Light up the world

Today we had our very first parent-teacher conference for Sawyer. His teachers have identified him as a "feisty" child who is passionate about everything he does. There are three kinds of temperaments born into this world, we learned: flexible, fearful and feisty. Only about 10 percent of children are considered "feisty." According to the definition they: "Tend to live with zest and let everyone know when they are pleased or displeased." They can have long, intense attention spans and need lots of warnings when the activity is about to change. Sawyer is also sometimes fearful, especially in new situations (we knew that). He has very strong verbal skills (thanks to all the reading we do with him), and they are teaching him how to better express his feelings. We also learned that his favorite color is brown. Sawyer is very mature in many ways, his teacher said. Almost like a little adult. And, sometimes, it's easy to forget that he's one of the youngest kids in the class. He loves to be in charge. When the class acted out the "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" song, lots of kids wanted to be monkeys, lots of kids just wanted to watch. Sawyer immediately volunteered to be the "Momma." Whenever a monkey fell off that bed, Our Sawyer got on that phone, dramatically, called that doctor and — stealing the doctor's line — said: "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." Good thing the doctor was a "flexible" child. So the long and short of it is that Sawyer's kind of high maintenance. As a mom, that's not easy to hear. I had a really hard time with the Baptists on that topic. They just called him stubborn and he spent a lot of time warming the chair in the corner. What I'm pleased to hear is that these teachers are working with him and seem to know the right techniques to help him be successful.

The reward, they say, is that Sawyer lights up the room whenever he walks in and he has made the whole school a livelier place. Now, that's the Sawyer I know and love.

Butter me up

My mom is very proud of the way she got us kids to eat vegetables as children. She would melt a ramekin of butter and we'd go fishing. This worked for asparagus, broccoli, green beans and artichokes. We ate other vegetables too – like cooked carrots and corn – only because they were slathered in a thick layer of buttery, salty goodness. Sawyer discovered his love of melted butter eating crabs. But it wasn't until we read THIS BOOK that he took the first interest in a green vegetable.

We did all the right things when he was a baby, introducing the vegetables first and offering him all sorts of variety. He ate the heck out of strained peas and pureed green beans and even mowed down on some bok choy here and there. I was so proud of my mothering skills, I couldn't help but reach around and pat my own back . . . until he turned about 18 months and began snubbing his nose at any food that wasn't white. Sawyer's entire diet fell to starch, dairy and the occasional banana. I was thrilled when he decided he liked apples. For more than a year I was limited to three dinners (you know the ones) and spent several meals banging my head on the chopping block wondering how I'd created this narrow-palleted monster. I'd watch my friends' kids eat avocado and onion and green peppers with no problem, and I felt like a total failure. I never wanted to be a chicken-finger mom.

This summer I started to notice some subtle changes, starting with the crab. He began tasting new things! He didn't like them all, but he started becoming more adventuresome. He ate corn on the cob, and loved it. And watermellon. What kid doesn't like watermellon, right? And tomato soup, Even chicken soup won a "mmmmmmm!" The other day in the store, after reading the book, he insisted I buy broccoli, which he dipped in a ramekin of butter. While I would have bet 10 bucks he wouldn't eat it, darned if he AND Arden didn't down the whole bunch, pretending they were monsters eating trees. Tonight I even got him to eat spinach pasta (dinosaurs eating grass) and I am so excited I can't even decide how to further expand his repertoire next.

I need to remember that Scott was in his late 30s before he decided he liked oysters, olives and tomatoes and about a dozen other things he refused to eat before he met my family. I even learned that I enjoy a little bit of mayonnaise on my tomato sandwich just this year. It only goes to show, there's always time for an old dog to eat.