Dinner at the Hamiltons

Meal time at our house is seriously a three ring circus.  The clowns in the three rings are Trevan, Mallary, and Jonah... 

Meal times consist of our kids being insanely hyper, laughing and screaming like little crazies, Mallary sticking her feet on Jonah's legs or seat under the table - which he does not like, and a lot of "encouraging" to get our kids to try new things, or to even take their required bites of their food. (their age = number of bites)

Needless to say, I do not enjoy meal times at our house.  I enjoy the cooking and preparing the meal part, just not the eating together part. 

Trust me, if you were here you wouldn't like it either.  My niece lived with us this summer, and I'm pretty sure she was excited not to have to eat at our table anymore when she left.

Well, last night was the worst meal time in a while.  We were supposed to go somewhere after John got home, so I thought I would get the kids fed and ready to go for when he got home...

Things started out well, then...

Jonah began dropping green beans in his water bottle.

He saw some water bottles on the island and requested he have it as his drink for dinner... 

Mallary saw Jonah had one and wanted one too. 

While I'm dishing up seconds at the stove, Mallary pours her water into Trevan's glass of milk.  

I tell her to stop, and turn back around to finish dishing up seconds.  I then hear a steady stream of water hitting the floor...

Jonah saw what fun pouring out a water bottle into Trevan's milk could be, and proceeded to pour his bottle of water onto his plate, overflowing onto the table, overflowing into his lap, overflowing into the floor...

I clean that up...

Then, Jonah kept grabbing Trevan's plate.  I kept warning Trevan to move his plate, and to not let Jonah grab it.  Two more grabs later, Jonah grabs the plate and spins it off the table.  I'm surprised the plate didn't break, but his plate was full of food...  It was the biggest mess...

At this point, I tell Trevan to clean up the mess, take my chances and leave them all to fend for themselves. 

We usually don't let Mallary and Trevan sit next to each other at meal times, but I guess I thought I would let them try it out again - bad idea.  Now I know that none of the kids can sit next to Jonah either... 

Please tell me I'm not the only one mom that would just like to eat dinner by herself every night....