When the goin' gets tough, clean the kitchen table.

The outlook for our evening was bleak. Mason had been uncharacteristically grumpy for much of the day and Teagan was even grumpier than usual. (We're hoping it's a phase.) I was ready to ship them both off to bed early, and then it occurred to me that we should try to turn things around. We've been guilty of having the TV on during dinner a lot, and recently discussed nipping that bad habit in the bud and actually conversing with eachother. More than the cursory, "How was your day?" because that opens up a can of worms for each of us and Brandon and I wind up complaining about uncooperative, smelly patients and uncooperative, smelly kids respectively. 

My big opener? What's your favourite colour? The conversation was surprisingly lengthy, considering the subject matter. Teagan speculated Mason's favourite colour is purple and claimed hers was green. Then we got all educational and each looked around the room for something that was the colour mentioned. Smiles were smiled and the atmosphere was already lighter - we should talk more often!

I picked all the Ramen off the kitchen table (in my defense, it was part of a skillet that included broccoli AND red pepper) and wiped it off, tempting fate and trying to continue our family fun.

At the risk of pushing my luck, I suggested we start a Valentine's tradition and we each chose a $1 Target mailbox (80 cents after my coupon - yes, I'm that cheap) and marked them as ours.

Teagan drew pictures of each of us so that we could draw names each day until Valentine's Day and write love notes to each other. It was quite an undertaking and actually went really well. Note my low expectations, using words like "actually" and "surprisingly". Teagan was so moved by her love note that she crawled across the table to give Brandon a kiss. Good things happen when your kitchen table is clean.

Teagan didn't make it back to her seat and instead plopped herself in the middle of the table. If this were any other day, I'd clench my teeth, ask her three times to get down and pound my fists on the table when she didn't listen. But lately, I've been putting myself in her shoes and all I seem to hear from me is "Don't do ____", "Why would you do ____", "Stop ______ing!" She only ever seems to hear from me if she's doing something wrong. That's not entirely true, but the ratio of compliments to criticisms is pretty sad. So I decided to let it go. Another factor is her not listening and I can't help but think that she has so much to listen to from me, that if I reduce the amount of orders I give her, she's more likely to listen when I tell her something important...right? Going against everything I thought I stood for, I allowed my toddler to sit on the table. That turned into table angels...

And then she wanted to hold her brother. She never asks to hold him (unless we're visiting people and they want to) so we let her hold him and what started out as a miserable evening produced the best photo we've taken of the two of them together since he was born. Let's just ignore the fact that it's on the kitchen table, shall we?

We'd watched Wreck-It Ralph earlier that day and our little actress assumed the role of Vanellope Von Schweetz with every fiber of her being. No longer answering to Teagan, she dubbed me King Candy and Brandon...nope. Fix It Felix. I didn't see it coming either. Even Brandon saw the missed opportunity for type casting and requested he be recast. She stuck to her guns and had big ol' Brandon hopping around with his magic hammer and interacted with an imaginary Wreck-It Ralph. After a lot of begging, pleading and demonstrating his prowess in the wrecking department. So, he wound up making a "track" for her around the living room and she rode her too-small-scooter around while I sang Rihanna's "Be Quiet and Drive"...she's a little parrot these days and I don't need her telling me to shut up.

We were having so much fun that we lost track of time and realized it was past bedtime. That's saying something. Since it was already late, we took our time and did a lot less "Please hurry up and..." which elminiated so much of our usual frustration. Everything went a little slower and was more drawn out, but for some reason, it didn't make me want to scream and run away. Mason was laughing and laughing on the bed as Brandon tickled him and I read Teagan a story. In the voice of King Candy.

Today was one of the good ones. They seem few and far between lately (I blame lack of sleep) so I wanted to make a note of it in hopes that it might motivate me to relax a little, let some things go and see how it turns the situation around. Who knows what can happen when the kitchen table is cleared? I just have to sweep under it now.