Smoothies in the Morning

My son Jack, who is almost five (Did I really just write that???? Is he seriously almost FIVE?!?!), enjoys smoothies. One day, quite a while ago, he saw me making my morning smoothie (with spinach) and asked if he could have some. "Absolutely!" I said as I excitedly poured him some, thinking to myself, "YES!! He is getting fruits AND veggies in his system first thing this morning! Point one for Mom! Score!" From then on, sharing my smoothie with him was a sure fire way to make sure he got at least SOME fruits and veggies in him.

Jack is very interested in cooking. He loves to make cookies with Grandma and he likes to make what he calls his "mixes". The kid would go nuts in the kitchen if I'd let him. He would mix eggs with fruit and water and bread and then bake it. He might get one heck of an egg bake. It's hard sometimes to let them do something you KNOW is a bad idea...like mix random, weird things in the kitchen. I think I just wrote a mouthful of truth about parenthood...it's hard to let them do something you know is a bad idea. Hmmpth....back to smoothies...

He was pretty excited the other day when I brought a mango home for him from the grocery store. He wanted to put it in a smoothie. This morning, with about 20 minutes until we absolutely had to be pulling out of the garage, I was helping my incredibly persistent and wonderful little boy make a smoothie. You couldn't have paid me to be anywhere else. He was so excited to add all kinds of fruit. He put in raspberries and strawberries, and he let me put in frozen pineapple because I told him it made the smoothie really cold and smoothies are best when they are really cold. He was alright when I explained that we should put a banana in to make it really smooth. He wanted to put in yogurt (straight out of the Go-Gurt squeezee tube), so I helped him cut the top off and squeeze it in. I drew the line at putting muffins in the smoothie. No muffins in smoothies. We all have limits. We mixed it up and tasted it. He said it was good but that it didn't taste enough like mango. I smiled. I don't think he has had enough mango to know what mango is supposed to taste like. He shared his smoothie with his sister and insisted his brother try it.

He was so proud.

Me too.

More than he will ever know.