Why did Edith walk up to her uncle's Macintosh laptop, point to the symbol on the cover, and sign "apple"? Not only have we not used that sign in months, but how does she recognize the flat silver logo as related to the fruit?
How did she decide, when I said it was time to walk Bismarck, to grab the leash, stand at the door with her canine companion, and exclaim, "Go, dog, go"?
But just when we start to get excited about her increasing maturity, she reminds us that she is a baby yet. Like yesterday, when we made our first call to the Poison Control Center. Mor-mor sent a package that included some diaper rash ointment. Since Edith loves tubes, I let her carry it from the mailbox to our apartment. It wasn’t until we were at the building door that I saw she’d gotten the cap off and was squeezing the goo into her mouth. I suspected it wasn’t harmful (indeed, A&D turns out to be mostly vegetable oils), but the label said to call Poison Control in case of ingestion, so I did. Hopefully we won’t become regular callers, as our friend J-Fav’s mother found herself once upon a time. For one thing, it would be a pain: The New Jersey budget crisis was evident when I had to wait on hold for five minutes before speaking to a poison control specialist. You could bypass the hold if someone was in imminent danger of death, but I bet there are plenty of cases where no one is dying but counsel would be prudent, and people just don’t have the patience to wait.
If she knew the number, Edith would be a regular caller to the Vegetable Control Center. We’ve entered a period where we can’t find a vegetable she’ll touch. (Particularly inconvenient as the mid-summer bounty increases our weekly vegetable share to staggering proportions.) I keep trying to sneak them in, in varied shapes and styles, but she’s wise to them all.
Indeed, how is it that she’ll try two or three unidentified liquids in a row—different unfamiliar juices—and swallow them all, but when she comes to the borscht, which is also sweet and a beautiful color to boot, spit it back out? How does she know that’s a vegetable?
3 comments:
I'm 31 and I still haven't learned to love borscht! Perhaps you could sneak some carrot juice past her? Or find some sort of vegetable that comes in a squeeze-tube... :)
v8 Fusion is the only fruit and veg I can get into Jack when he is in those periods. Isn't it great when you can actually see their little brains making connections?
Ha-- Sam loves vegetables but won't eat fruit. Smoothies and juice, and maybe applesauce, but not fruit of any kind. I must have the only kid in the world who will eat broccoli and peas but not strawberries or watermelon (or peaches or blueberries or banana). Re. veggies, those Dr. Praeger's veggie pancakes are yummy (but pricey-- I think there's a recipe for somethign similar on ADL somewhere). And in his pickier phases, Sam prefers veggies sauteed/seasoned (butter or oil and salt/soy sauce/other seasonings help just about anything-- maybe I should fry up some fruit??)
- Andrea
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