They say you shouldn't lie to your kids; that you should just give them enough information to answer the question without too much detail. Eamonn (the four-year-old) has been very interested in the source of food (how do they make oranges? what's in cookies?), and I've been happy to tell him where things came from. Smug locavore-mommy gets to say, "Oh, the eggs are from Jackie's farm" or "The cheese is from that town we drive past on the way home from Gram's(Monroe)."
We had roast beef for Xmas dinner at my parents'. Eamonn took one look at his slice (not even medium rare) and asked where does this meat come from. So I told him it came from a cow. "How do you get it from a cow," he asked suspiciously.
Pause. Everyone looked at me--"Uh, they cut it off the cow," I tried to answer nonchalantly.
"When he's alive?!?" Eamonn asked with horror--how the kid knows it was a steer, I don't know. He's not great with pronouns, though, so maybe it was a lucky guess.
"No, no," I assured him. "When it's dead."
The piece of roast beast in questions remained on the side of the plate, chilling and becoming more disgusting-looking, in light of the aforementioned conversation. Eamonn wouldn't touch it.
What have I done?
Kitchen Basics...who couldn't use a little tune up on their chopping and frying skills? Saturday afternoon was spent learning easy ways to dice, tricks for removing the garlic smell from your hands (hold a steel knife under running water, really!), tossing veggies in a fry pan, and assembling a gorgeous plate of pasta. But enough from me...you can see/hear for yourself (Paul Dionne is doing the teaching). Check out the Asian Stir Fry class on Sunday, Feb. 8!
Oh, this poor little blog is languishing. Juggling two of these babies is hard work, esp. when juggling everything else. Still, I resolve to be a bit more attentive. I think about topics all the time, so maybe the thing is to just post these musings and see what y'all think. Food, who doesn't think about it most of the time?
I'm teaching a Make Your Own Baby Food class this month (Jan. 18) and have been thinking about the introduction of food and how the lads reacted. I thought it was going to be some major epiphany, but, for both of them, it was a bit of a snooze (rice cereal with a splash of apple juice--who could blame them). Eamonn was much more interested in the purees; Alec did a lot of spitting and didn't really engage until he could pick stuff up. He's still a lot more fickle when it comes to eating than Eamonn ever is. E finished a beet salad two days ago!
I'll use a lot of information from this site, and my personal experience. As with all things concerning babies, it's useful to remember that they are just little people and can be picky and quirky just like everyone else (I sneer at Bat Man "fruit" roll ups, but can't stop eating Twizzlers, for instance--I guess it's the fake strawberry flavor that makes one slab of corn syrup more appealing). I hope I will inspire some new moms to go beyond Gerber's and create their own mash-ups. Sweet potatoes and apples, anyone?
