“I will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10000 other people will also make this same pledge.”

Only 2934 more needed at time of typing…

I can’t be arsed to comment on the ID card bill yet again, so I shall Electech do it for me…

Via The Skakagrall

Yesterday’s post on eating had me thinking about the little rituals I had around food as a child, and probably explains why I’m happy for Akra Jr to treat dinner time as a bit of a game.

I would sometimes pretend that I was a huge giant and each of the items on my plate were something on a larger scale. Broccoli was trees, obviously… brussel sprouts were “really” huge cabbages, gravy was a small lake and new potatoes giant boulders. I went on to pretend this well into the age where you would die rather than admit it. Not that this was particularly imaginative, I’m sure the idea was heavily influenced from that giant scene in the Mr Greedy book.

I also used to HAVE to eat a mouthful of each thing on my plate in turn, ending with my very last mouthful being my favourite thing. The idea of ending the meal with a mouthful of something I didn’t like was completely abhorent. As an extension of this, I would make deals with myself like “eat two mouthfuls of the thing I hate, then I’ll allow myself one mouthful of the thing I love”. I confess, I still have that particular little ritual now.

So not much of a stretch in imagination to reach Akra Jr’s dice game (he ate a bowl of strawberries and cream the other night – previously would only take the tiniest bite to try then leave them. He’s now decided he *loves* strawberries after all … yay!).

What food rituals did you have as a child and do they still affect the way that you eat today?

Akra Jr is a bit of a picky eater. To be fair, he knows what he likes and we’ve done rather a lot of “new” stuff of late and even when he’s picky, he’s not an unhealthy eater.

Anyway, in a fit of despair that he was obviously going to only eat bread and only try a miniscule spoonful of vegetable soup that had taken over an hour to cook, I had a sudden brainwave and dashed upstairs. Akra and Akra Jr shared looks as if to say “what madness is Mummy up to now?” I come back downstairs with Akra’s electronic dice that Akra Jr is obsessed with.

I strike a deal. He “rolls” the dice, waits for the pretty display to settle on a number, eats that many mouthfuls of soup, then he gets a bite of bread. Fortunately, at this age they still don’t always realise that you’re completely powerless if they decide to ignore their side of the bargain completely, and he agrees. Several rolls of the dice later, he’s eaten a full bowl of soup for the first time in history.

Now he almost reacts with glee if I set something down in front of him that he doesn’t like as it means he can get the dice out to help him eat it all up. There’s something very bizarre about that, I can’t quite get my head around it. Still, he’s eaten so well the last two days that I’m hardly going to complain. I can only hope that it lasts at least as long as it takes to discover a few more foods in our repertoire that he enjoys.

Of course, now I have one child’s appetite back on track, Li’l Bhaji has discovered the picky eater within. I’m hoping it’s just teething related and not that point just after the age of 1 where they realise they can be more choosy. How old are they before they can count meaningfully again?!

Found this on my travels: Booktrusted.com – recommended books database for children. Quite handy if you’ve got presents to buy and not sure what a child of a particular age group would enjoy. Can also sort by genre and look by author. Also resources for parents and teachers that I haven’t fully investigated yet. Worth a peep, anyway!

Some conversations you wish you’d never started..

Me (thinking out loud): It must be horrible being a mummy hen. There you are having lots of babies, and some bastard keeps nicking them and eating them.
Akra: Just because hens periods are more visible than other species…
Me: Ew. I so didn’t need that image.
Akra: Hey, it wasn’t me who started a conversation on the reproductive cycle of hens!

Li’l Bhaji’s artistic debut…

It’s official. I’ve turned into a NIMBY.

We had a flyer pushed through our door today informing us of planning permission for a high intensity mobile telephone mast less than 400m from our front door. I’m torn between being hopeful that I might actually get a decent mobile signal in the house at some point, and concern about the potential health risks of a 3G mast on our boys.

The more I read up about it the less in love with the idea I become, regardless of the extra convenience. I think becoming a parent has activated my selfish gene…

My very favourite Money Saving site has started an online petition against advertisements encouraging debt including secured loans on children’s television channels.

Now, I loathe all television adverts between children’s programmes (although I realise they are a necessary evil to fund certain channels) especially when they’re too young to be able to distinguish between the advertisements and the programmes themselves. They encourage a “must have it now” attitude already very strong in the pre-school age group and can whip up a frenzy of consumerism in even the most laid back four-year-old. The constant drone of loan commercials just add to the hype that there’s no need to wait for anything regardless of the long term consequences.

Now if there can just be a petition against the incessant crap overpriced toy ads, the junk food ads and that damn Muzzy advert with the very bad accents: “yes, that’s French they’re speaking and no, these children aren’t French”. Really? I’d never have guessed… ARGH!

You know you’re going a bit overboard with foodiness when:

• you have more gruyere cheese in the fridge than cheddar

• you have the following exchange with your child.
  AKRA JR: Have we had this before?
  ME (beaming at the thought he noticed): Yes, yes we have.
  AKRA JR: So…. why are we having it again, then?
  (oops, maybe we’ve been having a little too much variety recently)

• you go ahead and cook a roast dinner when it’s 31 degrees celcius outside…
• when it takes a couple of hours and every cookbook you own to plan the food shopping for the week.
• when not only does no supermarket and no local shop stock the VITAL ingredient you need, everyone looks blank when you ask if they stock it. (mirin – it isn’t *that* rare, is it?!)