I continue to be confounded by Luke's picky and completely unpredictable eating habits. If what my mom says is true, I ate everything, all the time, preferably at the same time. Luke has a very limited repertoire of food that he will eat and he won't try anything beyond that (in other words, he's no Antonia or Helena eating crispy whole fish). We're lucky we started him early on tamales; otherwise there's no chance he'd eat them now.
Luke also has a fussy/meticulous side that I will attribute to Dave, because I am the world's biggest slob (true confession time) who will even avoid using utensils and will eat out of the container whenever possible. Contrast that with Dave, who, for instance, won't eat foods at the same time if they're going to run into each other, and who is famous for, when he cooks, somehow using every single plate and utensil in the kitchen. That's why I was amused but not surprised the other day when I gave Luke a cookie after dinner and he protested about eating it on the same plate as his dinner ("That's where the meatball was!") I mean, it's a
cookie, for crying out loud.
As a mom, I've been trying to be more creative about sneaking new foods into his diet. I made a zucchini bread the other day and told him it was sugar-and-spice bread, and I only nonchalantly let it slip, once he had eaten the last piece, that there was zucchini in there too. The next day we made a zucchini chocolate cake together, and he knew that there was zucchini in it but he seemed excited about it anyway (though it turned out he was mostly interested in the frosting). Finally, the next morning, he turned to me wearily and said, "Mom, I just don't want any more cakes or breads with zucchini in them, OK?"
So now, given all that, explain to me how his interest in crabs came to pass. We have books about crabs, and he thinks they are cool, and he knows people sometimes eat them with a hammer, but we never really eat crab so I don't know where it came from. But on Sunday, Dave called me from the supermarket with Luke in tow: "I just want you to know that there's going to be a meltdown unless I buy Luke some crab."
Me: "Crap? Why is that news?"
Dave: "No, crab. He wants me to buy crab, and the smallest package I can find has a lot of crab in it."
Me: "Krab? I love that stuff. Sure - go ahead - I'll make a seafood salad."
Thirty minutes later or so they came back with crab, as in actual crab, as in slightly crabby-smelling disembodied legs packaged in supermarket styrofoam and plastic. Gross. But Luke insisted on having crab for lunch, so I held my nose and picked out the crab meat, heated it a little bit (it was precooked) and put it out for him on a plate.
He stared at it. "No mommy, I wanted to eat the crunchy part."
"Like the shell? You can't eat the shell."
"Well I don't eat this part, I only eat the crunchy part."
So there goes $11.99 down the drain. Next time he'll have to experiment with something a little cheaper, like beans. Anyone want some slightly used crab legs?
