Snack time...

Yesterday was a half day for J at preschool for teacher meetings. I was so excited not to have to pack her lunch! We received a reminder in their backpacks Wednesday reminding us of the half day and the no lunch fact. But they wanted to make sure we remembered a healthy snack. My husband typically takes the kids to daycare/school and he asked me to do it Thursday. Well I guess with the excitement of not having to pack the lunch it somehow slipped my mind to pack the snack instead. We were halfway to dropping M off and I realized my mistake, as I usually do way too late. I was panicking the whole rest of the car ride. What in the world am I going to "pick up" for J's snack??? There is a grocery store next to J's school and I was just hopeful because at the very least I could grab a piece of fruit. I initially thought I would grab apple sauce as long as it was "just apples" since she can't have the ascorbic or citric acid. But I immediately thought about the fact that she eats her body weight in apples/apple sauce in a day and don't want to get her, yet again, more apples! So J happily accompanied me into the store and we went straight to the produce section. We first saw the apple slices in mini bags as an options, but read the label "ascorbic and citric acid". So I spotted baby carrots in little bags. I asked J's approval and she giggled and smiled a big YES! She saw the little bags of carrots and LOVED the idea! On the way to the check out lane she wanted to grab an apple as well. We decide on a plum instead, she eats slightly less of those than apples. When we got to the car she was so excited to hold her bag of carrots and her PLUM. I don't know if it was the cute little bag or the fact that she helped shop for them. But she was pleased as punch! At that moment I didn't know whether to feel bad that my 3 year old was getting overly excited over baby carrots as a snack or to feel lucky that my 3 year old was getting overly excited over baby carrots. One thing I did know was that this was proof, yet again, that the hang ups I have over my kids missing out on things are just that....mine! They know only what they know. They are learning different eating habits, but they will be their eating habits and won't know any different. When we walk past junk food in pretty colorful boxes with cute characters on it and J asks for it...I just say J that's not real food, lets go find some real food to buy and she says okay, smiles, and moves on (most days). Now my job will be to make their eating habits more and more fun so that when they are exposed to more and more foods that they can't have, they don't begin to get the hang ups about "missing out" that I have! Bring on the vitamix ;)