If you don't eat your carrots - You'll go blind

A few nights ago as I was eating the leftover noodles off Colin's plate it hit me. I was eating the leftover noodles off Colin's plate. Those noodles were my dinner.  The cold, picked-over, mixed with mandarin orange juice and corn noodles.

This was something my own mother had done my entire childhood. She always joked she could make a meal out of what I left behind. She'd beg me to eat. She even threw in the occasional "There are starving children in China who would be grateful for one grain of rice" line. Or "If you don't eat your carrots you'll go blind". I think my response to that one was, "Can I eat just enough so I only need glasses".

I can't help that I was a stubborn and picky eater. But I can now relate to the frustration of attempting to convince your pint sized toddler that broccoli tastes better than jelly beans, cookies, or cheese doodles.  Or the anguish of cooking a healthy, well balanced dinner only to have your son dump the plate on the floor laughing.  Or the irony in microwaving a hot dog in a mad-rush to get dinner on the table and having your sweet two year old look up into your eyes and say, "yummy...thank you mama".  Seriously kid?  It took 35 seconds.

When I was pregnant with Colin I declared that he would only eat organic baby food, that I would puree myself from vegetables from our garden. Unfortunately life got in the way.  We kept forgetting to water the garden, and it was a lot more convenient and efficient to buy those jars of Gerber.  For the record, I did buy organic.  Ok, I bought organic when they were on sale. 

Right now, dinners are a battle, and apparently corn isn't a "real" vegetable (according to one of my mom friends).  I'll continue to try new foods, go back to the old standards, and lie through my teeth to convince Colin that a poor boy halfway around the world is suffering because he's refusing to eat his green beans.  And if all that fails...well, we'll eat ice cream, because nobody can tell me that's not "real" dairy!