Dinner Music

Usually, my children hate to have their pictures taken. I've never understood why, because I think they're especially handsome. But whenever I point the camera on them, they complain and hide their faces, and act like I'm being such a mom.

So when I want to get some good photos of them, all I have to do is keep my camera at the dinner table. That's because usually at dinner, our conversation steers toward the ridiculous, which gets me and the boys tickled to the point that we can't stop laughing. Then Lawson gets the hiccups, which makes me and Davis laugh more.

Stephen's the only one who keeps his composure, and he tells me and Davis to cut the hijinks so Lawson won't choke on his supper. But Stephen's seriousness only makes me and Davis laugh more. And Lawson hiccups.

So Monday night, our silly supper went like this:

Even though we had eaten a delightful birthday dinner with the Howells-Thompsonclan on Sunday, Stephen fed us a roast chicken Monday night and followed it up with a cute chocolate birthday cake from the Publix. The goal was to eat a quick meal so we could all go see Robin Hood afterward. But laughter delayed the program.

Somehow, the topic of the Rocky theme song came up. Then I recalled to my children the time I played drums for the Dublin Junior High School band, and we played the theme in the RockySt. Patrick's Day parade in our double knit polyester pant suits that were supposed to be band uniforms. Anthony Dawson played the tuba, so he played those famous two tuba notes in the opening measures of the song.

Lawson didn't know the Rocky theme (How does one not know that? Aren't people born knowing that?) Davis and I decided to sing it for him. I sang the trumpet part, and Davis sang the famous two tuba notes. But he kept singing them in the wrong place, which got us all tickled and gave Lawson a case of the hiccups.

With all his laughter and hiccups, Lawson had a hard time finishing his dinner, and finally, so we wouldn't miss the beginning of the movie, Stephen let Lawson forego eating his peas so we could move on to the ice cream and cake. Stephen took some photos of the cake and candles, and he caught some really good shots of my boys. Then we cut the cake into four pieces and ate it in about two minutes before running off to the Eisenhower Cinema 6.

After all that, Robin Hood wasn't even all that good. We would have had more fun if we'd stayed home and watched Rocky.