eat

Chicken or Sock?

| patmcg

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that you were given the following choices for dinner.

  1. A charcoal-grilled chicken with fresh oregano and cracked pepper seasoning, grilled onion, jasmine rice, and black beans
  2. A day-old used sock

For most of us, the choice would be easy, especially for the delicious chicken we picked up from Fresca’s.

However — and perhaps this should not come as a complete surprise — Molly chose option #2 tonight.  She passed up the fresh chicken meal and opted instead to take off her left sock, wad it up, stick it in her mouth, and chew.  After a bit of convincing and struggling, we extracted the tiny sock from Molly’s mouth.  After removing the sock, Molly still refused to eat her chicken and hoped to put her sock back on, but it was too moist from saliva and needed to go into the laundry.  It is a good thing that we did not have ketchup out on the table tonight, or we surely would have had red-stained socks to clean, but I’m sure the sock would have been more flavorful.

Formal request for food

| patmcg

Today after school, Claire was really hungry.  This is always a struggle.  She is always starving right after school and really wants to eat, but it is also almost time for dinner.  So she has to sit around while her tummy rumbles in pain while I cook (or rather, “prepare”) dinner.  Sometimes she has a little bit of popcorn or something, but I always enjoin her not to spoil her appetite right before dinner.  The timing is tricky here, and this can be one of the more difficult aspects of the weekday routine.

Anyways, after some discussion with Claire on the topic, Claire disappeared and, a minute later, she handed me this note.

I need foodI need food

You can tell from the handwriting that her blood sugar is low, and she has the shakes. 😉  Claire usually puts more care into notes like these, such as this one I found that she wrote to Molly.

You are a helper. You are a helper. Love, Big Sissy.

Budding Vegetarian?

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Claire contemplating dinner (this one just happens to be vegetarian)

Claire has been on a bit of a vegetarian kick lately.  It started two days ago, when she was recalling a fun part of Kindergarten.  A couple of months ago, the class had adopted several chicken eggs, which eventually hatched into live chicks in the classroom.  It was a really exciting development for the kids, and the chicks came out super cute.  They were tiny little fuzzy friends, and each of them received a name.  Claire’s favorite was Coco.

After recalling this fond memory about the cute little chicks, Claire concluded, “Then they send the chicks back to the farm.  Then the chicks grow up into chickens.  Then they roast the chickens into chicken.”  A little bit of anger has creeped into Claire’s face, and she proclaims, “Which is why I’ll never eat chicken!”

Claire is also now offended by hunting and trapping.  Yesterday at Claire’s summer camp, apparently some girls were trying to create a squirrel trap on the playground out of blocks.  I asked Claire if they were just making a pretend trap, and she said no, they really wanted to catch a squirrel.  I asked if they would let the squirrel go if they caught it, and she said no, they would keep it and maybe eat it.  This really angered Claire, and she said she did not like those girls, and they should leave squirrels alone.

This immediately reminded Claire of hunters.  She  launched into how much she hates hunters.  They are “dumb and boring and stupid and mean”, she said.  Finally, she said she was not going to eat meat.  She wanted to be “one of those people who only eat lettuce.  And artichokes and stuff.”   Vegetarians, I gather.  I helped her come up with a few other non-meat choices to eat.  Pasta, beans, rice, bread.  We agreed even milk was okay since it didn’t hurt the cow.  She did not seem too excited about the list, and so far Claire’s heart-felt vegetarian stance is only rhetorical.  Last night, Claire ordered pancakes with eggs and bacon at IHOP.  I’m sure she didn’t think about where the bacon and eggs came from.  If she did, she would have had second thoughts.  And before long, she may realize that we are just as bad egg thieves as the pigs in Angry Birds!

Mucus and Ketchup

Video | | patmcg

We had gone out to Poke-e-Jo’s Barbecue for dinner, where Molly enjoyed chicken tenders with ketchup — lots of ketchup, as always.  She also had a runny nose, and by the time we drove home, her face was covered in both mucus and ketchup.  Even Molly thought it was gross and funny.  I did not get a picture of her face at the time, since I was busy wiping it down, but here is Molly reviewing the day with us at bedtime.

Speaking of ketchup, Molly is still crazy about it.  It helps almost any food go down.  Apples?  Yes.  Raisins?  Yes.  Cheerios?  Of course.  And why not dip your macaroni and cheese in it?  That last one almost made even me gag.  But it gets the food down, and Molly is growing, so she gets to figure out later that this is gross.

Culinarily Creative

| patmcg
That is not caramel dip.

Molly has been eating pretty well lately, and she has even gotten more adventurous in her food choices.  She is no longer sticking so aggressively to her old familiar foods like yogurt, bread, and cheese.  She is branching out… sometimes way out.  The other night for dinner, we had boiled shrimp, apple slices, and corn.  We also gave Molly a little side of cocktail sauce since she always loves her condiments.  Molly enjoyed her shrimp, which is great, but oddly enough, she preferred it plain.  Turns out she was saving her cocktail sauce for the apples.  Yum!  Why not top your juicy apple slices with a little horseradish, ketchup, and lemon juice?  I have to admin, I was almost tempted to try it, but I was still feeling burned from a long time ago when Kit and Claire convinced me to try some jalapeño vinegar on my watermelon.  I did not like it, but we might try it on Molly.

