My number 3 can sniff out a snack from another room in the house and she can smell chocolate from the back of the van.
Her little voice “mom what you’d ead-in?” Oh she knows, she’s just giving you the opportunity to be honest.
Which, I never am when sneaking a treat in the van. I realize I should always be honest with my children but I figure in this case if I say I’m not eating anything or that it’s all gone I’m sort of saving them the pain of when I say “well it’s not for you”.
The other day on the way to Dee’s house we stopped at the store so I could grab pull ups. For number 3, not me. Although let’s be honest sometimes when I laugh too hard, cough or jump on the trampoline I pee a little. Such is life with 4 kids, I’ll be seeing pelvic floor PT before long don’t stress okay?
Anyway, in the store I also picked up a coke and a 100 grand candy bar for Tanner and I to share. Because we are cute and do that. And who wants to share a granola bar? I guess some health nut couple out there probably does share protein powder or something like that. Well we are not that couple, we share candy and soda.
In the car number 3 smelled the chocolate and heard the wrapper. When she asked what I was eating and I said nothing, she said “let me see” I showed her my hands, she said “no let me see your whole” meaning all of me, like having me turn around and prove I’m not actively chewing on something. When I swallowed I turned around and said “it’s all gone Mads” she insisted I had something and kept asking. Tanner finally chimed in and said “Mads, give it a rest we don’t have anything for you”
She was relentless and I did happen to have a bag of starburst jelly beans in the center consol for when the kids need a treat for good behavior, a bribe or what have you. And because I was over the day and Madi was absolutely not going to give it a rest I reached for the center console as Madi said “yes you do!” I laughed when she smiled as I pulled the bag of jelly beans out and gave her two. Her sisters all benefited from her unwavering tenacity. It was jelly beans all around!
It’s ironic really because it wasn’t but 12 hours later when we were all loaded up and buckled ready to head out to “drive by Chuck E. Cheese ” because number 2 had been begging for three days just to see Chucky on the building. And I selfishly agreed because there is a coffee shop right by Chucky Cheese so we made a morning of it. Anyway, I had just gotten everyone buckled and sat my own self down to buckle up when number 4 started fussing and the feed timer went off. Lamenting the days of being able to just get up and go efficiently, I unbuckled and pulled 4 out of her seat and started feeding her up front. After 7 minutes (I only know this because of the feed tracker app I use) number 3 says “moooooom why yous feeding Rae ah-DIN!!! Been here ev-ER and ev-ER” I was just about to open my mouth and explain why we had to wait, and how it’s a good lesson after yesterday that sometimes you have to be patient when 2 pipes up and says “because she would DIE if we didn’t feed her Mads”. There you have it, what would have been my response in a calm controlled moment when I felt zero anxiety and was ready to explain, and then my previous response from a moment that was less calm, less controlled and I had zero patience just repeated word for word by number 2.
Number 3 wants food and wants it now when she sees a snack of any sort, man am I glad she hasn’t decided when 4 eats that she too needs to eat. So the entire family has to listen to 3’s relentless demands for bites of food but she is 100% okay with letting 4 cry to eat so long as we are getting out the door and headed toward a special coffee. The short sighted selfish nature of kids cracks me up, it’s totally within the normal behavior of a 2 year old to act like that, I reminds me how at our core as humans we default to selfish short sightedness. This is evident when folding laundry with my husband as I watch him meticulously pick out his clothes from a full hamper to fold first. What ends up happening is by the time he’s finished folding his laundry I’ve done the rest of the house and all that’s left is matching socks. Rest assured there are never many to match because again with the sock saga that is my life.
The thing
that drives me nuts and entertains me all the same is how number 3 will take just a few bites off her own plate and then get down to play “big bird little bird” this game was created when 1 and 2 were both in the stage of not wanting to sit and eat. So we let them take a lap around the house and we’d call big bird for 1 and little bird for 2, then like parent birds we’d give the kids a bite and off they’d go flying around the house while chewing. In case you really got into the bird imagery, the bites we hand out are on forks and the masticating is done by the children not us.
Anyway, 3 will get down to play this game, which I’ve come to realize is the least of things to fight my kids on. If I have to call them a bird to get them to eat food that’s healthy and a wide variety, so be it. They are eating and they aren’t picky so I’ll take it. So she will get down to play and it never fails, when she comes back she wants a bite off my plate, her grandmas plate (Dee or Nana which ever is here visiting) or really just any plate other than her own. Mind you my kids get the same exact thing everyone else gets. I don’t make them anything special or different. I guess for some reason the dinner looks greener on the other plate to her.
It never is. I usually dump her plate onto mine when she isn’t looking and feed her that way. I once watched her ditch the apple in her own hand to walk over to 2 and ask so sweetly for a “whittle bite” to which 2 responded with an annoyed disposition “you always say little bite and then take huge bites. Go eat your own”.
3 does this even with coffee. On my way into my in-laws condo to pick the girls up after my appointment last week, 3 opened the door with a big smile on her face and a wipe in her hand (she had been cleaning the window on the storm door) when she saw the coffee in my hand she said “mommy me tleeanin win — me has whittle sip yours toffee?” I laughed and gave her a sip she was just too cute with those bouncing curls, blue eyes and pantless legs because she also refuses to commit to potty training young like the other two did. It wasn’t but ten minutes later she came back up to me and asked “me has 5 whittle sips yours toffee?” Sometimes she’s adorably sweet and asks for bites, other times she waits for you to turn your head and she snags some for herself.
She will steal sips of coffee when you aren’t looking, last week 1 turned around to complain because she only likes the twisty noodle mac’n cheese (she occasionally tries to be picky but I shut that down real quick, ain’t nobody got time for that) and while she poured her devastated heart out to me, 3 reached over and stole her mac’n cheese. This was because I wouldn’t give 3 seconds until she finished her chicken first. I will say this, 3 is a go getter, she see’s what she wants and she finds a way to get it. This I’m sure, will take her far in life.
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