nothing like the sun

It's a glorious thing to see a five year old sleeping. Yum. Sleeping children remind me of ripening fruit, green trees, luxurious cats, a summer day dropped in the doldrums of midwinter, a beam of sun, a cozy ray of warmth. Living to the fullest.

And naturally this kid goes with food very much better than I thought a picky eater might. I prepared an array of food late this morning, and packed up a lunch of the same items for Brian who is on his way to work after half a day off today from the snowy weather shenanigans we've been enjoying since night before last. He had the whole day off yesterday.

See?

This is why I think it works very nicely to let a child sleep in. I can make foodstuff as he sleeps and while my own mind emerges from a state of being befogged and bemused of a morning. Between the two of us, it will last 1/2 a day. Ok. It's almost 3 pm now and I've refilled chips (my idea which he gratefully ate up) and apple slices (his request).

So... en la manana: first thing Karl goes for is pizza of course (only a couple of bites out of the three slices? shh.. I keep my incredulous thoughts to myself), and Munchies Cheese Fix mix mmmm... which is soon forgotten for the delicious carrots and celery dipped in ranch peppercorn dressing. Moving on to the apples popped into brown sugar/cinnamon dip and then his mouth. Then he mows through the chips, a perennial favorite of his which I try to keep on hand. He stops, for now, without touching the meat cubes I have on toothpicks (I've eaten the ones that have disappeared so far), the peanut butter sandwichettes (I'm the only who has eaten these), or the thawed fruit (it's great but I've only picked at it after eating so much else).

I have been watching Karl's progress from the corner of my eye for the sake of blogging about this particular grazing on a field of appetizers. All while I mess around online, typing this and looking at that and the other. The platter of food rests between us on a tv tray, being shared. Me on one computer and Karl on the other, which happens to be my computer but ah well that is for me later today. Karl is uninterested in playing Peggle, which he seems to have on for the dancing beat of music in the background. His focus is the food. He's been working on it for over 1/2 an hour after waking from slumber at noon. Last night was a run on Batman vs. Mr. Freeze, Spiderman 3, and Tom & Jerry starting about 10 pm. About 1 pm Karl moves over to Netflix on his dad's laptop by the bed for more toons.

Amazingly he has eaten raw carrots, celery, and apple in their respective dips, plus a handful of chips and a couple of bites of pizza. I used to think Karl didn't like veggies. So far, he is not at all fond of the cooked veggies or soups I make for me and Brian at meals. It seems that he enjoys eating raw veggies and fruits.