Life with 2 and 6

Who needs a pregnancy workout DVD when all you have to do is take your kids to Souplantation for dinner without your husband present, and chase your 2 year old around the whole restaurant, including looking for him after a few sudden disappearances only to have friendly people (upon seeing your face-even without words) say: he went that way. You proceed to find him circling the salad bar, darting between the hoards of people with trays full of food. And yet he miraculously didn't cause any accidents. It was the 6 year old who for the first time ever actually had the accident-her plate slipped off her tray, disposing an entire plate of food onto the floor, but luckily onto carpet so there was no broken glass.

I was prepared for this emotionally however, due to an incident we witnessed last time we were at Souplantation. The 3 or 4 year old at the table across from us spilled his completely full glass of red juice onto the floor and bench. It was an accident, he wasn't misbehaving or doing anything wrong. He said to his mom: "I made a mistake!" The mom proceeded to lecture him in a foreign language. Then the dad returned, saw the mess and said very loudly: "You stupid!" and also lectured him in their native tongue. Warren and I had been mildly laughing at the cuteness of the little boy's sincere "I made a mistake" apology, but were saddened once we saw how mean the parents were to him. You don't tell a kid he is stupid when you were the one who gave him the tall drink in the first place. Anyway, this time it was my kid and remembering the scene from last time I was able to smile and say, "it's okay, it was an accident" and just go find someone to help me clean up.

In other events of the day, Joseph and I were talking about how big he was, and how he will grow up to be as big as his daddy someday.

I said: "You will even BE a daddy someday!"
Joseph answered (emphatically) "YES, like MOMMY!"
I'm not entirely sure what he meant by that, but it still made me laugh.

And from Rebecca: she accidentally drew on my only currently nicely fitting, good looking pair of maternity pants with dry erase marker. I of course responded: "Rebecca, you need to be more careful when you're using markers. These are the only pants I have that fit me right now."
She was very sorry and asked me if I would be able to forget that the mark was there. I tried to get it out as much as possible and later that evening showed her that it looked much better than before. She was very happy about that and asked me again: "When we were at Souplantation did you forget that the mark was there?" It almost broke my heart. What impression have I been giving my kids? That I can't forget a mistake? I hope not. I will try to do better.