Life’s lesson
by rebecca ~ February 2nd, 2005. Filed under: Ordinary Muse.My son pecks at food, never has been a three-square-meal child. He has some idiosyncratic preferences as well: he likes to eat ketchup with a spoon, parmesan cheese with nothing under it, uncooked spaghetti noodles, and frozen uncooked french fries. Neither my husband or I crave these foods, however.
In his first days of daycare he wouldn’t eat the lunches we had packed: rice and vegetables, spaghetti (cooked), tofu stir-fry, foods he sometimes likes to eat at home. Finally we hit upon peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and that seemed to satisfy him, although he’d probably prefer we’d skip the bread part of the deal.
Then he occasionally stopped eating the sandwich, just half-hearted bites….until yesterday, when a little boy named Takato, three months his junior, began to attend the same daycare. Apparently Takato had taken a strong interest in our son’s PB&J sandwich and tried to reach for it earnestly, repeatedly.
At that moment (his teacher reports) my son took an avid interest in his sandwich and hurriedly jammed the sandwich into his mouth (“chooka-chooka-chooka” was the sound she made to describe his quick munching). The lesson is easy, but a good one: sometimes we don’t appreciate the value of what we have until someone attempts to take it away.
February 23rd, 2005 at 3:48 am
Hi Rebecca,
When I read your journal, I feel more comfortable with life. It’s almost soothing, if you can imagine that!
Taiyo is lucky to have a mom like you.
Love,
Monica