DD and DS have dinner at 4.30pm on the dot!

There is no way I am ready for dinner at that time and DH isn't home.

However, a couple of nights a week DH tries to get away from work early and we have a family meal at 5.00pm, basically I dish up the minute DH walks through the door. It is absolute hell though, because DD is screaming for her food from about 4.20pm and I have to hold her off with snacks while I'm trying to prepare dinner and DS is complaining he is hungry and asking for milk (which I won't give him because then he will be full and won't eat).

This is the only way we can get DS to even consider something vaguely different - when we are all sitting together...although he does protest when he knows it is "family meal" night because it means it is going to be something different on the table. The other reason I have instigated this is because DD is a fabulous eater and insists on having what DS is having so I don't want her becoming limited in her food by default.

The kids are then in bed asleep by 6pm. Yes, it's a very early bedtime and we've tried to push it (and dinner) later but it's just not happening. They wake up between 5.00-6.00am so it just seems to be their natural cycle. We figure it won't last forever, so we are just going with it now.

We make an effort to go out for lunch on weekends and they are both very good in a restaurant so they are still learning their table manners etc.

It's family meal night tonight actually, and I am bracing myself already.