Food Files

You know what?  If we had had Jamie first, I would have thought that I was world’s most amazing parent.

 

I maybe have said that before: he’s just so damn easy compared to Charles.  Especially with the F*#&ing Fours as comparison (oh, Jamie will probably get there).  Fortunately for us, Charles is old enough that I can “make” him eat his veggies before he gets up from the table, something you can in no way do with a 20-month-old.  A 20-month-old can totally control what he does or does not put in his mouth, and Charles at 20 months came down pretty hard on the “no vegetables” side of life.  I snuck them in wherever I could, but we relied pretty heavily on a multivitamin for a time (thankfully, he always ate fruit).

 

We have a really great family doctor, by the way.  He told me that his own daughter refused to eat much more than pasta, white bread, and rice when she was little and that it was no big deal.  “Just shove a multivitamin down him once in awhile” and he’ll be okay, the doc said.  And he was right.  While at 20 months Charles ate mostly macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, by age two he was eating a much wider variety of foods, including vegetables.

 

Jamie, much to our surprise, loves green vegetables.  He’ll eat the tops right off of the entire bowl of steamed broccoli.  What, you thought you were going to get some?  No, friend, that’s all for Jamie.

 

 

And the other night, we had asparagus with dinner.  I had to negotiate with Charles to try a bite (“no, you may not leave the table until we’re all finished and you have a bite of asparagus.”) but Jamie reached for a spear and kept reaching.  He must have had ten spears.  And later, his diaper smelled horrible.

 

 

Charles, of course, chowed down on pasta, something which Jamie doesn’t much enjoy.

 

Even at age four, Charles is constantly in motion; all our photos are blurry.

 

Later, we had frozen yogurt. Jamie gets his own bowl because I don’t like to share with him (he eats ALL of it!).

 

 

Like I said, if we had had Jamie first, I would have thought I was an awesome parent.  The kid eats his vegetables, goes to bed without a fight, and can play by himself for more than 30 seconds at a time.  And with the benefit of experience, I know that none of this is my doing.  He is just a good kid and I am just really, really lucky.

 

******

 

Did you maybe want to know how that bread recipe in my new Dutch oven turned out?  It was INCREDIBLE.  I will be making this again, probably every weekend.

 

What a beauty.