Teething Tip = Eating Tip

Please Mama, can we get the baby carrots?

Oh Mommy, the artichokes look so good! Can we have a bunch of asparagus tonight?

Please can we have the cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries and grapes! Please! Please!

Look Mommy, baby spinach! Can we get a bag of that?

Seriously. I’m not even kidding. That’s what the produce section of a trip to the grocery store is like with my kids.

My secret?

I teethed them on frozen broccoli, apples, nectarines, carrots and celery.

When they were cutting teeth I’d hand them whatever cold or frozen fruit I had instead of rubber teething rings. I’d let them carry the food, like apples, around with them so they could sooth their aching gums.

As you can see, now that Zack can open the fridge himself he might be found with more than one apple at a time.

Now they just have a taste for it.

I also make exotic vegetables for special occasions. I’ll boil up some iron-rich artichokes and ooh and ahh over how delicious and delightful they are.

I’ll yum and wow over bunches of asparagus or bowls of spastically delicious spinach salads.

Taking it one step further, I refuse their requests frequently enough that they feel fresh fruits and vegetables are expensive delicacies.

I’m not paying $5 for strawberries!

Do you know how expensive that bunch of asparagus is this time of year?

No, we don’t buy melons in the middle of December.

Those grapes are way too expensive right now.

(Yes, that is Sharpie on his legs.)