Let them eat zucchini...

The other day I took the dynamic duo to the supermarket after Karate to pick up veggies for the soup I was going to make.

For me it was a simple errand, for them it turned into a smorgasbord of desire.

Katherine discovering a huge bar of Hersey's chocolate: "WOW, look at this! MOM can we get this to eat on the way home"

"You're kidding right?"

Jeffrey as we walk down the cereal aisle: "LOOK MOM LOOK! Trix (Lucky Charms, Froot Loops, Coco Pebbles.... fill in any sugar sweetened cereal here) Can we get this for breakfast??"

"Seriously?"

"Well then how about:

Fruit Roll ups
Pudding cups
Sour Cream and Onion potato chips
Frozen corn dogs
Kool-aid
Hostess Twinkies
Hostess Cupcakes
Hostess apple pies
Cracker Jacks

MOM PLEASE!! All the kids get this stuff for lunch... why can't we have it????"

(Because I'm the wicked witch of health and I care about what goes into your body.)

Holy Moly... what is with these food companies? No wonder kids are fat.

I compromised and let them get a bag of Veggie Straws to munch on while we drove home. It had the added advantage that as long as their mouths were chewing they couldn't be talking. (Well that's the idea anyway).

So I finally got around to making the soup last night. As Jeffrey was eating it he sorted through each piece to make sure I wasn't trying to poison him with something he was unfamiliar with.

He looked up from his bowl. "Mom, you know I don't like zucchini right?"

"And?"

"There's zucchini in here. Two different kinds no less."

"No less."

"MOM.... I really do not like it."

Katherine: "I LOVE zucchini!"

Jeffrey: "Katherine! Hush!"

"Think of it as a character building experience."

"MOM!"

"Jeffrey, this is not Burger King where you get it your way. I'm sorry you don't like it, but sometimes you gotta do things that you may not like but will benefit you in the end."

He sat there stabbing at zucchini pieces that he had singled out and shoved to one side of his bowl. His nose wrinkled up to his forehead.

"If I eat them do I get extra dessert because of what I had to endure?"

"Let's put it this way, if you keep complaining you will get no dessert because of what I had to endure."

There was a moment of silence followed by "EW EW EW" and the glugging of an entire glass of milk.

He appeared in the kitchen with an empty bowl, an empty glass and a sour look on his face.

"You lived! See that wasn't so bad!"

"It wouldn't have been bad at all if it weren't for the zucchini."

"Thank you for finishing it."

"Thank you for making it. But next time when you give me some, maybe you can try not to put 100 pieces in my bowl."

"Deal."

So another meal down and at least vegetables past his lips and made it into his stomach. Next time I may try a different kind of soup but there's no guarantee it will get the Jeffrey seal of approval.

But life doesn't come with guarantees now does it?