Mealtime Progression

As we have arrived (fairly recently) at the mealtime seating arrangement we will continue for many years, I was reflecting back on all the various seating arrangements we've had on our journey here.

For the first eight years of our marriage we ate like this..side-by-side, calm - uneventful. (This isn't actually at our home it is at the B&B where we spent our tenth anniversary but you get the picture.)

Then we had Nathan and things changed quite drastically as we worked the mealtime of an infant into our schedule. He of course started out eating in his high chair. We put it in the kitchen because it was so much easier to clean up a tile floor underneath the chair than if we had set it next to the dining room table which was on carpet. Ain't he cute?We transitioned Nathan into his booster seat and moved the high chair out for a while since someone else had joined our family and would be needing it before too long.
Next came Benjamin in the high chair and Nathan in his booster seat right next to him.

We were fortunate enough to find a booster seat that matched Nathan's at a garage sale. Benjamin immediately loved being just like Nathan in his own seat. Here's a couple more shots we snapped as they dined this way for quite some time.

I think the thing I liked best about this stage was the fact that anytime we went somewhere else to dine we'd just take the seats with us and the boys would usually eat pretty well despite the distractions of being somewhere new since they were still strapped into the same seats side by side like always. This shot was taken in our church's fellowship hall at Benjamin's second birthday party.

Now we have finally arrived at our big dining room table all together. If I'm home alone with them I sit in the seat at the end. If David is dining with us he usually sits at the end and I sit next to Benjamin. Yes, the carpet under the table is quite difficult to keep clean (TGF dust busters) but it's worth it to be all together around the same table eating. I look forward to all the conversations and stories we'll share here through the years.

Nathan had counted that he had five pretzels left and was holding up five fingers to show me.
Benjamin in his usual monkey-see-monkey-do pattern held up his fingers as well. You can see him checking on Nathan out of the side of his eye to see if he's doing it just right.

Happy dining!