Food : Not just for eating

Miss5 has always been great with food (that is, food she likes and is prepared to eat - and "none of that vegetable crap thanks" - her words).  Try explaining to her that carrot (which she loves) is actually a vegetable, and she slouches on the table, face in hand, rolls her eyes like a Miss14 would, and says "yeah right Georgia", while waving her fork in the air.  (I know she's serious and getting all Miss25 on me when we revert to being on a first name basis).

Mstr2 is the bain of my cullinary existence.  His tastes change daily.  What he loves in the morning, he's throwing on the floor by dinner time, then stands screaming at the wall for 15 minutes to reinforce his disgust.  Thankfully, he is under the misguided notion that it is the wall that dictates the menu each day, and not me.

Miss2 is the opposite of her brother, and will eat anything.  And I do mean anything.  Her favourite snacks being cat biscuits, playdough, paper and soap.  When these staples aren't available, she will eat anything that does actually belong to a food group.  I try and discourage Miss2 from stealing the cat's food, with limited success.  She likes what she likes.  As a result, the cat is impressed that he's no longer receiving cheap crap, and is now being fed the best biscuits on the market - nothing's too good for my child...I mean cat...or, you know, either/both.

I often find out about my kids' random food preferences well after the fact.  It's not that I see Miss2 eating soap but figure it'll just clean her insides out...it's usually when she's hiccuping bubbles and foaming at the mouth that I work it out.  Likewise, I only found out she was into the paper when her nappy was like a collection of spit balls.  Explains why I kept running out of Post-it-notes.

The latest addition to her food repertoire is crayons.  Think Pro-Hart, but using the nappy as his canvas.  For the Artistic types out there, I can tell you that she seems to be leaning towards the aquatic tones, with a lot of blue, aqua and green.  Her colour co-ordination is a little off, often mixing Summer and Winter shades - but I'm sure that will improve with age, and practice.

My dilemma now is which do I promote as the healthier option?  Crayons are slightly cheaper than cat biscuits so I am considering pushing those, but their nutritional value is probably inferior, being that at least the cat biscuits are intended for consumption by a living creature.  Decisions, decisions.

Mstr2, aside from his loathing of the menu-selecting walls, is more consumed by what to do WITH his food than the food itself.  Since discovering food was not just for eating (see October's Toilet Humour post about his broccoli disposal) he's been testing the creative boundaries on that front.  Last night it was peas up the nose, carrot in the ears, and potato in the hair (a-la hair gel).  He was kinder to himself than his sister, as he shoved his carrot sticks up her nose.  No wastage there though, as she simply pulled them out and ate them.