Lunch with the kings

   Nick calls me around 12:00pm and asks if I would like to join him and the boys for a fabulous lunch at Taco Bell. I agree since I could use a break from shipping.

   I meet them at the South Taco Bell and I actually beat them there! Once inside I realize there is only 1 available table, so I snag it! Five minutes later the King clan arrive. Nick looks very defeated as he enters. 

    The kids look like they are on the verge of tears, except Titus who seems very happy to see me! He greets me only momentarily as he goes to order lunch with Nick. I look at the boys and stupidly ask them whats going on. Thats when it starts, the back and forth bickering that so many parents dread. "Well, Taylor had stuff on the bedroom floor and........" "NO! You did ARTHUR!" I stop them, and explain that there are better ways to handle these types of situations.

   Poor Nick. (It apparently took these bickering boys 3 hours to clean a small pile of toys from their bedroom floor. If not for the bickering it would have taken a half hour at most! Either way it did get done.... eventually) Nick arrives with the cups for our soda, and all the boys run off happily to fill them with colored syrup and bubbly water. Taylor comes back to the table first and starts pushing his soda back and forth. In a split second his soda spills all over him, the bench, the table and the floor. CLEAN UP CREW? THE KINGS HAVE ARRIVED! As we are cleaning the mess, they call our number. Figures. Nick goes to pick up the food, while Taylor keeps trying to walk through the sticky mess to apparently sit on the sticky bench! I ask him several times to sit at the other end of the table, you know, the non sticky, dry side. Finally we all sit down to eat and thats when Titus realizes Taylor has chips and cheese and he doesn't! Titus begs Taylor for some chips and Taylor refuses.

    I can see it coming in slow motion, the melt down. I ask Taylor for 2 chips for his little brother. He obliges and then tears well in his eyes. Oh my, POOR NICK! I feel so bad for his day. The melt downs have started. Titus quickly uses all the cheese given to him and insists on more, as Taylor is mixing hot sauce in the remainder. I try to get Titus to eat his cheese roll, "There is LOTS of cheese in here!" I say as I try to divert his attention. Well he is four and has caught on to this trick! DANG! Taylor then gets a bunch of cheesy, hot sauce mix on the table. I can see the frustration with the day on Nicks face. I offer to take them to work with me but he says no, not today. Just a small snippet into a meal with the Kings! The day had gotten better by the time I made it home today so YAY for Nick!