Carrot Cake

At school each week Kimmie goes shopping with one of her teachers. They take her to the grocery store where Kimmie practices finding the items in the store and purchasing them through the self-scan or a regular check out lane.

Each week I send in a list of three or four items for Kimmie to shop for that week, along with money to make the purchase. Of course the list has to be non-perishable items that Kimmie can bring home on the bus, but I try to mix it up with a variety of stuff . . . canned goods, cookies, crackers, pretzels, pudding, paper towels, toothpaste, pasta, ketchup, soap, chapstick, cake mixes, brownie mixes . . . you get the idea. I try to keep them moving around the store.

A few weeks ago I put on the list a cake mix, whatever flavor Kimmie chose. We all expected her to come home with a chocolate cake since that tends to be her favorite. Much to our surprise she came home with a carrot cake mix.

A couple weeks later I baked the cake. We asked Kimmie if she wanted some carrot cake. She looked at me kinda weird and shook her head yes, but when I set it down in front of her she pushed it away and signed, "no, no." I guess it didn't look quite like what she expected. I let it go that night even though I was sure she'd like it if she tried it.

The next evening when we were eating more cake, we asked her again if she wanted some. She again said yes, until she saw it. BUT, we didn't let her off the hook.

Instead we kinda ganged up on her. Her Dad, her sister and I all started singing the "magic eating song." (See previous post.) Kimmie tried to resist, signing no and turning her head away, but by the second verse she couldn't resist any longer. She started signing the song with us, and then her mouth popped open. In went the carrot cake, and we all stopped singing to watch her reaction. As soon as the cake hit her tongue, her eyes lit up. We knew she'd like it once she tried it.

We didn't have to sing any more, and her piece of cake disappeared quickly.

She's so funny!

--Mom

The Magic Eating Song

When Kimmie was little we had a lot of trouble getting her to eat. She might eat a few bites to satisfy her hunger, but then she would lose interest. To get Kimmie to eat we would sing to her. We had a long list of preschool songs that we would sing. She would focus on the songs while we spooned food into her mouth.

We would sing The Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Row Row Row Your Boat, Over In The Meadow, The Ants Go Marching One by One . . . Some of these songs we had books for, with lots of extra verses that we learned. There were Sesame Street Songs, Disney Songs, movie soundtrack songs . . .

Over the years Kimmie became conditioned to open her mouth when we sang to her.

As Kimmie moved into adolescence and one of her medicines was changed, her appetite improved and we no longer had to sing to keep her eating. Since we no longer needed to sing on a regular basis, her "eating" songs dwindled to one favorite that Dad has dubbed, "the magic eating song." The magic eating song is Over in the Meadow:

Over in the meadow in the sand in the sun
Lived an old mother turtle and her little turtle one.
"Dig," said the mother.
"We dig," said the one.
So they dug all day in the sand in the sun.

It has ten verses, one turtle, two fish, three owls . . .

This song still comes in handy when we need Kimmie to take medicine or try a new food. We sing and she cannot resist. Her mouth just pops open! Sometimes she tries hard to resist and keep her mouth closed, but the longer we sing the more she gets into the song and forgets to resist.

--Mom

(This is a lead in to the next blog entry, stay tuned . . .)