A tale of two chairs

Let's go back in time shall we? When I was a young little lass there were two chairs that were the coveted seats at the kitchen table. There was the yellow chair. It had rips on the side of the seat and down the top of the seat, right where you sat. Then there was the bar stool. We're not talking a bar stool of wood. Oh no! We're talking genuine brown vinyl on both the seat and the back rest. Well, actually there was only vinyl on the back of the back rest because the front of the back rest had been ripped out making a very nice pocket for storing things. You may be asking yourself why these two seats could possibly be where one wanted to sit. I have three words for you, Beef Pancake roll-ups. Yes they are as disgusting as they sound. Now, if one was lucky enough to get the yellow seat, which always seemed to be someone else's good fortune, you knew that thanks to those beautiful rips, you could shove your unwanted food into the chair! Getting the bar stool was always too lofty of a goal, because that chair was reserved for whichever kid happened to be second to youngest at the time. Simply because it put them up higher at the table. The yellow chair was one's saving grace. It also put you up higher to the table because of all the food that had been shoved in to it over the years. The shoving of food wasn't only limited to beef pancake roll-ups. There was also enough room in the chair to put liver, fried zucchini, beets, fish(which came to your plate with it's head and skin still fully intact) or any other food that one could not palate. You may be asking yourself what this has to do with anything, well, let me tell you. Let's fast forward to today.

K man enters the picture. When he was a baby he ate everything! I was feeling so excited about it because M wouldn't eat anything. I was feeling pretty confident that he would be easy to please when it came to the food area of life. Well, his willingness to eat anything changed about a year ago. He use to just sit there until B or I got so tired of telling him to eat, that we would just take the food away and he would go hungry until the next meal. He has since changed his ways. His favorite place in the house to sit is on a bar stool at the counter right next to the wall. We didn't care if he sat there as long as it wasn't dinner time(we insist that he sit at the table with the rest of us for dinner) and as long as he would eat. About two weeks ago I figured out why he likes sitting there so much. On the wall where he likes to sit is a phone jack. Since we don't have a land line, it's just a little hole in the wall. Sweet, innocent, just sitting here because I like it, K, had figured out that if he puts food in his mouth and bites it into little pieces, he can shove his unwanted food in the phone jack. Part of me wanted to hug him and tell him that I have done the same kind of thing! I was feeling so proud! The other part of me wanted to remind him that there are kids all over the place that don't have enough to eat and that our food is a huge blessing. Not to mention, he shoves things like apple chunks and bread crusts into it. It's not like he has to eat something disgusting like beef pancake roll-ups or liver. Yes, he's cute and yes we love him, but sometimes when I look in the mirror I think, no wonder I have more white hair than brown, K is a food shover!