You’d never know

This precious little episode occurred last night after dinner. Faith is a very smiley baby, but it’s actually a little tough to get her to really laugh. So it was a treasure of a moment to get her to laugh so much at one time. 

You’d never know, though, from watching this sweet little video, that not five minutes before, you could have cut the tension in the house with a knife during dinner. 

Gabriel had been sick for days, and it had been a painfully full evening of near-constant whining, a disappointing half-burned dinner (and I’d doubled the recipe to freeze for later!!), plus a 25-minute training/investment session during dinner regarding teaching Gabriel to eat his dinner and not throw it on the floor OR hold it in his mouth and let it dribble down his chin and all over his clothes (while laughing at us). Michael had been feeling terrible all day and was having a tough time (as I was) staying patient. Hence the tension. 

I will share that after 25 minutes of calm, firm persistence–and consistent consequences–on my part, Gabriel suddenly started to calmly finish his dinner and then chirp sweet nothings happily about “Face” (what he calls his baby sister) while I wiped him up with a damp rag and copious amounts of praise. I am thankful that a rough dinner ended happily and we had a lovely few minutes of family time (including taking turns flirting with Baby “Face”) before poor Gabriel had his next mood swing and I whisked him off, all flailing limbs and crocodile tears, to bath and bedtime.

I always want to stay honest and real on this blog–but always in an appropriate, positive and constructive way. My life is not perfect. My kids aren’t perfect. I’m not perfect. My husband isn’t perfect. My house isn’t perfect. My cooking isn’t perfect. And so on. 🙂