This morning something brought to mind one of my favorite interchanges with Elise. If I've already told this one, bear with me. It's still funny to me.
When Elise was about 6, Amelia was 2 and they were peers...Amelia was even a little bit ahead already. And I was beginning to really feel the gap...
We are apparently in the chicken capital of the US. (I just looked up state by state production.) When agriculture started to recede, our local area was literally revolutionized by a chicken plant. We have chicken farms everywhere and a plant on our downtown square. And a sculpture of a man with a chicken and a basket of eggs on a government building steps. Seriously.
So, chicken trucks are a constant in life.
As a little bit of a back story, you need to know that chicken nuggets made up at least 50% of her diet at this point. Between post chemo effects, sensory issues, and being a toddler developmentally, there just weren't a lot of options that she would eat.
As we drive into town one weekday, we pull up behind a chicken truck. And Elise asks, "Whas dat?"
I tell her what she probably already can see, "It's chickens."
She gives me a perplexed look and asks,"Chickens?"
I say, "yes."
She gives me a truly odd look, and asks,"Chickens?!?!?!"
"Yep"
She squares off in my line of sight, and signs chicken. And asks again, "Chicken??"
"Yes, Baby. Chickens"
She squares off again, and signs eat. And asks again, "Chicken??"
"Yes, Baby. Chicken."
This look of horror overtakes her face.
She signs eat and chickens. Back to back and looks at me.
I nod.
She leans back, looking like her mind was totally and completely blown.
I was amused, but didn't think too much of it, until supper. Which included, you guessed it, chicken.
Elise comes hopping in when called to eat and sits down in her booster. She happily asks, "Chicken?"
"Yes, Baby, we're having chicken and green beans for supper."
Her head snaps around and her eyes narrow. "Chicken? Truck?"
"Um. Yes."
She looks at me, looks down at her plate, and eats with a thoughtfulness.
The next week, we pull up behind another chicken truck. And Elise pops up into attention, "Chicken?"
"Uh-huh."
She pumps her fist in the air, "Chicken!!!! Eat!!!!"
She could have gone the other way where she adamantly refused to eat chicken. I had kids at the daycare that did that, especially ones that had grandparents or aunts/uncles with farms. I had one that absolutely refused to eat anything pork-related (and not for religious reasons) because her grandparents had a pet pig on their farm. ::sigh:: It's still cute, though!
ReplyDeleteI love this! We raise beef cattle and when Claire asks what we are having for dinner we always tell or cow or pig. Not too long ago we were out checking on the cows and she watched them for a bit, then turned to her dad and signed eat. :)
ReplyDeleteThe connections our kids make are so fascinating! I did not blog when Alex was little so have missed documenting all those special moments....I love reading about Elise.
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