Sucking the beans

Despite what the commercials would have you believe, parenting is not all warm snuggles, sweet baby smell and gentle kisses.  In fact, a lot of the time, parenting is more like tear-filled, fit-throwing snuggles, poopy smell and getting whacked in the nose with the hard part of your child's head when they are trying to kiss you. 

Of course, you take the good with the bad, love most of it and make the best of the tough days. And many, many times, parenting is putting yourself at the bottom of the priority list and doing something unsavory or unpleasant because the result fills a need that your child has.

This was the case during a recent family lunch. Jason and I had taken the girls to eat at California Tortilla. Lorelei has gotten to the stage where we no longer have to haul along special food just for her, but is able to eat tidbits from our plates.  She will eat almost anything and has a voracious appetite that can be tough to keep up with.

On this particular trip, I got my usual- a caribbean bowl with lots of chicken, rice and beans with a mango salsa dressing. Because I was sharing with Lorelei, and because the dressing is pretty spicy, I began sucking the beans to get the sauce off before I gave them to her. Same with the chicken.  (I also noted to myself to order the dressing ON THE SIDE! next time to avoid this whole sucking the beans thing.)

Jason and I just laughed about it because it was just one of those things you find yourself doing, without even realizing it, when you are a parent.