One Good Eater

There is something about Burl eating that I think is just adorable, precious, and pitiful all wrapped up into one.  He eagerly accepts every dish with anticipation.  He dives right in and eats.  He has no idea what it's going to taste like, feel like, or how it's going to go down.  Most of the time he doesn't know quite how to eat it either.

Except for breakfast.  Every morning he has a bowl of broccoli and an egg.  It's a big deal.  He gets wiggly and excited as I walk towards him with the bowl of broccoli.  

Broccoli is not a normal breakfast food, I know.  However, when he went through a picky stage, a friend told me to introduce vegetables into breakfast, the time of day when they eat the most.  I started with veggie omelets and it evolved into a bowl of broccoli and a plate of eggs.  I've just kept it that way because it frees me up to be loose for the rest of the day.  Lunch at a fast-food joint, being spoiled with food by all the grandparents, etc.  It's all good.  He's already had some greens.

It's all pretty awesome.  Having a kid who loves to eat.  He enjoys edamame.  He picks the sauteed spinach out to eat first before the pasta.  Snacks won't spoil his supper.  He's a great eater.

However deep and wide his variety of foods are, I don't want him to think that I'm proud of him for eating all these foods.  The policy has always been (for the most part), take or leave it, but it's all you got.  We never force him to eat.  

Instead, I want him to enjoy as many foods as he can, because God gave us lots of different foods and taste buds to enjoy them all.  He gave us different textures and different colors to enjoy. He also called us to eat together.  And I want Burl to learn that.  

I want him to know that food is something to enjoy in all its varieties and meal time is a great time to spend with people.  It's a time to stop what we're doing, eat at a table, and spend time talking and enjoying.  If he uses his silverware along the way, that would be great too.  

But for now, we just enjoy meal times with him and whoever joins us.