Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Oodles of Noodles

It wasn't too long ago that John and I ate cereal for dinner on a regular basis. It also wasn't too long ago that our normal dinner time was between 9-10pm. That's the kind of procrastinators we were. I hate to admit it but leaving the kitchen a disaster zone until the next day was a regular routine of ours as well. Sure, we lived like semi-slobs but it was just us and it really didn't matter. We didn't have a kid crawling around on that dirty floor of ours and we could let laundry pile up until the weekend because we'd have plenty of free time to spend doing load after load then. Even still we didn't have to worry about the daily nutrition needs of a 1 year old. Consistent nightly routine? Seriously.

That was then. Now, Lily and I have a very consistent nightly routine. I know what to expect and so does she. I pick Lily up at 4:30pm, a nutritious dinner is on the table by 5:15pm, we eat together, Lily gets a bath, we read a story and then Lily goes to bed. After she's asleep and all I want to do is fall into bed myself I go back downstairs and start cleaning it all up so we can do the whole process again the next night. Leave the dishes overnight? You must be joking. If I walked into a dirty kitchen with a hungry baby after work and the challenge of getting dinner on the table in less than 45 minutes I think I would give up, put Lily back in her car seat and head for the nearest restaurant.

Fortunately for me, Lily is an amazing eater and puts up with my culinary disasters on a regular basis. For example, I can put a bowl of noodles tossed with grapes and shredded turkey in a bowl and she'll actually eat it. Thank God! Making dinner or any meal for that matter has never been easy for me but now I have the added pressure of trying to throw something together that John will like, I will eat and is appropriate for Lily. Honestly, there are not too many dishes that fit that list of requirements. While Lily clearly has her favorites, she will eat pretty much anything. She LOVES the Sungold tomatoes John planted for us. I can barely get back into the house to wash them before she is reaching and grunting her desire for me to hand one over. Once she does have one she makes quick work of shoving the entire tomato in her mouth, puncturing the skin with her only two teeth, sucking out the juice and handing the skin back to me so I'll give her another. Noodles, as you can see are another favorite and I also think rotisserie chicken, broccoli with cheesy sauce, fresh peaches and yogurt with Julie's homemade raspberry jam would make her top ten list. I seriously don't know what we're going to do when fall comes and all of her current farm stand favorites go away for another year.

John arrives home just about the time I'm taking Lily out of her bath so while I'm sorry to say that he is still consistently eating cereal for dinner we are getting better at organizing ourselves... albeit a little at a time and only as quickly as we have to. From the outside looking in it might appear tough and it is but I look forward to our nightly routine all day. Watching Lily delight in a bowl of noodles and seeing her sharing one with daddy makes it all worthwhile.

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