Feeding a toddler is a hard job, especially for worry-worm parents like me and my wife. I’m sure the Babito ate baby food long beyond when he was supposed to graduate to real people food. We thought “but he only has a few teeth! How’s he going to chew anything?” I’ll have to apologize to him some day about having to eat baby food for so long, because have you ever tasted that stuff? Nasty. Worse than my Mom’s cooking. (Don’t worry, she doesn’t read this blog….in fact, she doesn’t even know about it.)
Now that he’s eating real people food, he doesn’t have many options when we go out to eat. It seems like every restaurant in the United States has the same children’s menu. He can get either chicken fingers, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, or a cheese quesadilla. The quesadilla may be a California thing.
His Mom almost always opts for the chicken fingers, and that starts a long process of preparing his food…..remember we’re the worry-worm parents. We don’t want him to choke! (but have you EVER heard of a baby choking? I haven’t.) Anyway, the process includes cutting off all of the breading on the chicken and then cutting the chicken into teensy-tiny pieces. Sometimes The Babito needs to pull out a magnifying glass to find the chicken pieces on his plate. Even then, my wife sometimes tells me to cut these tiny pieces in half. The same with his side dish, whether it’s french fries or melon. One french fry is cut into 20 pieces and then blown on to ensure it’s not too hot. The melon is also cut so small that one slice of it, cut up, covers his entire plate. If his plate has a design on it you can see the design through the melon pieces. That’s how thin it is.
It takes the poor Babito a good hour to eat his food, since he has to put about 2,000 individual pieces into his mouth to eat his entire meal. You could say 3,000 because at least half of the pieces end up on his lap before they finally make it inside his mouth.
On the bright side (regarding eating out) my wife and I are both developing six-pack abs. The children’s menu and 4 crayons that always come with it easily end up on the ground at least 100 times before our dinner arrives. Bending down to pick them up is great exercise.
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#1 by Andrea on December 2nd, 2007
This is so weird, because I basically eat just like the babito when I go out. Usually I have to ask my date to cut the breading off my chicken strips and then cut the chicken into tinier pieces, and a lot of my dates end of leaving the table and never coming back, but still . . . it’s great to know that me and the babitster have something in common.
#2 by Tara on December 3rd, 2007
I’m sure every first time parent is that way.
In the Midwest the childrens’ menu is usually something like: hot dog, chicken fingers, peanut butter and jelly, and grilled cheese. I know….very exotic choices.
#3 by becky on December 3rd, 2007
LOL i can totally relate to bending over 100 times to pick up the crayons. and we have quesadillas here too but we got alot of mexicans in texas lol. i remember being such a worrier like that too…the bigger they get the less you worry about things like that. i cut hannah’s chicken fingers in 1/2 now–and thats it!
#4 by Mommyca on December 3rd, 2007
Oh yes, bending over 100 times to get the crayons….I know it too well, but it’s doing nothing for my girlish figure:o). As for cutting up food for Missy, we had to stop. Because she would get sooo mad if we didn’t leave it the way it came. Her fave is when we go out for pizza, she get’s a whole(but small) slice to herself and does really well. And i see Buddha Man being the same way, but he’ll have to deal with mommy cutting up his food for now.
)