Jack turning five

Jack is just a few weeks away from his fifth birthday, and we have just recently started seeing the physical evidence.

First, he has simply matured physically, so that he very much looks like a five year old version of himself. That's fun to see.

But there have been developmental leaps, too. He has started to have that clear, literal mind that happens at about five which is entertaining in the extreme.

He has started to have "defense fantasies" of a sort that I remember well from my other boys and from my brothers, but but we haven't seen from Jack before now.

"If that dog rushes me, I do this, and I'll do this, and ... Dad what would the dog so it I shaked the stick at him like this"?

But for this Mamma, the single most exciting step happened last night.

At the age of two, children become immensely cautious eaters. Many won't eat anything that isn't "plain". No sauces (except that red nirvana, marketed as catsup) no stews or soups, nothing unfamiliar, where unfamiliar can mean it hasn't been served this week. It's extremely frustrating, though absolutely normal.

We gritted out teeth and got through it. If we served anything "complex", where possible we saved out the individual things and served them separately to Jack. He was aware that he was getting what we were eating, but without the sauce". He was allowed to eat what he preferred first, and then he had to take one "no thank you" bite of everything (on the openly agreed "You like familiar foods best -- but if you never taste them, then they can't become familiar") Then, he had to pick two things to finish completely. (We always made sure that there were at least two things that were both familiar and somewhat acceptable.) Then he could have seconds of his favorite part and dessert, if there was to be any.

It was tedious. I worried occasionally that we were raising my first really picky eater, as one food after another dropped from the acceptable list. Eventually, we also added the rule that 'if you don't eat a civilized amount of dinner, then when you're hungry again in the evening, which you will be, it will come back to haunt you, until it's gone.'

But, rules aside, we tried to ignore what he ate or how much. I made sure that there were at least three of his acceptable foods on the plate, but I served him whatever we were having. In Jack's case a serving being two or three bites. He could always ask for more.

Last night, we did exactly what we've always done -- Rod made Pork Satay with rice and vegetables. He saved out a bit of everything to be served plain on Jack's plate. I put two baby lettuce leaves, two grape tomatoes, and a plain raw mushroom on his plate from the salad bowl. And we sat down to eat.

Jack's first bite? Not the pork, not the carrots -- both familiar favorites. He grabbed the mushroom, asked excitedly "What's this?" and *he ate it!* And asked for another!! We gave it to him and tried not to stare as he wolfed it down ... he then proceeded through his pork and carrots. Then he asked about the grape tomatoes -- one gold, one red. We explained that last summer, when they were last available they had been one of his all-time favorite foods. That we had bought packages of grape for dinner and Jack had eaten every one of them before we even made dinner. He carefully cut them open -- and wolfed them both down. When they were gone, he picked through his rice for another slice of pork and found that he'd eaten it all. He asked for more, and I slipped a satay covered piece from my plate to his without comment. He poked at it for a moment, looking unsure -- but I'd given his a taste of my rice and satay earlier...so he asked me to cut it for him because it was slippery -- and he ate every bite.

I have no illusions that the picky eating stage is over just like that -- but this was certainly an encouraging light at the end of the tunnel!