Green Beans & Tossed Undies

For dinner tonight we had grilled pork chops, noodles, and green beans. Tyler noticed the green beans as I was placing them on the table: "AAAHHHHH! I HATE green beans!" Ron told him everyone had to try at least one green bean. This caused a mutiny. Tyler jumped from his chair, ran across the room, and down the stairs into the playroom, yelling "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" the whole way. Danielle was quick to follow his lead and ran after him shouting "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" in her girly way.

I could hear them conspiring downstairs:

"Green beans are gross."

"Yeah. I hate them, Ty. They're gross."

"Come over here and hide, Danielle. We won't eat them."

"Yeah. They're gross."

"I hate green beans."

"Yeah, Ty. I hate green beans too!"

We finally got them to the table by telling them they only had to take a bite of one green bean, not the three that Daddy had laughingly plopped on their plates. They reluctantly sat down and continued moaning about the beans. Danielle stood back up and shook her little finger in my face, complaining about those yucky beans on her plate. She sat back down as I said, "Danielle, if your rear end leaves that seat again, you're going to eat all three of those beans!" She didn't even blink but very slowly stood right back up, looking at me defiantly the whole time. It was actually pretty humorous, but I maintained my composure. Just as I was about to address her belligerence, my supportive husband burst into laughter. All was lost. I cracked up, too. It's so hard to correct behavior when you're laughing so hard you're crying.

We finally settled down and got back to the business of eating dinner. The horror of the beans was broken up by noodle mustaches and dribbled water. (Tyler held a noodle under his lip: Look Mom! A mustache. Danielle, quick to mimic, picked up two noodles and practically stuffed them up her nostrils: Look Mom! A mustache.) Eventually everyone tried at least one green bean, and no one has to have them again for breakfast in the morning.

We went for a walk after dinner and then returned to the play room for a few minutes before heading to bed. The sprinkler got the kids wet as we were coming in from our walk, so both kids stripped to their undies once we got inside. Once in the playroom, Tyler was asked to put away his Legos. He was less than agreeable and expressed himself rather vociferously. In a fit of anger, he suddenly pulled his underwear off and threw them down. Ron and I immediately started to laugh at such a strange display of anger. Realizing how goofy he was, he started to laugh, too. The attention was too much for Danielle (who had been sitting in the corner, smearing sparkly purple lip gloss on her lips). She, too, took her underwear off and threw them down. The two of them started running around and giggling. I guess it sounds kind of strange as I write it down, but it really was very funny. It also makes me think that we should really invest in some blinds.