Family Dinner

You know when you live a part of your life that seems very stressful but if you tell anyone else about it, or look back on it years later, you just laugh?  That's our family dinners...

Natalie sits with us at the table.  We arm her tray with toys that she can grab.  Right now, she is teething like a fiend, and *everything* goes into her mouth.  Well, apparently she isn't very good at the aim sometimes, because lately, she keeps whacking herself in the head with the hard plastic toys and then she starts crying.  Of course, this in itself isn't that funny, but to watch her cry and then do it again, and again, and again until we take the toys from her is humorous in a way.  (She actually has a small black eye right now from doing this.)

But then add Alli.  So, we have one crying kid.  Then we have the big sister wanting to get her way factor.  Natalie will play with toys and some end up on the floor.  Alli *insists* on picking them up.  Tonight at dinner, she went to get one of the toys and hurt herself (this is also not uncommon for Alli).  So she was crying and trying to put ice on herself.  Natalie was crying (for one of several reasons) and Kim and I were just staring at each other like "is this for real??"  Of course, as soon as Natalie dropped another toy on the floor, Alli stopped crying, started giggling, and then hopped off her chair to go pick it up.  And the cycle continues.

We finally told Alli she couldn't leave her seat anymore and that was another round of crying.  But the funniest I thought was Alli.  Kim scolded her "Sit down and eat your food" and smacked her hand lightly for standing up on her chair and reaching across the table for one of Natalie's toys.  Alli started crying, claiming that Kim hurt her finger, so we told her to ice it (cause we already had the ice pack at the table!)  And then Alli says through tears "but then how can I eat my beans?"  I couldn't contain my laugh.  Luckily, that didn't piss her off this time.  :)