I had the pleasure of dining with my grandchildren yesterday. TLV, TLVLB, and Princess Leia. Although it was a short visit, we had three 'food-interactive experiences', which could lead you to ask, "Is eating all you did while you were there?"
The first epicurean interaction came just before a casual game of Candyland, pre-school style. Being no dummy, when I am in household that might have more desirable 'treats' than my own, I called out, "Do you have any Cheese-Its?" "Yes", came the reply. "Would you like some?" ("Is the head of all Catholics Catholic?", I thought to myself?) "Please", I managed to calmly say. Shortly thereafter, a little bag of Cheese-Its appeared and TLV, TLVLB and I shared the contents of the bag. Pre-schoolers can eat Cheese-Its with rapid-fire quickness, so my number of consumed, forbidden food bits was relatively low.......fortunately. A good time was had by all.
A while later, our little entourage got bundled up and headed for our favorite south-of-the-border-style restaurant. This was, I believe, the first time that TLV, TLVLB and Princess Leia had been out to eat all at once with their parents. The pre-schoolers got their crayons and place mats on which to doodle and Princess Leia got to observe all that swirled about her. The adults got to watch the children, which was great fun.
It was my fortune to feed Princess Leia her pears, which disappeared with no problem, followed by Cheerios, one at a time. It is amazing how babies instinctively know what to do with their mouths when a spoon or hand moves toward them. Her style of 'eating' Cheerios is somewhat limited by the fact that she has no teeth, but that does not impede her enthusiasm for the little round o's. Her meal took just as long to ingest as the adults due to the fact that she was fascinated by simply watching all the movement of customers and wait-staff.
TLV can eat an enormous amount of tostada-style chips and he loves his french fries that look like happy faces. An added bonus is having him whisper "I love you" in your ear.
TLVLB ate every morsel on his plate, including the flour tortilla. His tortilla-eating style is to open the tortilla, eat everything out of the inside, then turn his attention to the actual tortilla, going for the center first. This makes for interesting face clean-up afterward. As we were leaving the restaurant, TLV asked if we were coming back to his house for cookies. Could we say no?
And so it was, about an hour and two cookies later, that two happy grandparents climbed into their car for the ride home. Of course, we had snacks with us to keep us awake..............
A good time was had by all.
Ancora imparo
