Glass of Water

Dinner with 3 small children can be stressful, and if you intend on eating as a family even more so.  Given our children are complete wild cards if they want to eat, and Eva is more than likely going to want to nurse, or just get bored sitting around; I think I am crazy for even trying a family dinner.  Each time I set out to make a nice dinner I feel like I wasted my time as my wife and I sit around begging for kids to eat, holding/rocking/nursing/bouncing Eva and rushing to eat our own food.

Just the other day, Cristina and I foolishly decided to have an adult conversation as dinner was mercifully coming to an end.  Combined with the stress of the dinner time affair, and the stress of pending work/plans I'm sure my tone and Cristina's tone wasn't the most "friendly."  As Cristina was elaborating on our next days plans, Drew started to scream, which leads to contagious screaming from Sean more often than not.  It took Cristina and I a good 45 seconds to calm the wild ones, and when all was said and done we asked Drew why he started screaming.

Drew replied he didn't like the "yelling", when we pointed out that Cristina was not in fact yelling he stated that "Mama shouldn't be starting a fight and we should be loving".  Cristina and I were struck silent, our tone was far from "loving" to be sure, we weren't fighting with each other, but the subtext of our conversation was not translating what we were saying well.

I told Drew that Mama and Daddy weren't fighting we were just talking about the next day and all we had going on, I gave Cristina a big hug and kiss, and Drew asked that we kiss again, I guess to be sure it was all behind us.

Engaged encounter talks about "deciding to love" and what a wonderful example our son gave my wife and I.  Even in a conversation about our days plans we can decide to love.

Life over a cool glass of water, for dinner a dream dinners Surf and Turf Pin Wheels, french bread and a Trader Joe's veggie bag.