Messy

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Here is a good snapshot of how dinner often turns out with Molly.  Her yogurt has been removed since most of it ended up smeared on the table.  Molly’s pushed away her own beans and flauta in protest.  She could not be convinced to eat the flauta, despite Claire’s enthusiasm for them and reluctance to give one up for Molly.  Molly has drained her milk and eaten half of a tortilla, which are consistent favorites.

Molly making a mess at dinner
Molly making a mess at dinner

The Opposite of a Diet

| patmcg

This weekend, we stocked up on the following items at the grocery store.

  • Evaporated milk
  • Heavy whipping cream
  • Croissants
  • Cinnamon rolls
  • Corn syrup
  • Something called “ghee”, which apparently is even more buttery than butter
  • Pudding
  • Super-fat milk
  • Super-fat egg nog
  • And whole-fat “baby” yogurt, which has always been a staple
And I’m sure I left several more uber-fat things off the list.
We purchased these items on the recommendation of Molly’s gastroenterologist, who suggested we try pouring them on, or mixing them into, Molly’s food, or just let her drink them straight in some cases.  The goal is to see if Molly can be fattened up in the next month for her next visit to the doctor.  This is the least intrusive (and indeed, the most enjoyable!) way for Molly to try to get back on the growth chart.  Molly has been hanging below the bottom of the growth chart, around negative -3-5% (is that even theoretically possible?), since she was born, and has even dropped off a bit in the last few months.  Thus the gastroenterologist.
Hopefully with all this gooey fat, Molly will put on some weight in the next month and even hit the 21-pound mark!

Molly Turns Two!

| patmcg

Molly doubled her age today!  She went from one year old to two.

Being a regular work/school day, and not having much time for a proper celebration, Kit suggested making a few brief notes about Molly’s regular-ish day when she turned two…

The day started just before 7 am, with Claire already downstairs eating breakfast and prepping for school.  I sat Molly down in her little blue toddler seat for a normal breakfast, starting with a fresh sippy cup of whole milk and an English muffin with cream cheese.  Molly almost immediately began to scold her breakfast.  She literally shook her finger at her food, saying “No!” sharply a few times, as if it had done something wrong.  Her mixed feelings about food continue to age two, I can see.  Within a minute or two, though, she was happily eating the naughty English muffins.

We dropped Claire off at kindergarten and then dropped Molly off at pre-school with a couple dozen mini-cupcakes to celebrate her birthday.  The next I saw of Molly was at 5 pm, when I heard about Molly’s day from her teachers.  Molly was okay but had been somewhat banged up from a small toddler stampede on the playground earlier in the day.  Before going onto the playground, all the kids wait their turn on a bench right outside the playground.  Usually Molly goes in last, maybe because she is smallest.  But today she went first, and she decided to run really fast through the gate. She tripped and fell face-first on the the way through the gate, and the next two kids then tripped and fell on Molly.  Apparently another couple of kids tripped and fell after that too, and there was a pile of crying toddlers at the playground entrance, with Molly on the bottom of the heap.  The teachers brought out some ice packs and sent for some help at the main office to check for loose teeth, blood, etc. but everyone checked out okay aside form scrapes and bruises.  I am told that at the end of playground time, Molly was the last one out of the playground and proceeded carefully.

Also, Molly had changed into a new set of shorts at school, as is often the case, due to some unknown liquid or dampness issues (the teachers think it’s probably water).

Checking into school
Checking out of shcool

Being a normal weekday, there was not time for Molly to do much between school and bedtime.  My parents had come to town for Molly’s birthday, so Molly did get a nice surprise in that regard.  I considered making Molly a special dinner, but she doesn’t really have a “favorite food” except for what she eats every day, which mostly whole-fat vanilla yogurt.  We tried giving her some penne with marinara, but it did not “take”, so she had vanilla yogurt as per usual.  Dinner was followed by a rendition of “Happy Birthday”, a mini-cupcake, a bath, and bed.  We didn’t even have a chance to give Molly her presents today and are saving them for the real celebration tomorrow.

It was a pretty normal day, but we are so proud of our Molly turning a ripe old two years old and getting bigger and stronger every day!

Claire’s Diner

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If Claire had a restaurant, she would serve three specialities:

  • Deli Stackers
  • Cereal Cups
  • Tomato Delight
The Deli Stacker is her favorite entree this summer, and onc of Claire’s own inventions.  It is a generous pile of deli-sliced ham and/or turkey, sitting on top of a slice of cheese (preferably Colby Jack).  There is no bread, nor any toppings.  It is pure and simple.  This is what Claire wants most nights for dinner if she can have it her way.

The Cereal Cup is another innovation of Claire’s.  It is like a bowl of cereal, but in a convenient cup.  Fill a small plastic cup with frosted shredded wheat cereal, add milk, and enjoy with a spoon.  Repeat and rinse.  Why settle for a boring bowl of cereal when you can use a slightly more difficult cup?  Seriously, she will not have cereal in a bowl anymore.
The Tomato Delight is a pared down version of something from Rachael Ray, I think.  It is a magical dish that gets Claire to eat an almost unlimited quantity of fresh tomatoes.  Slice a roma tomato into nice bite-sized chunks, then drizzle on some olive oil (“EVOO”), and finally top with lemon juice and sea salt.  Claire had three tomatoes like this just tonight.  I actually had to warn her, “Claire, this is the last tomato for tonight,” as if I were talking about Oreos.  I didn’t want her to overdose on tomatoes.  She does not like many vegetables, but she makes up for it with the Tomato Delight.