Diapers and Dragons

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Marinara Totally Counts As A Vegetable, Right?

I think, but I may be wrong, that I introduced Beth and Heidi via my global Mommyblog review posts. Could be wrong. Am I wrong, you beautiful ladies? You see, they have Burkina Faso in common. I have West Africa in common with them as well, but slightly south--I grew up in Cote d'Ivoire, the country just below.

Anywho, they now comment on each other's posts and chat back and forth and now they're both doing Taciturn Tuesdays, which of course makes me just blitheringly jealous because I'm petty like that. They should, of course, both be commenting nonstop on my blog and loving me best.

Sometimes I can be very small minded.

Moving on, and hoping that perhaps by joining them in Taciturn Tuesday this time around I can feel like part of the club, here's my little contribution to the day (Though yeah, I'm not so good at the Taciturn part. Sue me. I'm wordy.):

Today I picked the boys up from daycare and we went to their Grandma's (my m-i-l) to spend some time together. We were going to go to a playground, but first, because we were hungry, we went to Big Boy's. We're crazy adventurous like that.

It should be noted that normally The Widget operates much like a vacuum cleaner with any foodstuffs placed before, behind, beside, and above him, including the clogging and resultant need for icky clearing-out-of-hose/mouth that comes from stuffing too much into a small space. DramaBoy, on the other hand, will happily munch on snacks all day but tends to turn up his nose at most "real" food. Dinner is a time for him to live up to his nickname.

Turns out that the last time he went to BB with Grandma, he had the spaghetti. And the Hot Fudge Ice Cream Brownie dessert. And thus it was with much emphasis that he informed the waitress (a former student of mine, by the way) that he was going to have the basketti! The kid's meal basketti! And The Widget will have the kid's meal chicken! At the top of his lungs.

Hey, she got the order right.

Little did I know that I should have been feeding this boy spaghetti all along. He scarfed it down, getting only a mild amount of marinara sauce all over his mouth/hands/shirt/jeans. And then he shared the HFICB dessert with his Grandma. Well, I was required to eat the four (4!) maraschino cherries off the top because, as he reminded us, Mama, you have to eat the cherries because they're red and they have lots of red food dye and I can't eat the red food dye because it will make me itchy!
The sacrifices I make for my children.

(The Widget and I ate plain brownies because he's lactose intolerant and I'm picky about ice cream. When I say he ate a brownie, I mean he got huge amounts of sticky chocolate crumbs all over himself/his seat/the table/the floor and required an emergency visit to the restroom. If I'd had any cash on me I would have left about $10 as an apology to the poor busboy who had to clean up after us.)

Oh, the taciturn part? Here you go. Grandma ate about six bites of the MONSTROUS dessert the waitress brought (I think she was charmed by DramaBoy and went a little overboard), and DramaBoy ate...

and ate....

and posed for a silly picture on my request...

and ate some more...

and posed for another silly picture on his demand...
and left this as the (relatively) tiny remainder of what he had begun. Note the sneaking finger to grab a last bit of whipped cream.

Spaghetti, ice cream, and brownies. That totally counts as a balanced meal, right?

8 bits of love:

Unknown said...

Yes. And ketchup counts as a vegetable, too.

I apologize for the shout-out over-sight on my part. No harm intended. Did you have me on your side bar before I discovered your blog? I will make it up to you in my next post.

Kathleen said...

He is a cutie patootie! And, yes, marinara totally counts as a veggie. Or fruit. Whatever tomatoes are.

Beth said...

Dear TeacherMommy-
I do SO very much enjoy your blog. The observations of life with kids-your own and those of other folk through your work- are spot on, gently humourous and very well-written.

And how could I NOT adore someone who got me in contact with a fabulous fellow ex-Burkina expat?

Since you called Heidi and I "beautiful ladies" , I know you're not really mad (thank goodness!)But I am sorry I never formally said "thanks" and am not as steady commenter here as I could be.
I promise to do better!

BTW: Yes, it was completely balanced : you had your pasta, cold dessert and chocolate dessert food groups all in one meal.

As a mom of four, my motto is "It isn't good for them if you can't get it INTO them." Whenever a picky eater chows down at a meal, it is time for rejoicing, no matter what the contents, IMO!

GingerB said...

Um, I thought ketchup was a vegetable if you were a Republican . . . but now marinara, that is totally different, you know, all those onions and garlic and maybe olives and whatnot - all vegetables! And chocolate starts as a bean . . . you have all your bases covered. I am adopting Beth's motto for myself, thank you.

LoriM said...

Ha - my FB friends from different worlds - are starting to comment on each others' pages - I love it. I just hope they don't like each other more than they like me - that's happened several times with my friends and my mother - they like her more - haha.

Cute pix and story about the kids and my view on marinara as a veggie is - of course it is, esp when you add lots of tiny cooked veggies to the sauce.

Heidi said...

Marinara IS a vegetable - haven't you read all the parenting communities where they recommend blending up veggies in pasta sauce to help hide them?

I was blessed with a child who will eat ANYTHING, so I've never had to resort to it, but there is a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that when I plop that tomato sauce on his pasta, it's all good.

Ciaran placed his first restaurant order on Sunday, at Burger King. We walked up to the cashier, and I opened up my mouth only to be preempted by, "I want CHICKEN NUGGETS! CHICKEN NUGGETS!" coming from the short, loud person next to me. The cashier got the message loud and clear (I had to prompt the "Please" and "Thank you").

merideth said...

what heidi said. my little guy loves veggies, so no problem here, but for my nephew i do blend up loads of veggies in sauces. you can put in some v-8, too.

or, you can use subtle peer pressure ("look at timmy - he loves salad. you love salad too, don't you ethan?") and other trickery ("ethan, remember that tree trimmer and stump grinder we saw? you can be a broccoli tree trimmer! good, now grind up that broccoli stump!")

Anonymous said...

I love your boys! Can you PLEASE move to Boston??? We have a whole extra bed room (it's yellow!)
- SoccerSister

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