Couscous meets Toddler: Failure of Epic Proportions and Tidal Waves in the Bathroom!

To end things off on a lighter note tonight I thought I would share my experience with feeding my toddler's couscous. For those of you who may not know what this is, (not a judgment, I didn't know until about a year ago when my mom started making it), it is little tiny balls of pasta. Anyone who knows how toddlers eat, especially twins who are in constant competition to make a bigger mess, knows that tiny balls of anything, especially slightly sticky pasta is never a good idea. This aside my son Daniel absolutely loves it. This is mostly likely a result of the messy quality of food that is couscous. As I am a mom that aims to please (and also gets pissy when my hard work and yummy, well balanced meals hit the floor), I figured I would make something that my children like, in this case Hawaiian marinated chicken, carrots, and couscous with sweet chili Thai sauce on it. As a foot note I would also like to add that I just cleaned my kitchen floor two days ago, so this makes the turn of events at dinner even more tragic.

Fast forward from clean kitchens and making tasty dinners to ten minutes after the food is put on the table. While Daniel made a genuine effort to eat all of his couscous and ask for seconds, Alex was literally making it rain. No, not dollars as in the song "Make it Rain", but literal couscous rain all over my kitchen. Throwing handfuls in the air between shoving bites of chicken in his mouth and asking for "mo chicken mommy". Thankfully Alex responded well to the "stop throwing food if you want more chicken concept", and stopped. Meanwhile Daniel said, "I done momma, down please". After thanking him for his polite manners in asking to get down, I realized that in the rush to stuff as much couscous down his throat, as quickly as possible, he had also covered himself in it, as well as, but not limited to, the chair, his booster seat, his jeans, the inside of his jeans and diaper, the entire floor around his chair and the glass patio door behind him. What a mess! I calmly cleaned him up and stuck him straight in the bath tub. What have I learned from this mess? That's right couscous is a food that requires close supervision, and possible loss of self-feeding privileges, especially on newly cleaned floors.

As we moved from dinner to bath time, I realized that the amount of clean up required tonight was going to be pretty significant, as bath time began to quickly resemble the ride "Splash Mountain" at Disney World, minus the warning splash zone signs and the screaming kids. Oh yeah, that's right, there were screaming kids and a mommy ducking for cover, so quite possibly closer to the theme park ride then I originally thought. Thankfully my children are cute at all times, no matter what, even when you know, your mopping up an inch of water from your bathroom floor. You may say, why not drain the bath tub? The answer is simple. They still have to get cleaned up right? Plain water does not constitute being so fresh and so clean. Sometimes it's easier to ride the wave (literally) and go with the flow (or the monsoon!). After drying two babies off and moving into tooth brushing time (and having Daniel shove my toothbrush halfway down my throat; we do mommy's turn and babies turn in my house), we were off to the living room to spend some quality family time together, reading stories and watching The Pajanimals before bedtime.

At this time Daniel decided it was good to stick with the theme of the evening (couscous rain, literal tidal waves in the tub, are we seeing a pattern here tonight?), and flood the living room floor with almost every movie on our entertainment center. I totally did not see it coming, as my kids have not touched the movies in ages and I figured the whole scaling the entertainment center phase was over. After we put the movies back away together (at the threat of early bedtime, which I hate since I love cuddle time with my boys), we snuggled on my over sized living room chair together to read a book. I thought maybe it was finally time to wind down, until my sons figured out that they could jump on the ottoman, over the arm of the love seat, and hit the floor. (What a fun game! Who would have guessed hitting the floor at high speed could be fun?). After a few more minutes of this, quiet time finally came to my house. When I announced bedtime, my sons did the sweetest and cutest thing I can think of. (And also heart-breaking considering I love to cuddle with my sons). They said "mommy's bed" and took off for my bed. I went back to my room to find them cuddled up under my blankets, looking just as cute and sweet as could be. Unfortunately, any parent knows this, you never sleep as well when your kids are in your bed, so I shooed them off to their own beds. I think that I am the luckiest mommy in the world to have such sweet little boys. As for this mommy though, I think that it is time for me to snuggle up in my bed (after checking in on my boys), and get to sleep myself. Four am comes wayyy too early!

Over and Out

Erica