Meatloaf

I realize that meatloaf strikes fear in the hearts of many people. I like the dish; and Amelia used to devour it. Yes, used to. But, some background....

Yesterday was crazy. I ended up having to work late (last minute). Ang came into Leesburg to pick up meals to take to a family (and one to keep for ourselves!). Then, she had to teach piano at 7. I got home at 6:40. You see where this is going.

Oh yeah, and I had to run to Sterling to pick something up before 9pm in order to open the doors for our 8:30am meeting today. So I got home, Ang ran out the door, Addy had just finished a bottle, and Mia was not wanting to finish her meatloaf. Fine, I thought, we'll save the last two bites in case she's hungry later.

It wasn't until I was putting her in the car that I realized she still had meatloaf in her mouth. We made our "quick" errand (it's amazing that it can take 20 minutes to get to the Cascades Library - although it is 9 miles away), got back home, and she needed to go to bed (she didn't sleep during nap time).

I gave her some milk, and when it was almost time for bed I said, "Amelia, you have 1 minute to swallow your meatloaf. If you do not, we will not brush your teeth (a favorite thing to do), I will not tuck you in and say your prayers with you, and you will go straight to bed." Wanna guess what happened?

Yeah - still meatloaf. Amazingly she didn't fuss when I left her in bed (she was soooo tired). We were a bit concerned about leaving her in bed with food in her mouth, but it was very much chewed up (I knew that for a fact), and couldn't choke her. So this morning when she woke up, I thought surely she'd have just swallowed it during the night. Nope. Still meatloaf. In the mouth. A few pieces had fallen out and were in her bed, but most of it was still in her mouth. Probably a tablespoon full.

We finally just let her spit it out in the sink (didn't want her swallowing 12-hour old meatloaf!!). I almost took a picture, but that would have been gross.