My sons aren’t the worst eaters in the world but they are by no means the best. There are certain foods that they will eat without complaint but generally they are the pretty bland options. They like their Weetabix in the morning, they love toast [especially when it comes off their parent’s plate] and they will eat noodles and yoghurts without much fuss. It goes without saying that they will cheerfully tuck away sweets, crisps and chocolate until they can no longer walk and have to be rolled from one spot to the next, a la Violet Beauregard. As far as real food with actual vitamins in them go, it gets a bit trickier. They like Spaghetti Bolognese as long as there aren’t many lumps in it but you need to get the timing right and make sure that they are hungry or else you might end up wearing most of it. They will sometimes eat an apple [sometimes they will just bite an apple and spit out apple skin] and if they are in the right mood they will eat a banana, but only if you leave it in the skin and let them hold it.
After that, it’s a very short list. We always try to get them to taste new things but mostly they downright refuse and when they do acquiesce it rarely stays in their mouth long enough for them to have possibly tasted anything.
This is a longer than usual preamble but I am almost at my point so bear with me.
Aunty Lemons came over last Sunday to mind the boys while myself and Hannah went off to coach a basketball game [a glorious victory in case you are wondering, if such a thing can be achieved in the Dublin Under 13 Boys league] and arrived just as we were about to feed the boys lunch. We wanted to try and expand their menu so Hannah thought of mashing up a banana and covering it in yoghurt to feed to them. They like bananas, they like yoghurt so this was a sure thing, right?
Wrong!
One spoonful went in and before it had time to settle on the taste buds the tongue was thrust out. We were in a hurry and not in the mood for a fight so we just got another yoghurt which they ate happily and even had the cheek to look for more. The last of the yoghurt was now mixed with banana in the neglected bowls so we were about to tell them no more when Aunty Lemons suggested putting the banana yoghurt mix into the pots and seeing if we could trick them into eating it. Cue a trip into the kitchen to surreptitiously refill the pots.
I swear that Monkey Boy was looking at the pot suspiciously when I offered him the first spoonful but he must have decided that it looked enough like the old pot for him to open his mouth. It was not well received. We decided that one pot of yoghurt was enough and I went and changed my t-shirt.
To balance off Aunty Lemons clever [if unsuccessful] suggestion, I have to tell another story [if I had more time I would write a blog just about her]. When we got back from the game the boys were asleep so we got some lunch while it was quiet. I was eating some hazelnuts left over from Halloween and when she saw the nutcracker she asked what I was doing. Turns out the boys aren’t the only ones with limited tastes and she had never eaten hazelnuts straight from the shell before. I cracked one open for her and she was examined it carefully.
“Do you just eat it like this” she asked.
“Of course not, you have to peel the skin off first”.
I turned away and tried to hold it together while she tried to scrape the brown bits off the nut with a finger nail. She was at it for a couple of minutes before Hannah came in and asked what she was at. I managed to proudly announce that I was teaching her to peel the skin off hazelnuts before it all got too much for me and I broke down laughing.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Random Bullets II
• Question of the week. I was playing with the boys the other night. It was a very simple game. I put my hands up, growl “I’m going to get you” and set off in pursuit. When I catch them, I throw them up in the air and tickle them a bit. Seems easy to follow but Fat Chops keeps getting it wrong? Can someone please tell me why Fat Chops insists on running straight at me when I chase him? I like to think that it’s because he is already a talented strategist and realises that attack is the best form of defense but there is a slim chance that opinion might be tainted by parental bias.
• In a previous post I mentioned that there was a short list of words that the boys were using. That was back in June and we have been making steady, if slow, progress since then. We moved on to short phrases. We’ve got “ready, steady, go”, “more please Dada” and a few others. Fat Chops produced my new favourite the other night. His mum was trying to teach him to count when he came out with “one, two, yellow”. Looks like we still have some work to do.
• I was watching “Live at the Apollo” the other night when Ed Byrne did a sketch that struck a chord. The short version is that people become complete know-it-alls when they have kids and there are a lot of people who think that “you don’t understand because you aren’t a parent” is check mate in any argument. Thoughtful blogger that I am, I even went and found it on YouTube for you [you're welcome!]. It’s was a funny sketch but parents, through their experiences, know more about lots of things than non-parents would. As an example, I went to the playground last weekend with the boys and met their Uncle Cheddar Terry [the background to his name could be an entire post in itself, maybe another time] and his new wife. Monkey Boy headed towards the sandpit and started throwing handfuls of sand. After two years I have been conditioned to anticipate sand throwing being the start of a fight with either his brother or another child. Childless Cheddar Terry thought it was cute and admonished me for being so strict. By the time he was finished saying “what’s the harm in it?” Monkey Boy had sand in his eye.
