"Liam, stop sniffing your food," Margaret ordered.
"But dad does it," Liam replied, pointing to Hawkeye, who was currently sniffing the piece of lamb on his fork suspiciously.
"I don't care, don't sniff your food," she said, sitting down beside Susie.
"Why does dad sniff his food?" Liam asked.
"Because he's weird," Susie replied. Hawkeye looked up.
"Well, yeah I know, but that doesn't explain why he sniffs his food," Liam said. Margaret stifled a laugh as her husband gave her a look that said can you believe this? "Why do you sniff your food?" Liam asked, turning to his father.
"To make sure it is what it looks like," he replied. "Not that I need to with your mom's cooking. But sometimes food isn't quite what it looks like. And sometimes it doesn't look like anything so sniffing it's the safest way of finding out what it is without tasting it and getting food poisoning."
"Is that an official medical procedure?" Neil piped up from the other side of his brother, causing Margaret and Susie to burst out laughing. The boys didn't know what they found so funny, but the indignant look on Hawkeye's face was so funny that pretty soon they started laughing too.
"I'm surrounded by lunatics," he said.
"They're you're children,' Margaret pointed out between fits of laughter.