Flattery will get you everywhere...

The last few days have been, well for lack of a better word, tiresome. I'm sure you've all had those days where it seems that your children will NOT STOP. Stop anything. Stop talking, fighting, just generally being awake...you name it. I have been near the brink of insanity for just about 72 hours. By dinner every day, I have made that lovely face that I'm sure every mother makes on a semi-regular basis. You know the one, where you pull the bottoms of your eyelids down with your hands, as you try to rid yourself of your frustration by pealing your face off your skull? That has been me the last 3 days. Tonight, we needed to go grocery shopping, so we made a list, and agreed that we would eat out tonight, because it was already dinner time, and since we have no food...seemed like a good option.
When you have 4 kids, you have to narrow down your choices based on who either has the cheapest kid food, or which places the kids eat free on any given night. Tonight, it was Steak n Shake. Turns out the kids don't exactly eat FREE all weekend as the big billboard outside claims, but that's a whole different post. Usually if we eat at Steak n Shake, we allow the kids to get jr. shakes at the end of the meal granted they finished their very nutritious meals of Mac and Cheese (why do kids ALWAYS choose something like this, even if they had just had it for lunch?) or cheeseburgers. Not tonight though. Since I was near the point of stabbing a straw into my own ear so I wouldn' t have to hear the word "mom" one more time, we opted to not treat the kids to milkshakes. Cameron and I, however, did order shakes. By the end of dinner, I was really full, with half of my shake left. So, the kids started asking for "sips" (which we all know is really just their way of asking if they can drink as much as possible before you say "okay, that's enough already") so I decided to reward the ones that had finished their food. Peyton got a drink first, then Dylan. When Dylan asked for more, I told him he could have more given that he would sing me "my" song (he loves to sing a certain song to me by James Blunt...I'm sure you've heard it.). So, as loud as he could, he belts out... "YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL, IT'S TRUE!" Our waiter happened to be standing behind him when he started singing, eliciting a smile and a chuckle. Once the other kids caught on that this technique worked on dear ol' mom, they broke into several renditions, from Andi's "You're pitiful", to Peyton's "You're beautiful boo boo" all drawing attention to our table. All in all it was a successful outing, except for the fact that we never made it to the grocery store...I knew we forgot something!