• The boys love eating toast with a fork. That is all.
• I assume that he is copying the older kids at the child minders but Monkey Boys latest trick is doing tumbles. It starts with the thud of his head on the floor, moves on to him inching his bum over his head until his neck is bent at an angle that makes me flinch and finishes with him flopping onto the ground. Sometimes, he even manages to fall so that his feet go over his head. Our bid for Olympic glory in 2024 is underway.
• They had a bath in their Nana’s house over the weekend and since their cousin, The Big Show, was there we threw her in with them. I’m so glad that we did. She’s never found wanting for something to say and entertained us with a monologue throughout. I’m especially grateful for the anatomy lesson, pointing out the boys’ little worms [I corrected her on this and told her not to say “little”, don’t want them being insecure] and then explaining that it was their “Mary”. For the uninitiated, Mary is a term for her front bum. Never a dull moment.
• And finally…. A funny story about one of the boys hurting themselves in a way that could have been easily avoided. I feel bad about this one because I was sitting watching him. Fat Chops had gotten hold of a tea towel and was waving it about in a way that can only make sense to a toddler*. Somehow in all the frenetic flapping the towel ended up over his head. It wouldn’t be unusual for them to walk around with things on their heads [saucepans, sieves, baskets, boxes have all been worn as hats] and the way that he confidently strode out of the door suggested that he could see his way clearly enough. The loud thud shortly after his exit suggested that his vision was somewhat impaired. Yet again, I was left trying to comfort my son and suppress laughter at the same time but, as we all know, men don’t multi-task very well.
*Unless he is training for the ribbon section of the gymnastics competition at the 2024 Olympics. I won’t get too carried away with the fact that only the girls compete in that event, we’ve a few years to go yet.
• In a previous post I mentioned that there was a short list of words that the boys were using. That was back in June and we have been making steady, if slow, progress since then. We moved on to short phrases. We’ve got “ready, steady, go”, “more please Dada” and a few others. Fat Chops produced my new favourite the other night. His mum was trying to teach him to count when he came out with “one, two, yellow”. Looks like we still have some work to do.
• I was watching “Live at the Apollo” the other night when Ed Byrne did a sketch that struck a chord. The short version is that people become complete know-it-alls when they have kids and there are a lot of people who think that “you don’t understand because you aren’t a parent” is check mate in any argument. Thoughtful blogger that I am, I even went and found it on YouTube for you [you're welcome!]. It’s was a funny sketch but parents, through their experiences, know more about lots of things than non-parents would. As an example, I went to the playground last weekend with the boys and met their Uncle Cheddar Terry [the background to his name could be an entire post in itself, maybe another time] and his new wife. Monkey Boy headed towards the sandpit and started throwing handfuls of sand. After two years I have been conditioned to anticipate sand throwing being the start of a fight with either his brother or another child. Childless Cheddar Terry thought it was cute and admonished me for being so strict. By the time he was finished saying “what’s the harm in it?” Monkey Boy had sand in his eye.
• The boys love eating toast with a fork. That is all.
• I assume that he is copying the older kids at the child minders but Monkey Boys latest trick is doing tumbles. It starts with the thud of his head on the floor, moves on to him inching his bum over his head until his neck is bent at an angle that makes me flinch and finishes with him flopping onto the ground. Sometimes, he even manages to fall so that his feet go over his head. Our bid for Olympic glory in 2024 is underway.
• They had a bath in their Nana’s house over the weekend and since their cousin, The Big Show, was there we threw her in with them. I’m so glad that we did. She’s never found wanting for something to say and entertained us with a monologue throughout. I’m especially grateful for the anatomy lesson, pointing out the boys’ little worms [I corrected her on this and told her not to say “little”, don’t want them being insecure] and then explaining that it was their “Mary”. For the uninitiated, Mary is a term for her front bum. Never a dull moment.
• And finally…. A funny story about one of the boys hurting themselves in a way that could have been easily avoided. I feel bad about this one because I was sitting watching him. Fat Chops had gotten hold of a tea towel and was waving it about in a way that can only make sense to a toddler*. Somehow in all the frenetic flapping the towel ended up over his head. It wouldn’t be unusual for them to walk around with things on their heads [saucepans, sieves, baskets, boxes have all been worn as hats] and the way that he confidently strode out of the door suggested that he could see his way clearly enough. The loud thud shortly after his exit suggested that his vision was somewhat impaired. Yet again, I was left trying to comfort my son and suppress laughter at the same time but, as we all know, men don’t multi-task very well.
*Unless he is training for the ribbon section of the gymnastics competition at the 2024 Olympics. I won’t get too carried away with the fact that only the girls compete in that event, we’ve a few years to go yet.
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