Dishes

The other night, we had chili and cornbread for dinner. Neither of the boys are really into chili, but they sure like the cornbread part. As soon as dinner started, they were both stuffing cornbread into their mouths. I explained for the 300th time that we don't stuff our mouths full and that eating is never a race. Noticing that my lecture was falling on dead ears yet again, I said, "Whoever finishes their cornbread first wins a prize!" Aidan asked, "What prize?" "You can do the dishes!" I responded.

A few seconds later, I noticed that Gresham's mouth was completely stuffed full of cornbread. He was using his hands to keep it from falling out. He ended up having to take some of the cornbread out of his mouth, drink a little water to help it go down, and then re-eat the part that he had taken out. I still hadn't caught on to what he was doing until he swallowed the last morsel and proclaimed, "There! I won! Now I can do the dishes!!"

He then rolled up his sleeves so that he would be all ready come dishes time. "Doing the dishes" to him means pouring water and playing in the bubbles, but hopefully he'll retain his enthusiasm once he is old enough to actually help!