Being the ever so diligent parents, Paul and I are continually reading up on child development. One of the millions of tips we've learned, is that children need to be exposed to new foods a minimum of 15 times in order to get use to them. At one recent dinner, Ian was getting his second exposure to
lima beans. Actually, it was a vegetable mix of corn, peas, carrots and
lima beans. He loves to eat the first three listed, as for the last one, read on.
There Ian was, happily eating meatloaf and potatoes, when he began singing out, "Corn." We obliged and fed him a couple of bites consisting of corn, peas and carrots. Then we did it, we snuck in a
lima bean. Ian seemed content as he ate the mixture. After a bit of chewing, I noticed his confused look. He eventually spouted out, "Blah," and stuck out his tongue (if only I had a camera at that moment!). Slowly, out dropped a squashed
lima bean from his mouth. No corn, no peas, no carrots. Somehow he managed to eat and swallow everything he liked except the dreaded
lima bean. What can I say, he's talented.
So far, this was old hat for Ian. He's been able to sift through different textures of food and spit out what he doesn't like. He's been saying, "Blah," more and more, and becoming quite the picky eater. But on this night, he had a new trick up his sleeve. As I turned away from my own plate to take care of something else, Ian decided to sneak a few, actually all, of his
lima beans from his plate and graciously place them onto mine. Perhaps it was a gift, who knows what runs through the mind of a toddler. All I knew was, when I turned to finish my potatoes, I suddenly had a growing pile of
lima beans. At least he knew who to give them to. Paul hates
lima beans, I like them. I think I am alone in this. Nobody ever claims to like
lima beans, including Ian.
