Friday, November 23, 2007

My Mother Would Say That!

BEFORE WE GET INTO THE POST FOR TONIGHT, WE MUST WISH A:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to BIRTHDAY GIRL OLIVIA, OUR NIECE! SHE IS 9 YEARS OLD TODAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA! WE LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!
Have you ever said/done something that later made you think..."That was something my mother/father would say/do?" We've been having a few of those moments lately! That's not a bad thing...just makes us realize we are really parents now!

One such incident was tonight at dinner. We've learned that our two older children have a dislike for basically any vegetable except cucumbers! So we have decided that it is reasonable to have them try every vegetable that crosses their plate. To try at least one. Tonight's vegetable was cooked cauliflower. Now Mami isn't even a big fan of that vegetable either...but I sure wasn't going to avoid the vegetable if I was telling my children to try it! Before the plates were brought to the children they were telling the cooks 'No cauliflower for me!'. But we overruled that and said 'One cauliflower for each please!'. Now these cauliflowers had been breaded and fried...so they really weren't that bad.

So here's how the conversation & situation went...it had Robert and I so entertained because it was almost like watching ourselves when we were that age balking at a vegetable Mom or Dad was making us try. I distinctly remember sitting at the table well past dinnertime with cold broccoli or brussel sprouts on my plate! (sorry Mom!)

Mami: Juancho & Laura, I recommend that you eat your cauliflower while it is still warm - it is better that way.

Juancho & Laura make a face and move their cauliflower away.

Juancho: Papi, I don't want to eat this cauliflower - it smells bad

Papi: You just have to eat that one Juancho, to try it

Laura: Mami, can I just eat this bit (aka - eensy-weensy barely visible speck) of cauliflower insted of the whole thing?

Mami: No Laura, you have to eat one whole piece

Mami: If you swirl the cauliflower around in the gravy from your meat it will taste more like meat.

Juancho & Laura make a face and move their cauliflower away.

Laura: Mami, now my cauliflower is cold

Mami: Yes, remember how I told you it would be better to eat it while it was warm?

Juancho and Laura spear the piece of cauliflower with their fork and bring it up to their mouth. Laura smells it and contorts her face in disgust. Juancho barely licks it and acts as if he is gagging. (Mami and Papi secretly giggle...they remember doing this very thing to their parents).

Meanwhile...the rest of the table is served ice cream for dessert...

Juancho: Mami & Papi, I'm full, I don't want any more dinner.

Papi: That's fine - you can be excused after you eat your piece of cauliflower
Juancho turns in his seat and puts his head on the table. Meanwhile Laura suddenly has a fit of courage and pops the cauliflower in her mouth and chews fast. She chases it with a generous gulp of juice. She declares it wasn't that bad and is happy to have her ice cream passed to her.

Juancho sees this unfold and thinks he may want to go for it too. He puts the cauliflower up to his mouth and smells it. He contorts his face again and pretends he is going to throw up. Mami & Papi don't pay any attention. He takes a teeny tiny bite and makes the worst face possible. He gags. (Oh Mom & Dad - I remember being this dramatic at the dining room table at times!)

The cooks comes out and says to Juancho: Your ice cream is melting...you better pop that cauliflower in quick. I'll hold your juice ready for you.

Juancho gets a bout of courage himself...pops in the cauliflower and chews rapidly and then swallows - chasing the cauliflower with juice. He happily grabbed his pot of half melted ice cream and smiled at Papi.

We told the kids we were proud of them for trying a vegetable that they didn't want to. We may not have won the 'Our Kids Love Cauliflower' contest with this event...but it did reinforce to our children that vegetables are important and that while they don't have to like everything they try - they should at least try it! (Meanwhile Robert and I plan to introduce the kids to 'Mashed "Potato" Surprise' after we get home...which is really mashed cauliflower with milk and chives/garlic...you can hardly tell the difference...then they may discover they like cauliflower!) We'll keep you posted!

Mami spent the day at the spa with all the other Mami's. Papi held down the fort here with our 3 (and looked after the older 2 girls of another family much of the time too!). Sounds like he did a great job - not that I was worried - he is a great Papi! (PS - the spa I went to was part of a 'club' that the owner of our residence belongs to. The prices for the services were unbelievable. Can you believe that I got a 1 hour full body massage with a full body exfoliation for only $35? Or a French Manicure for only $5? It was ridiculously cheap...and the first time EVER in my life I've had a professional massage...it was awesome!).

Laura & Juancho learned about animals in school today. Laura continues to struggle with motivation...she is a smart girl, but I don't think she believes she is capable of learning...she resists learning English. Juancho meanwhile is a quick study and loves learning new things in English. Papi is learning Spanish more each day too - taking an online Rosetta Stone Spanish course that has been helping him immensely! It is also great for the kids to see that Papi is working on learning Spanish while they are working on learning English.

That's about it for tonight...I'm going to post a couple pics from previous days that didn't make it on the blog before...no pics were taken today!

With love from the Dressel's!

This picture reminds me of my older sister Jenni. As a little girl, Jenni somehow managed to get her face into the corner of every picture...just as little Angie did here!

On the fourth night we were here, we had a band come to play/sing traditional Colombian music at a farewell party for a family that was going home.

This is our friend Corinne. She is from France & is here adopting her second child, baby girl Alexanne. Her 5 year old son Killian was adopted from Colombia too!

A family photo taken in the living room at Betty's Place after the musical performance a couple weeks ago!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me know when mushrooms and bananas are served and EVERYONE has to eat them - and I'll be there! :D

Howard Meadows said...

Holly,

Yes, I can remember these times too! This is the fullfillment of one of our wishes - that our children's children would do this to THEM too! ;-)

I'm proud of you for trying the cauliflower too - I don't know if I'd be able to do that. :-)

-Abuelo Meadows

Genece said...

Cute post. Our 9 yr. old son will sure let you know when he doesn't like something. I see similar instances in our futures! He has a huge dislike for vegetables especially.

Hope to see you soon in Bogota, but if we don't it means you got the green light to head on home!

Keeping your family in our prayers!
Love, Genece

Jes said...

I laughed so hard when I read this blog. Oh how I remember those long nights at the dinner table and the stare-down with peas.....