Peas

November 16, 2006

Ellie and I got take-out Chinese food for lunch today, including fried rice. We usually get plain steamed rice since that's what I prefer, but today we got some fried rice for Jason. Once we got home, I put a plateful of food in front of Ellie. She picked out a pea from her fried rice and said, “What’s that?”

We haven’t fed her peas in ages, because the last time she tried some, she gagged, and little tears welled up in her eyes. It seemed cruel to keep giving them to her. I told her, “That’s a pea,” and she ate it. She then embarked on a project to pick all the peas out of her fried rice. I thought, “Here we go!” since most kids I know pick the veggies out of their fried rice and leave them. But once Ellie had a nice pile of peas, she proceeded to eat them all.

Then she turned to me and said, “More fried rice, please.” I answered, “You still have fried rice on your plate, kiddo.” She thought about it for a minute and then said, “More peas.”

Needless to say, fried rice has become nothing more than a glorified delivery system for presenting peas!