Our Family Table: Food Rainbows 2
I think it’s fair to assume that my kids aren’t the only small children who spend a few mornings (or afternoons or evenings) each week wanting food, food, and more food every three-or-so minutes.
I get it. They’re growers. Sprouters. Calorie burners. Bottomless pits. Grazers. Ravenous bipedal cattle.
But even though I get and accept all of this, I’m not about to pretend that it’s always fun to play octopus-arms with my fridge and pantry as I pull out raisins, then cheese cubes, then graham crackers, then juice, then cereal, then strawberries, then bananas, then sweet potatoes, then peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, then milk, and then eggs for approximately three hours each morning, all while listening to the boys’ nonstop “I’m hungry” refrain.
(I’m not bitter. I’m just exhausted. And not entirely selfless.)
So I finally did something about my selfish exhaustion last week–something that not only stopped the boys from asking me for more food every thirty seconds but also offered them a splendid array of vitamins, minerals, and all-around yumminess:
I set out a “food rainbow” around 9 a.m. and let them snack and graze on it all morning.
“What the heck is a ‘food rainbow,’” you might ask?
Food rainbows are something I made up for M a couple years ago, back when he was in one of those phases where he would fixate on one or two types of food and then ask for them (and only them) for an entire week. (Trust me, you do NOT want to be on the other end of a diaper after a child has insisted on eating blackberries and black beans morning, noon, and night for two days straight.) To ensure that he would get a variety of foods during these phases (without coercing or cajoling him), I’d choose five differently-colored foods, set them out on a plate (sometimes even in the shape of a rainbow), and call it a food rainbow.
Ta-da!
(You might be amazed to learn what you can accomplish with a small child when you re-brand certain foods, tasks, or activities as rainbows, games, carnivals, or vampire slayings. Notably, that last one might only work in my house.)
In any case, just as these rainbows once saved M from eating a diet comprised solely of apples and Cheerios, they now save me from having mornings comprised solely of getting food, food, and more food for the kids for hours on end.
And that’s just about as glorious as a real rainbow.
yes, there are goldfish crackers in this rainbow.
