Every Thursday night, my parents come over for dinner and to watch Annalyn while I go to choir practice. For the first few months year and a half, they brought dinner with them.
But this fall, I decided that I can probably manage to make dinner one night a week, rather than my parents planning and cooking ahead, packing the meal and bringing it from their house 30 minutes away. Seriously.
So last week, I decided to make meatloaf, cheesy potatoes and green beans. I’d made the potatoes over the weekend, so all I had to do was defrost them during the day and pop them in the oven as soon as I got home. And how hard is it to dump a can of green beans on the stove and put a meatloaf together?
Harder than you’d think.
As we pulled into the driveway that evening, I told Annalyn that when we got inside, I’d have to work in the kitchen. (Normally, I spend my precious two hours with her just playing, leaving the chores for later . . . whenever that may be.)
She was fine for a little while, but when I was standing at the counter dumping breadcrumbs and ketchup into the bowl for the meatloaf, Annalyn decided she’d had enough of being neglected.
My smarty pants little girl got into the pantry and pulled out a packet of muffin mix, brought it over to me and said, “Muffins!”
I said, “Sure, baby, we can make muffins. After I finish the meatloaf.”
Well, my goodness. You would have thought I said, “No, sweetheart, you cannot have muffins. As a matter of fact, you can never eat bread again. And actually, I don’t think you can have dinner, either.”
Because her reaction? Pure meltdown. “Noooo! Muffin! Muffin! No wait! Muffin!!!”
This went on for a good 10-15 minutes. I kept telling her, calmly, that we could make the muffins, but she needed to be patient. I let her keep howling, because a) I needed to get the meatloaf cooking and b) I was kind of hoping my parents would arrive and catch her mid-fit.
And, oh, they did. After informing us (because I’m quite sure Annalyn cared as much as I did) that they could hear her racket in their car on the street, they distracted her and cheered her up. And gave her a bath.
So all was well then. But the good part of an hour leading up to their arrival? Not. Fun. And all over a little less attention than normal and MUFFINS.
Really?
I mean, I like my carbs, but that’s a little crazy!
It should not have surprised me when she had a meltdown the following night over wanting to push her stroller in the crowd, rather than ride in it. Clearly, logic is not at work here.
Even more bizarre than the Muffin Meltdown is the Britches Blow-up.
We cannot figure out where Annalyn has learned to call her pants “britches,” but she is a little sponge these days. So “britches” it is.
Of course, she’s not yet two years old, so her pronunciation of the letter “r” leaves something to be desired.
Especially when she’s insisting on wearing a different pair of pants by screaming, “Britches! Britches! Britches me! Britches!!!!”
Yep. That’s right. Just read that sentence without the “r” in “britches.”
This all reminds me of the time Mark and I went to marriage counseling. Though the counselor wisely kindly noted that Mark’s actions were causing many of our problems, he also told me that my reactions were part of the issue, too. I’ll never forget the valuable advice he gave me:
Keep your reaction in check with the level of the offense.
I wonder if that therapist sees toddlers?
It's always amazing how they feed off of our reactions! So hard to keep them in check though…
lmao!
I can't wait for the day when my kids realize that I don't have a magic wand up my ass that makes everything they want *rightNOW*
As for pronunciation… Paul likes to say Negetive 1 (thanks to They Might Be Giants), but it kind of sounds like, uhh, "n*gg*r 1"… sigh…
Man, I feel your pain. Yesterday Ruby Ann was attempting (quite successfully, I might add) to clear off the shelf with all Grace's games on it and OBVIOUSLY I told her 'No No'. O.M.G. I am pretty sure you could have heard her screaming at your house! Seriously!!! I wonder what our neighbors think! But, you can't reason with an 11 month old about all the tiny game parts that could potenially KILL her. I guess I'll just let her play with the matches, knives and daddy's power tools…
Oh, mary…I remember when Ethan loved saying the word 'TRUCK'…without the 'R'…oh and replace that 'T' with a 'F'…yeah, pretty mortifying…especially in the church nursery! I've always prayed that God would humble me before him, but I never imagined he would use my toddler son to do it.
Natalie properly used the full version of the word BS in the church nursery when she was about 18 months. She also used it because she was upset and was told to share a toy, and deemed the situation as BS. Thankfully, one of my best friends was the one who heard it. Unfortunately, she has never let me forget it, and that happened 8 years ago…
One of my friends has a daughter who is obsessed with the grinch that stole Christmas, and says it like "bench" which comes out like your britches. She called her mom a grinch the other day and Mama almost flipped till she realized that her baby girl was pretending to be little Cindy Lou.
You will laugh about all this when the kids are teenagers and doing way worse things. :)
Oh yes – if we aren't humble by nature, Kids will help us find our way… oh my goodness… little sponges they are!!! i won't share the things my daughters have repeated – just know that I know what you're feeling… LOL
Next time just make that meatloaf mix in to muffins — you just put the meat mixture into a muffin pan and viola! Muffins!
They cook quicker and my kids love them! You know, with lots and lots of ketchup!!!
And that girl is clearly getting too big for her britches! :)
Hugs!
I hear you with the muffins. My kids like their carbs too :-D.
Ha…britches! funny! :-D (really, funny either way :-D)
Awesome and hilarious.
I think those marriage counselors would make a good bit of money if they saw the kids that their marriages produced.
H (egg-zact same age as AL, you know) says "Percy" without the "r" and with an inrecognizable "e" sound. Sounds kinda like a "u" sound. I'll let you take a second to put all that together.
So my any-day-now 2 year old sounds like he's in a college football locker room when he's at the train table. Lovely. Just lovely.
the fact that she calls them "britches" is funny enough, even WITH the r! but hearing it in my head without it… so much funnier!
laughing my britches off!!!