365 - Around the Table

Day 15
 
Tonight I took photos around the dinner table.  The kids and I are often alone at supper with Damien's work schedule, but this does not mean we eat pizza and mac and cheese.  I cook for my children every night with the exception of Friday pizza nights and the occasional dinner out.  As a testament to this fact, Olivia has progressed in her eating habits.  Tonight she took five bites of her soup and tried her carrots.  Cameron, of course, ate the whole bowl because it was soup and tried his carrots.  I rewarded them with cookies from our cookie swap.


The other improvement at dinner time is the amount of time the children are spending at the table.  I used to have a hard time getting them to sit and just enjoy conversation and company, but now they stay for a few minutes even if they are finished eating.  We usually talk about their day at school, or the favorite thing they did that day or something they are looking forward to doing.  If they are involved in the conversation they actually want to stay.

Our centerpiece for the month of December is Cameron's birthday ring.  We will put candles in and light it on December 31st!  New to our centerpiece is this crystal bowl that I stole from my friend Kris during our White Elephant Yankee Swap last night.  The bowl was actually brought by my friend Lauren and belonged to her grandmother.  I am excited to have it!  I was also wearing Lauren's aunt's sweater.  I love my friends :)

This evening I invited my parents to join us for dinner.  After dessert we were all looking at the photos of Cameron and Olivia on the wall.  Olivia is a baby and Cameron is about 2 1/2.  Cameron started telling stories he remembered from the photos.  Some were accurate, some a little far-fetched, but all were fascinating!  It reminded my Dad of the time we were at my brother Wit's fire station for an event.  Cameron was three.  Their ladder truck was on display and as my Dad explained, he was walking with Cameron admiring "big metal things" that were coming out of the truck.  Cameron says to him, "Oh, you mean the stabilizer legs?"  My Dad laughs every time he tells the story.  We always assumed he knew of stabilizer legs from his Bruder fire truck he got on his 2nd Christmas.  Cameron corrected us and ran and got his "I'm Dirty" book which I have been reading to him since he was a baby which has the line, "Stabilizer legs?  Take a stance."  I'm sure it was the combination of the truck and the book that gave him that vocabulary at 2 1/2.   It is amazing what reading to your child can do!

Here is to hoping your dinner table is filled with family, love, memories and conversation!