I leave the room doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. No! Whatever I say still what needs to happen even if I'm not there!"

Her bowl was full to the top with cinnamon and sugar and she was happily ignoring her bowl and eating a plain crepe. I took the crepe away from her.

"You do not get to eat this!" I said. "You have to finish what's in your bowl first."


I poured the cinnamon and sugar into the garbage bag I had handy and then gave her back her bowl and spoon. She sat there and sobbed.

Fortunately for her, Grandma came home and helped her finish eating in time to go see the bunnies. I was ready to watch her sit at the table until bedtime...

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