Happy Fathers Day, or, A lot of crying over spilled chocolate milk

I posted this picture yesterday on both Facebook and Instagram:

What a perfect Fathers' Day, right?!  Such a cute picture that you wonder if it's staged.  Well, it wasn't staged.  But it isn't a completely honest depiction of the day, either.  Here's the whole story:

After a particularly difficult, bratty toddler day, we'd all just finished dinner, and Ford was screaming for chocolate milk (which is a version of dessert in our house).  I didn't want him to have any because he hadn't been a good eater, but Jamie caved to the incessant rant of "cocklet milk!"  

I was doing the dishes when I heard, "FORD, NO.  NOOOO!"  I walked into the living room.  Jamie and Ford were both in there, frozen, staring at each other.  A whole cupful of chocolate milk was all over the couch, the coffee table, the rug.

I watched the last of the milk drip out of the overturned cup in slow motion.  Then all hell broke loose.  Ford, in a fever, started his high-pitched wail of "COCKLET MILK!  COCKLET MILK!" all over again.  Jamie started yelling at Ford for not being careful, and to stop-crying-stop-crying-stop-crying because there was no way he was getting another chocolate milk.  I started yelling at Jamie for yelling at Ford, and for letting Ford have chocolate milk in the first place, and, since he did let him have it, for letting him have it on the couch without a lid.  Not exactly a stellar moment for our family.

Eventually, Jamie goes to the store for carpet cleaner, and teary-eyed, heaving-breathing Ford and I get down on our hands and knees and try to mop up as much milk from the rug as we can while he's gone.

Fifteen minutes post spill, we'd all calmed down, the mess was cleaned up, and we were all sitting on the dry parts of the couch.  Everyone at that point felt kinda bad about the situation, so Jamie made a new chocolate milk to share with Ford.  Which is how we got to the above picture.  And it was a cute moment, even if all the moments leading up to it were far from it.

Lesson learned: chocolate milk doesn't spill when daddy holds it.

We'll see how it goes next year when we've added another straw.