Food is serious business!

For some odd reason, my grandmother has always had a strange way of teasing Christopher. It generally takes the form of "You can't do that!" in a mocking tone, so that of course he knows that she knows he can, but she's saying that he can't, presumably to reverse-psychology him into doing it. Which I find rather pointless because he's such a great kid that he just does what you ask him almost all the time. But she's always done it, and they seem to have an understanding, so I just smile and let it go on by.

One of the things she always teases him about is food. When we sit down to eat, she'll say something like, "You can't eat all that!!" or "Don't eat all that, then you'll grow and be bigger than me!" or "Look at how much you ate! I'm going to have to bop you on the head and make you smaller again!" He always laughs at her and eats away.

So a few days ago, she starts that as we sit down, and Christopher says, "Grandma, you shouldn't say things like that. I need to eat or I'll die!" I laughed out loud, it was so funny! She rolled her eyes at him, and we all had a nice meal. In which Christopher ate chicken, asparagus, rice, and cantaloupe. Yummy fare for a 4-year-old, huh? (More on the asparagus to come!)

Then today just me and my boys sat down for a family meal, and Bryan said something to Christopher about his food and how he shouldn't eat that because it will make him strong and smart. And Christopher clearly and calmly says, "Daddy, that was rude." I'm still laughing as I write about it!!! Bryan didn't think it was so funny, but I sure did! I think it's so interesting that people tease him about his food - not anyone else, just Christopher - and he's starting to tell people off (nicely!) about it!

Now about that asparagus: I made some with a meal a while back, and Christopher ate his whole plate, so I served him more. He ate all that. So I served him more. As I was serving up his third plate of food, Grandma pointed out that if I gave him any more of the asparagus, Bryan wouldn't have any. I said, "Grandma, if Bryan were here, he'd give Christopher as much asparagus as he would eat. So I'm giving it to him for as long as he'll eat it, and Bryan can have rice today." And so it was. Christopher at 4 helpings of asparagus, and Bryan didn't have any and he didn't mind a bit!

A while after that, Bryan made up a meal and he also cooked asparagus. Remembering Christopher's last encounter with it, he made a lot, and he added a few extra ingredients. When we sat down to eat it, the asparagus was nearly inedible! So I didn't serve Christopher any. When he noticed this omission, he told me he needed asparagus too. I told him it wasn't very good, so I gave him a tiny bit off the top and told him that if he liked it, I would give him some on his plate. He tasted it, made a face, and said: "Can I have some of the first one you made?" He's so much fun!!!