Healthy Diets and Good Manners

As a mom, I strive to feed my children healthy diets and teach them good manners.

Well, I'm not as good as a lot of my friends who do all organic and have their kids eating tofu and sushi and loving it. I'm not even close to that. But I try to get the basic food groups in at most meals. The other day I bought some groceries, including celery, to make B's favorite dinner (no, he does NOT like celery but it's in this casserole that he loves and you can't even taste it). When I got home, I realized I already HAD celery but it was in a different part of the fridge than I normally put it (yes, our new fridge is big enough that I can lose things!), so I ended up with a whole lot of celery. So not wanting to waste precious produce or make said casserole again so soon, I came up with the great idea of getting my kids to eat celery for their "salad" at dinner. But because I never enjoyed when my mother had this great idea, I decided to smother peanut butter on them. That is a totally normal thing to do for a snack and I've seen other kids eat and enjoy that, so I thought "What the heck! They might love it!" Alas, no. Miss M, surprisingly, picked it right up and stuck the end in her mouth. She sucked off some peanut butter and tried her very best to bite through the stick but her little teeth just weren't really doing it. B tried to help her and she finally got a bite broken off and she made the funniest face ever. We applauded her efforts and said, "Do you like it?" She just looked at me sadly as she crunched along and shook her head ever so slightly. Lil' J cautiously picked hers up and after deliberating for about a minute, tried to take a bite. Again, not easy, but she knows more about how to take a bite of something crunchy (she would eat apples slices all day!) and she got a mouthful. Her face was even funnier and she moaned and groaned and said she did not like it at all and she hated it (we don't use that word, so she digressed) and swallowed the bite and said she never wanted another bite. This was a short little celery stick. I told her she had to finish that one celery stick and I would never again force her to eat celery (except in that casserole we all love!). She moaned and groaned and finally finished it. I'd have to say B's reaction was the very best. He VERY MUCH DISLIKES celery and has told me this before. But he knew I was trying to do something healthy for the kids (who knows, they might have really liked it!) and he was trying to be a good example, so he ate two. As he ate them, his forehead creased as if he was in pain and I could not keep from laughing. I ate 5 of these things (waste not, want not!), even thought I wouldn't mind not ever eating celery again either. But anything smothered in peanut butter is palatable enough for me! :) Poor celery, we just don't have the kind of taste buds it takes to appreciate you! It's not your fault! :) Anyway, B and I just giggled the rest of the meal away. Miss M obediently ate the rest of her celery stick without complaint even though her face was showing plenty dislike. I decided not to try that again and maybe I'll just make that casserole again soon!

Manners is a little easier for me to teach and enforce and I will happily say my kids are pretty polite girls. I've had enough kids at my house to play that don't seem to have any manners to see that my kids have a pretty good grasp on manners. Not that they always use them, of course. Today Princess N woke up in her normal, extremely happy mood and immediately her sisters ran into her room to play with her. I changed her diaper and got her dressed and then ran to the kitchen to grab her some apple juice. I walked back into her room and they were in full play mode with the food and dishes. I handed Princess N her sippy cup and she clearly said, "Thank you," and kept playing. I was astounded. She has said this before but usually after a, "Say thank you," from me or her sisters. Even though she was distracted with playing, she automatically said, "Thank you!" I must be doing something right!

My life is so fun. :)