eating

When Bob was a little boy, he, like many boys, was always hungry. Growing boys need their food, just to keep their energy levels up, you know. Bob was the first boy in the family, so I’m sure it was a bit of a culture shock when he started to eat. Girls just don’t eat the way boys do.

He must have really been a big topic of discussion in the family, because by the time I joined the family, they had some pretty good stories to tell about mealtimes. His grandma told me that she used to call him “hollow legs” because she just couldn’t figure out how he could put away so much food, so she figured he must have hollow legs to give him some extra room. And through the years of our marriage, I have come to think that she might be right. How could he eat so much and not blimp out. While he has begun to eat much less now, he used to be able to really put it away, and yet he stayed fit all his life. I suppose it is the male metabolism…that metabolism so many women have hated through the years.

Bob’s mother told me that she used to make these huge meals, and Bob would eat and eat. She couldn’t believe how much, and when he was finally full, he would push his chair away from the table and say, “That was good…so what’s for dinner.” I’m sure that the first time she heard that statement, she was in total shock and disbelief. How could he put away so much food? No wonder the grocery bill was so high.

Having had daughters…who ate like birds, I didn’t have to pay those high grocery bills that boys can cause, but my girls have 3 boys and 1 girls between them, and they know first hand what it is like to have a son say, “:That was good…so what’s for dinner.”

Kids do so many funny things, but one one the funniest is learning to feed themselves. Food gets poured out and wiped on the face and the hair. It gets dumped on the floor and thrown across the room. And that is food they like!! So just imagine the food they don’t like, or think they might not like. It is quite the picture.

Many people in recent years buy a little cake for the first birthday, and turn the baby loose on it. Oh boy, is that a funny thing. Here is the baby looking at all these people who usually aren’t there at mealtime, but for some reason they are today, and then they give you this huge cake, and tell you to go to it. Well ok, sounds good, right? Absolutely!!

Yes, learning to eat can be quite the ordeal for the parents and quite the laughing matter for a baby. Some times the baby just wants to play, and what better way to play than to squeeze the food between their fingers and watch it ooze out. And even the parents must admit, that it can be funny to watch the whole process.

Well, Christopher was a wild one when he ate. The food went everywhere, and sometimes I think he liked putting on a little show for his parents. He has always been a bit of a clown. Maybe its just a boy thing, because as I recall, Caalab and Josh were pretty good at it too. Shai, on the other hand mostly didn’t like being messy. She was a girly girl from the very start. So, to see her really messy didn’t happen as much, but when it did, it was quite funny.

Unfortunately…or maybe thankfully, babies soon learn to feed themselves without all the mess, and those funny little moments are soon over. Perhaps, we should cherish them instead of worrying over them so much. I think that parents sometimes get caught up in the idea of having a perfect child, and they forget to enjoy the funny little imperfections that make up the child and make that child unique. All too soon, those days will be over and the child grown…but then you get the opportunity to go through it all over again with the grandchildren.

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