Renaming the Toddler

Dinnertime. Ugh. I tell ya what. If ever there was a time that makes me want to smack my head into the table, dinnertime would be it. It has made me realize that who ever gave children the term 'toddler' was way off. Oh sure, they toddle around when they start living the mobile life. But that only lasts a relatively small portion of their years. So I've decided that they should have named them 'dawdlers'. Every time they eat (not just dinner) it takes them forever to finish eating. But by far, dinner is the worst. I kid you not. We will sit at the dinner table for anywhere from half an hour to an hour every night while they slowly pick away at their food. And this has nothing to do with me forcing them to eat. These little monkeys get down from the table whenever they are ready. Whether they eat two bites or lick their plates clean, it's totally up to them when they are done. I sit with them until they are done because it's supposed to be family time. But they dawdle, dawdle, dawdle the evening away. So let's put this new name for the toddler into perspective, shall we? When you are taking a lovely stroll down the sidewalk, they stop every ten inches to pick something up or examine it closely. Dawdling. When you say, "Okay kids, time to go inside now," it takes them three times as long to go inside as it did to go outside. Dawdling. When you try to get them to go to bed, they find every single thing possible to distract them away from actually reaching the ultimate goal of their beds. Dawdling. Yup...I've decided to make it official. I no longer have two toddlers. I have two dawdlers.