Friday, April 6, 2007

Mikey Likes It! He Really Likes It!

A miracle happened today in my small Tennessee town. My son tried a new food. Actually it was a new condiment but a
miracle is a miracle. I have been
pretty sick this week and, as a result, some friends offered to take my
children off my hands for the day. I
can’t express my gratitude for them for offering and, just as any normal
neurotic person would do, I worried about who to choose. If I choose Holly, will Melinda and Angie
get their feelings be hurt? It was a
crisis of the highest order in my small, obviously distorted world. In the end I chose Melinda because she
offered first and she offered twice.





Mikey
This, apparently, was a very good decision as she managed to
get my son to do two things that are way out of his comfort zone: try a new
food (honey mustard) and eat the crust off a sandwich. If you thought I was going to say ride a
rollercoaster or try sushi, you don’t know my son. It’s all about baby steps in our family. When getting water poured on your head in
the bath is a huge, painful ordeal, eating the crust off of a sandwich is a
victory. Such is life in the Hale
household.









How did Melinda do it? I’ve always thought she was a clever, resourceful Mom. Whenever we have been together and I’ve
asked her advice about something that relates to parenting, she gives unusual,
creative answers that I would otherwise not have considered. In this case, she ordered him some chicken
nuggets when they were out and they came with honey mustard. He responded the way he always does. He gave a look of disgust, picked up the
honey mustard and said, “I don’t like this.” She asked him if he’d ever tried it. He told her no. She told him
how important it was that he try new things and asked if he would try it if it
were a new flavor of ice cream. He said
he would.



She said, “How do you know that this will not taste as good
as the new flavor of ice-cream?”



This
simple, yet genius, question sold my son. He tried the honey mustard and, predictably, did not like it. This does not, however, take away from the
fact that he did try it. He’s like
Mikey in the Life Cereal ads of old. Remember, “Mikey likes it! He
really likes it!”? That’s how I feel
about my son. It is so rare that he
tries anything new that him actually liking something new is the equivalent of
a medium-sized lotto win. So, today’s accomplishment was kind of like finding
$20 in a parking lot. It sure feels
good and you want to tell your friends about it but it doesn’t buy much. One thing is for sure; it beats pocketing a
penny that has traveled the length of a three-year-old’s digestive system. I’ll take it, if for that reason alone. So, thanks Melinda. You performed some sort of voodoo magic on
my son today and turned him into a fairly intrepid kid. Kudos to you!



3 comments:

  1. Why thank you! I also told him he would be bigger and braver if he tried the honey mustard. He is braver! He did great. He ate all his crust on his sandwhich and I think he actually did like the honey mustard because he did not make a face at all. I think he did not want to admit it though. Good job truman!

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  2. I understand you choosing Melinda, but, if you played your cards a little better, you could have started a little contest between the 3, and got a couple of more days of rest out of it, girl, you must have really been feeling bad not to think of that yourself, after all, if you you can't take advantage of your friends, who can you take advantage of? The culinary adventure is encouraging, and, yes, reason for a small woho!!, but when Aunt B. sees this Blog, she's going to tell you about taking the girls, Papadale, and Grandma Mary out to dinner, and, while both Maggie and Aleita were piggin' out on the fresh salad bar at Ruby Tuesday's, Maggie asked permission to try a cherry tomato, when she did, she said it was pretty good, but not what she expected, after all it is called CHERRY, right? On the other hand, Lil' Kaylin is very much into chicken nuggets, and, I'm sure if we could find them up here, she'd love Dwight Yokem Chicken Fingers!!!

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  3. Happy for Truman! I think it is amazing when kids eat foods they won't eat when home. I know one time when keeping my SIL's son, he ate yogurt. Nana was so amazed, he never eats that. So, I think even just a different person helps. Ok, Melinda need tips on Veggies- I know you have said mix them in the usuals. Need to try that. She does have some cool ideas about things.

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