Originally written: August 20, 2015 (Hilton Head Island)
At dinner I told Brian that I’d fallen off the wagon. The food wagon, that is. It’s hard to be on vacation and “stay strong.” And then someone brought peanut M&Ms into the house, and it was all over. The little white bowl of colored chocolates screamed to me all day from its perch on the kitchen counter. Today I had a snow cone (southern lemonade and strawberry), ice cream (mint chocolate chip in a sugar cone—I don’t like cake cones) and some kettle corn with M&Ms (my dear friend Alison showed me this trick—best one ever).
Ok…so that sounds like a miserable failure, but I’m actually doing much better than it sounds. When I lamented my eating habits at dinner, Brian looked at me with encouragement: “I think you’re doing remarkably well.” I’ve committed to breakfast and lunch and have stuck to those fairly stringently. After lunch I allow myself a bit more freedom, but considering what this looked like last year (or twomonths ago), I think I’m still making progress on eating a much healthier diet.
On another, more random note, Charlotte has discovered a new word: “ever.” What she really means to say is “never,” but instead she says, “Ever.”
Let me give you an example:
We are at dinner…
Charlotte: “My tummy hurtin.” She scrunches her nose and squints her eyes as if that will convince us that it really does hurt, and she’s not just trying to get up from the table.
Brian: “You gotta go potty?”
Charlotte: Shake of the head (but really the whole body moves back and forth like there is something wrong with her neck and she can’t bobble it). She looks at my dad and waves her hand over her food like she’s painting the air: “No take my food.”
My dad: “No one take your food?”
Charlotte gasps and forms her little mouth in the shape of an “o.” She finally recovers and asserts in a loud voice: “Ever!”
Or another example:
My dad: “Charlotte, Papa’s gonna get you!”
Charlotte, as she runs to my mom and grabs hold of her leg: “Everrrrrrr!!!!”
Last example:
Charlotte is sitting on the potty at whatever restaurant we are patronizing—I’m certain at this point my food has finally arrived and is now getting cold. She sits on the potty, enjoying every moment of relaxation, while I hold her hands.
Charlotte: “Hold my hands, Mommy.”
Me: “Why, baby girl?”
Charlotte: “Me no fall in…ever.”
Me: “You done?”
Charlotte: Gasp…”No!”
Me: In an effort to get her moving, “I think our food is here. Maybe the boys are eating yours…”
Charlotte: Gasps again. “Everrrrr!”
Mission accomplished :-)
