oh dear.

I'm not one of those mommas who insists the children eat everything on their plate.

Until it's gone.

Meals and meals of the same plate.

Until it's empty.

Mostly because I, myself, have food issues.

Tonight, however,

little miss Lex' was telling me she was hungry

while her plate sat

not empty

on the table.

So I told her she wasn't getting anything else to eat until she finished her mashed potatoes.

Which aren't exactly mashed potatoes;

they were mashed 1/2 potatoes, 1/2 cauliflower.

She doesn't hate them, but she sure doesn't love them either.

She decided to get back to playing.

she came in a half hour or so later,

"I'm still hungry."

"Your mashed potatoes are still sitting on the table. When they're gone, you can have some fruit."

She went to the table.

I heard plate and silverware noises.

A few minutes later she came to tell me that her food was gone.

"You ate all of it? Is your plate empty?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Okay," I said, "You can look in the fridge and see what you might want.

You have to ask first, though, to be sure you can have it."

She chose strawberries.

As I walked into the kitchen to rinse them,

I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a plate - upside down.

Hmm.

I sat the berries on the table

(We added some blueberries to the snack, too - both on sale at Aldi this week)

and picked up the upside down plate.

which was on top

of another plate.

A plate of mashed cauliflower potatoes!