We haven’t been out to eat as a family in a long time. I have forgotten how messy things can get. Dave says that we don’t just leave a tip, we leave a cleaning deposit.

And I need to remember to bring not only a change of clothes for Samuel, but for me as well! Tonight he dumped water all over my pants, so it looked like I didn’t make it to the bathroom in time!

But other than the huge mess of spilled food and water, scribbled on menus, scattered and chewed-on crayons, the meal time went relatively well! (When considering it was with 4 boys under the age of 8.)

Although this a fun age now, I do look forward to the day that they can sit down and eat at least one full plate of food without wandering around, whining, or crying that the food looks like puke.

(I remember once when Anthony was 3 we couldn’t get him to sit down and eat at the dinner table. So we brought his car seat in and strapped him in so he would sit at the table. Yeah, that didn’t go over so well. I have the pictures of that – he was not happy about being constricted. Although we did get a bungee cord for James when he was 3 and after a couple times he understood that meal time was sitting down and eating time.)

Oh the wonders of parenthood! It has its days of frustration, but it also certainly has days that are humbling and rewarding.

(If viewing extract, click on the “Read more about…” link below to see the pictures.)

September 2004 – Life

James’ Kindergarten class went on their first field trip today (Sept 17, 2004) to Spring Lake. Just about 20 minutes from Spanish Fork. Everyone went fishing and everyone caught a fish! He was so excited! And I was excited that they gutted the fish for me so I didn’t have to! We’re going to cook it up tomorrow night. I think it’s a Rainbow Trout. Should be pretty yummy. We’ll roast it over our fire.

I had just finished feeding Benjamin his cereal, when I heard James calling me from the other room. I went to see what he wanted, then when I came back in the kitchen to a very funny sight. Anthony had dumped rice cereal flakes into the bowl (it was overflowing) and was feeding it to Benjamin. Benjamin kept smacking his lips to get some moisture on the dry flakes. When Anthony saw me come in he got a nervous look in his eyes as I said, “Oh Anthony!” But I reassured him that I wasn’t mad at him, and thanked him for wanting to be a good helper. (It’s something we’ve been working on with Anthony…giving him more positive reinforcement…basically trying to catch and praise him for doing something good.)

Benjamin smacking his lips from the dry rice cereal.

The week after our cruise, Benjamin started pulling himself up. Here you see how happy he is with his accomplishment! Hard to believe that he’s almost 8 months.