We are pretty lucky when it comes to food at my house. I enjoy meal planning and grocery shopping. I enjoy spending time in the kitchen perfecting different dishes. I am not a gourmet cook by any stretch but I can fix up meals that my family loves and because they love to eat them and I like to cook them, I cook a lot. I would say we eat out less than once per month.
I think there is so much to be said for family dinners. Some of my favorite memories and conversations happened around the dinner table growing up and I hope that our girls have a chance to develop some great memories of their own.
My kids are adorable, cute, smart and hilarious. In case you think I might be biased (I'm sure I am by the way), they are also ornery, talkative, headache causing little cuties who I wish came with an off button or batteries that I could remove. Dinner time with a 2.5 and 1.5 year old is not really my favorite time of the day. It is usually a fight to get them to eat dinner and sit still. Their "favorite" foods seem to only be their favorites once and the next time I make it they turn up their nose at it. It is a constant struggle.
Last night was really no different from any other night, but I noticed a few things about Nalley that I just had to share.
Nalley is our prayer leader at meal times and bed time. We said grace 4 times last night. At first I thought she was just really thankful and had finally figured out grace is basically saying thank you to God. Then before grace #3, she said her food was too hot, we needed to say grace. By the 4th time, when she insisted Felicity's food was too hot and we needed to say grace, I finally figured it out. She thought, and probably still thinks because I couldn't teach her through my laughter, that we said grace to allow our food time to cool down.
So lesson #1 from dinner with Nalley: Pray until things cool off
Nalley is also a bit of a neat freak. She can't stand to be dirty. She loves to clean and wipe things off. It is helpful until she leaves a puddle of cleaning solution. Recently, she has been obsessed with napkins. She gets the smallest amount of food on her hands or cheek and she asks for a napkin until we give her one. I am pretty sure most kids wouldn't notice or would just lick their fingers but not my sweet little Nalley. She can go through 4-5 napkins a meal if undeterred.
Lesson #2 from dinner with Nalley: If it is dirty, clean it! Translation, if you are dirty/sinful, get clean/go to confession
And finally, Nalley is teeny tiny. She doesn't weigh much more than 20 pounds at 2.5 years old. I worry that she is growing enough, eating enough etc. So I have been trying really hard to get her to eat more at meal times. This has required a lot of incentives to be offered. She loves fruit so we save that until the end. If she eats the amount we set, usually 3 bites, she gets some fruit. If she cleans her entire plate, she gets as much fruit as she wants.
Lesson #3 from dinner with Nalley: Do what you are told, get a sweet treat at the end
So I learned 3 things from having dinner with my daughter last night. It will be a miracle if I can find a helpful life lesson from Felicity throwing her unwanted food off her highchair tray and onto the floor!
What have you learned from your kids at dinner?
God Bless!
Hannah
The Farmer's Wife
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