Tasty Lessons

I know that my daughter is the pickiest eater in the world, so I asked her what she wanted for her dinner. I was cooking salmon patties and fried potatoes for Justin and myself. I know- healthy, right? I offered to cook her macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes instead of the fried potatoes. She told me that she just wanted salmon patties. Since she has eaten these, several times, and enjoyed them, I assumed she would actually eat them.

Dinner was ready. We were sitting at the table, I mean in front of the TV (Titan's game), and Maddie claimed that her's was too hot to eat. No problem, I got a container of yogurt for her to eat, while her dinner cooled off.

"Um, Mommy, these are yucky."

"You haven't even tasted them, yet."

"I know, but I'm sure, they really are yucky."

"You told me that you love salmon patties and that you didn't want anything else. Eat your food. Now."

"I. Don't. Want. Them."

"You. Will. Not. Eat. Anything. Else. Until. You. Do"

"Okay."

And, with that, I did something I always swore I would never do. She went to bed without dinner. A carton of yogurt was all she ate last night. And she didn't even care. Or complain that she was hungry. Which, I thought was really strange.

But for some reason, I was really, really hungry. I ate and ate, all night long. I started thinking about it, because I never eat late at night. Was God punishing me, because I made Maddie go to bed without dinner? Had He decided to not make her hungry, and was trying to teach me a lesson, by making me crave all of her favorite foods?

It's true. I craved cheese and crackers, popcorn, fruity cheerios, yogurt, and pecan twirls.

And as I was eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream, I decided that, sometimes, God's lessons taste really good.

Hello, Karma- Nice to Meet You

When Maddie was a baby, she hated wearing clothes. No big deal, right? Tennessee summers get excrutiatingly hot, after all. And when she was about two years old, it was so much easier for me to let her eat/finger paint without her clothes on. No stains to worry about.

Fast forward a little bit. I've had to chase my child through the store after she took off her shorts and threw them at me. If she spills something on her shirt, it comes off before I have a chance to stop her. No matter where we are. Her friend came over and as soon as his mom left, he stripped down to his underwear because that's all Maddie was wearing and paint was involved. Good times, right?

Now let's add another factor into my non-clothes wearing daughter situation. She loves to dance. On poles. But only in public. If we are waiting for a table at a restaurant and there is a fence post, a flag pole, or a banister, Maddie is sure to be dancing on it. Wrapping her leg around it and holding with one arm and spinning around and around. And drawing quite a crowd. Friends laugh uncomfortably when they see her performance. I know exactly what they are thinking, There goes Maddie again. I wonder where she learned those moves. Hah. I know it's not from Dora or Diego. This is so terrible to laugh at, but at the same time, so dang funny. At least it's not my child.

And I know exactly how this happened. You see, after a friend of a friend told us what she was naming her daughter, Justin and I laughed. Hard. We said that she was destined to be a stripper. We wondered at what age we should buy the kid a pole to practice on.

I'm just afraid that Maddie is going to ask Santa for her very own pole. And offer to pay with a lap dance when she turns 18.