Thursday, November 12, 2015

Meat Loaf and Ketchup

Sarah taps my shoulder and nods her head across the table at Cassidy who has her fingers in the Meat Loaf.

"What cha' doing Cass?" Sarah asks.

"Picking out the onions," she replies, head and fingers intensely focused on the task at hand.

"Wait a minute," I interject. "You like onions on your hamburgers."

Rolling her eyes, Cass explains, "These are cooked onions. I do not like cooked onions."

"Oh," I sigh.

"Just do what I'm doing," Laurel suggests, eating a slice of Meat Loaf between two pieces of bread drenched in Ketchup. "It's just like a hamburger."

"Yuck," Cass says, now eating the pieces of onion less meat.

"Why can't you just eat the Meat Loaf like a normal person?" Maddie loudly demands pouring a small mountain of Ketchup on her slice.

Sarah's parents are dining with us and decide this isn't a conversation in which they wish to participate.

On the other hand, the home made au gratin potatoes are a huge hit ... once the girls put Ketchup on it.

All three decline the field peas cooked in butter, bacon drippings and salt water.

After dinner the girls rush to the kitchen for ice cream and Krispy Kreeme doughnuts.

I've learned ... and am learning ... a great deal about living from the girls.

They're each unique ... believing they are only children forced to live with others pretending to be sisters ... and relish in their distinctness!

They dress however they wish regardless of the occasion.

Food begins with Ketchup and ends with dessert ... though sometimes it's the other way around.

They alternate between being utterly self-absorbed in their own world or demanding that  they are the center of ours.

Each demands to be heard first and this is accomplished by interrupting the other as soon as someone says anything.

And each knows that when push comes to shove she has me wrapped.

"You're gonna cry when we leave," they tell me.

There's no point in denying it so I admit defeat, nod and say, "Yep."