"I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas"

(I guess if you've never worked at preschool or attended a camp you may not know this song, but if you do, know it is Caleb's theme song right now!)

You know, I remember fretting that Kylie wouldn't eat anything except her sludgy, steaming hot formula/rice cereal mix for the first two months that she came home. At least she didn't already have distinct taste buds for Chinese food...

Eating with Caleb has been somewhat of a challenge since we've been home. I miss our breakfast buffets at the hotels that provided everything from cereal, fruit and danishes to dim sum dumplings, noodles, and fried rice. My son has very high standards for what he will let pass his lips. Some things he will try, but other things he refuses to put in his mouth even if he watches all the rest of us consume with gusto.

The things we've found that he likes so far are (note that I didn't say include ~ this is THE complete list):

Fruits ~ apples, bananas (only sliced while Kylie refuses to eat one if you even open it for her) and grapes. Since Monday we (and by we I mean Kylie and Caleb) have consumed five apples, ten bananas, and a HUGE bag of grapes. I've attempted to get him to eat (without even getting a taste into his mouth, maybe a color thing?) kiwi, mandarin oranges and strawberries (though he liked the Target brand strawberry dried fruit bars that I took to China).

Veggies ~ (unless you count french fries ~ I waved one under his nose at Chick-fil-a the other night and it brought him out of a deep slumber...) batting on zero here. Attempting to get a bite of cucumber, carrot, and green beans almost caused an international incident!

Starches ~ rice (DUH!), Oodles of Noodles (haven't found a flavor that he doesn't like yet), Cheez Its, Wheat thins, wheat bread (only plain and torn into small bites), and Frosted Mini-wheats (no milk, and these are funny, he'll shovel them in as fast as possible!).

Dairy ~ American cheese slices, NO yogurt that I've found here even though he drank at least one a day at breakfast in China.

Protein ~ scrambled eggs (he ate three yesterday alone), sliced turkey and ham lunch meat and if there is some source of nutrition from chewing, sucking on and then spitting out Chick-fil-a nuggets then we'll count those too.

Dinner on a plate ~ Taco Bell chicken quesadilla, Papa John's Zesty Italian pizza on whole wheat crust. He ate 2 1/2 slices of a large Thursday night and I think would have eaten more if I had let him! Corn dogs ~ just found this one out tonight, American dining at its finest...

Oh, and we went to Pei Wei last night for dinner when we met Ian. Yes, we just got back from China last week, but their Mongolian Beef ROCKS! My little American boy refused to eat with chopsticks (even with the really cool little kids' helpers) and only stopped using his fingers to eat when we gave him a fork. Just two weeks ago he would look at me with panic in his eyes when I brought a fork near his face...
Another funny, he REFUSED to eat the Lo Mein noodles, his expression seemed to say, "You boil spaghetti noodles, put a brown sauce on it, and expect REAL Chinese people to eat them?" Kylie thought they were great and slurped them down ~ guess her taste buds aren't as jaded...

I have some cute pictures from this week, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. It's 9:30 and well past time for me to be asleep!