Conversations Over Dinner

I hate making dinner. For one thing the stove in our rented town house is older than I am and forces the smoke detector to go off if I even contemplate boiling water despite cleaning it frequently. The stove is out to get me. So is the dishwasher, but that's another blog. Another reason I hate making dinner is because it always coincides with the Witching Hour. Every family has one and its a different time for all. Mine seems to start at 4:45 when I'm prepping for dinner. That's when Ashe decides to throw the biggest tantrum ever or annoy his older brother so much that both boys end up screaming and wailing on each other, and Soren decides he needs to eat RIGHT NOW.

I was fortunate tonight while cooking. Ashe had passed out on the couch after a trying time at the library so I had one less crisis to deal with. Soren didnt want to eat but did want to cling to me like lint clings to Velcro. We had a bit of wailing when I put him down in his bouncy seat as I turned the chicken over in boiling oil but after, I picked him and sang and danced with my iPod on and he passed out in my arms within 3 minutes. Probably to get away from my atrocious singing :/

But dinner time in general is fun if you get past the fact that Ashe runs around the dining room table and eats air, and Xavier complains with every bite how much more does he have to eat? We have a rule in the house that for dinner, we all eat together and talk about our days. I enjoy that. I like knowing about Zavis day in school and Js day at work. I like watching Ashe sidle up behind Zavi and tickle him as a mouthful of food is just about to be shoved into his mouth.

Todays conversation went all over the place. I think it started with Zavi asking about college which veered to part time jobs he could do, to part time jobs J and I did as teens. That started a debate on where J and I met for the first time, and then it landed at what Zavi could buy when he made money at his job 9 years hence.

He brought up always wanting a scorpion but I said not until he was 18 and out of the house. J mentioned a tarantula may be more feasible and laughed when I sent him the glare of doom. Xavier mentioned the remote control tarantula he saw and wanted it. That went off on to what he would do with it. J and I joined in with our own warped ideas. My favorite was to put it in a mini aquarium, wrap it up as a present and give it to my mom on Christmas while Zavi held the remote out of eyesight and made the thing move. no, I dont hate my mom. In fact I love her dearly. But it was a funny image =)

Zavi wants to put it in her bed when shes sleeping and have it wake her up, like an alarm clock.

I love dinner conversations like this. It makes being a Mom to boys worth it =)