Thursday, January 20, 2011

Mac - a man of his word

When Jimmy and I found out we were having a baby, we quickly decided on a boy's name but could never get to a girl's name. It wasn't a matter of consensus; we just couldn't come up with anything we liked. Thankfully the baby turned out to be a boy because James McKelvey just doesn't cut it on a human who wears dresses and hairbows.

We knew from the get-go that we'd call this child Mac, but we thought there was a certain panache to J. McKelvey Story. Like it sounded like a really strong lawyer-type name or something.

Fast forward 8+ years and we have a child who clearly, if this week is any indication, has a love of contracts, which is lawyer-ly-ish, right?

On vacation, we ate a lot of junk. Actually who am I kidding? We just eat a lot of junk period. I love a good Coca-Cola and I don't think I could pass up a plate of french fries for a million dollars. Give me a choice of chocolate or an apple and I will always choose the chocolate. But we - Jimmy and I - decided on vacation that we had to improve our eating habits and especially Mac's. He's gotten sooooo much better about what he'll eat, but fruits and veggies just aren't his first choice if he's given a choice. That fruit didn't fall far from this tree.

So on Sunday night when we got home, we all sat down and planned our menu for the week. Then we made it into a contract, where we all signed to say that we accepted the menu and would eat each dinner without complaining.

Monday night was pretty easy to stick to the contract - we had beef tenderloin on the grill, brown rice, grilled corn on the cob, steamed broccoli and grilled red peppers. Mac ate everything but the grilled red peppers. SUCCESS!

Tuesday night was a harder sell - a beautiful salad with leftover tenderloin, lettuce, cucumbers, mango, red peppers, asparagus, and sugar snaps. Mac picked out parts of the salad that he liked, but surprisingly he ate everything but lettuce and red peppers.

Wednesday night was a slam dunk - spaghetti, salad and french bread. If we had that 7 nights a week, I'd never have a food battle ever.

Tonight was the real test. I made cornbread and a delicious tomato-based vegetable soup with peas, corn, and leftover Christmas ham. (For you southern purists, the okra season lasts about 4 days and ended in November and there are no butter beans to be found.) I'm convinced that Jimmy was so sure that we were going to have a battle on our hands tonight that he "had to take a late phone call at work" and wasn't able to get home until after our normal dinnertime. Sounds fishy, right? Yeah, I thought so too. Well I was never more surprised when Mac sat down and ate some of the soup. He wasn't a huge fan, but he ate some of the tomato part, lots of ham and a handful of peas. That may not sound like much to you, a successful mother or father who has raised your child to eat delicious, healthy food without complaint, but I wouldn't have been more surprised if a space shuttle had landed on our balcony. When Jimmy finally got home, he was shocked that there had been no uproar. Mac's going to be hungry in the morning but tonight went in the Win column.

Tomorrow night is the re-instituted Story Family's Friday Movie and Homemade Pizza Night. Mac would rather order Papa John's, but still, we can't go wrong with making it at home.

Dare I dream that every week could be this easy just by planning the menu together and signing a contract? If a contract is the language that Mac understands, I am on top of it. Clearly he is living up to his lawyer-ly name.

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