Soup & Salad

Leah the Grem Grem is sickly and was rather lethargic on the sofa. I don't like it when my littles are sick, but this is when she is so affectionate and calm that I don't mind it when she says "I wanna snuggie you on the couch Mama."

I leave her to make coffee and I look over to see Kaelyn laying a blanket on Leah and kissing her on the head. I notice she drew her a picture, brought out all her favorite stuffed animals and set up Leahs nightlight in the living room. It was pure sibling love. She whispered "I'm sorry you don't feel good sissy. I'll kiss you on the head because I don't want your germs." Kaelyn even made herself breakfast...which is a small slice of parenting heaven.

So we head to the store to get sickly supplies and things for dinner. Kaelyn wants soup. Since my oldest was so sweet to her sister I decided to let her pick which soup. I said we can have chicken noodle, corn and sausage chowder, or chicken tortilla. She picks the chowder. Sweet, that's what I want anyways. Just as I am about done getting what we need, Kaelyn wants the tortilla soup instead. Here we go! The fickle mind of a 5 year old. So there we were conveniently in the booze aisle, as she goes back and forth for what seems like an eternity over which soup I will make. Meanwhile im just looking at the bottle of Pinot thinking.....It's 5 o'clock somewhere, right!? Kidding. The only reason I was in that aisle was because right before, some sweet senior citizen ran us of the main drag when she crashed into my cart and smashed Kaelyn's finger. I pulled into the next aisle thinking it would be quiet in case Kaelyn needed to shed a few tears because who buys booze at 9:30am?! Oh well guess what?! Many Moms coming from school drop offs or still in their Lululemon attire from the gym were flooding it. I wanted to high five them all. Eventually we decide on dinner and head home.

Fast forward to dinnertime. Leah had been clung to me all afternoon like some fever ridden marsupial. Sweaty, snotty and sick-poor thing. Have you ever tried to chop six cups of potatoes and an onion while holding a healthy 2 year old? If the answer is no, I don't recommend it. Well as I go to serve the soup....which for some reason I made enough to feed a village when lets face it, I know I will be the only one that actually eats it, Kaelyn asks me for a salad. I said no but here's your soup. She asks for a salad again. I deny the request for a second time and put the soup in front of her. It wasn't until she asked for the third time that I thought HOLY CHIT this kid is asking me to eat salad! And I , her mother, am denying her! I don't know if it was because I was delirious from holding the marsupial baby all day, but how could I miss hearing that my kid asked for a freakin salad?! Those are vegetables ya'll, VEGETABLES! That kid has been eating plates of beige for far too long, so this is a huge deal in my house.

She ends up eating 3 helpings of salad and no soup. So as expected I was the only one that ate that. I don't even care though, the kid ate vegetables! Later she tells me she only did it for one reason....

She wanted to be a rabbit. Hey, whatever works.

I need this trend to continue. Those of you with kids that love veggies, how do you do it? And don't say you just cover it in cheese or hide it in the food. My kids are like mini vegetable detectives and could identify the "healthy secrets" within a casserole in seconds.