Mexican Food- Gabrielle

Tonight, I decided to take one more step on the Independence Highway I'm screaming down, and this step took me straight into the waiting arms of spicy salsa.

As you may know, if you've been following our story, I am what my pediactrician likes to call a "discerning eater." Or, if you listen to Mom on one of her bad days, "a frustrating little princess who defines picky and might as well starve as much as I care, I am NOT making one more piece of food for that ungrateful twit." I'm not sure, but I don't think I was really supposed to hear her say that...

Anyhow, I've recently realized that Mom wasn't as bothered by the whole picky eating thing anymore, and, frankly, I don't really like to be labeled. So I've started to branch out in my food exploration. (To really drive Mom nuts, though, I only try new food for Dad. She'll offer me something for a month, and I'll throw it on the floor. Then she leaves me alone with Dad for one morning, and I try it and love it. I do this to try to make her feel bad for missing even a second of my life...) Over the last few months, I've discovered omelets and lasagna and soup and blueberries and pancakes and bananas... You know, all the food most kids love and start eating as soon as they can chew, but that I've totally ignored because all I've wanted was refried beans. (But I'm still not going for that Mac and Cheese stuff, I don't care what you say, it's weird...)

I have to say, though, I love mexican food. It might be because of the beans, or because that's where Dad wants to eat when Mom's always saying "PLEASE can we go somewhere with some fresh raw vegetables, I really want a salad, not all that heavy food." I like to help out Dad when I can, so he can always use me as a negotiating tip- because there is NOTHING at Sweet Tomatoes that I will eat.

So tonight, we went to one of our standby Mexican restaurants, the one that drives Mom nuts because they never have big tables and we get shoved in a booth where they sit me on the end of the table and I kick Mom's shins the whole time. This was the first time they actually let me sit IN the booth with them, and this let me be closer to the chips. Usually they hand me a chip and I show my disdain by breaking it up into tiny little pieces and throwing them in Mom's lap . But tonight I noticed Dad was dipping his chips into this pretty red stuff that looked a lot like beans. They told me it wasn't beans, but I wouldn't believe them until I stuck my fingers into it. Mom said something like, "Well, that's all yours now..." and actually turned into a kinda cool Mom for a minute. Because she dipped my chip into that red stuff and offered it to me. Even though Dad, Grandpa and Grandma were all saying, "No, that's too spicy, you'll hurt her, Gabby you don't want that!" There are these rare moments when Mom and I bond, when she's actually pretty cool and let's me do what I want... Then she says, "Well, she has to learn somehow, maybe she'll stop asking for it if she realizes she doesn't like it." Oh, I get it, it's just another thing that you've decided I won't like and you just want to shut me up. I'll show you...

I ate half a bowl of that salsa stuff. I shoveled about three huge chips worth of the stuff straight down my throat. Sure, my face turned red and my eyes were watering. Sure, I said, "Hurts!" and Grandma said she thought I should stop when my nose starting running. But I kept at it. Because you know what? It was GOOD! And I felt like a grownup. And I liked to do something they didn't expect, I liked to surprise them all. And, I can't lie, I was enjoying the idea of the diaper Mom will get to clean up tomorrow.

By the end of the meal, I ate my entire cheese enchilada, my double helping of refried beans and, for the first time, actually ate some ice cream because we get a free kids' sundae with my meal. (I did this because Dad always eats my sundae, but Mom said today she might want a bite, so I decided today was the day to make sure they knew it is MINE!) Mom's gonna have quite a mess on her hands tomorrow... =)