Quack Quack!

If you are a vegetarian you might want to skip this entry b/c I'm talking about meat getting cut up.

Quack Quack is what Jamie said yesterday when he saw a man chopping up duck meat at our favorite Chinese grocery store (which also has an eating area.) I laughed so hard, Jamie wasn't sure why I was laughing, but another customer next to me was quite amused as well. I told him that the duck wasn't quacking anymore, that it was cooked and people were going to eat it. He was really interested in the man making the chopping sounds on the cutting board with his cleaver. (That was more interesting to him than the meat I think.)

We were eating lunch in the cafe area after shopping the first time Jamie heard the cleaver pounding on the board. I told him they were cutting up meat w/ a knife and I imitated with my hand in a pounding motion. He imitated and started moving his hand in a chopping motion every time he heard the man cutting up the cooked meat for customers. They have whole ducks and chickens, cooked, hanging from hooks in a display case so I don't know if Jamie saw that first and identified it as a duck, but when we walked over to where the man was chopping up another duck later on for a customer, I think Jamie might have seen the duck head/neck portion that the man lifted (eww). Anyway, Jamie said loudly, "Quack! Quack!" I wonder some times what Jamie will feel like as he gets a little older and understands that the cute animals get eaten for food. I sometimes wonder if he'll decide to be a vegetarian. Anyway, at this young age he certainly only sees the animal for what it is and he likes to say the sound.

Last weekend my parents came for a visit and they took us out to one of our favorite Italian restaurants (Jamie loves red sauce.) Pop Pop (what Jamie calls my dad) was cutting up some chicken to give to Jamie and asked Jamie if he'd like some chicken and offered him some on a fork. Jamie immediately said, " Bah Bah!" (his version of bok bok or however you spell what a chicken says.) We all had a good laugh and even Jamie laughed though he had no idea what he was laughing about.

I am discovering that my normally picky son is not very picky *if* you feed him foods similar to what he was used to in China. At our quack quack outing I bought a very soft curd homemade tofu with soup that they make at the cafe part of the store and it had fresh scallions and cilantro in it, cooked tree fungus strips and lily buds. He ate it all and was begging for it as fast and furious as he does when I give him shrimp! (I'm allergic to shrimp so can't prepare it at home but once we discovered he loves it so much I get it out often on buffets, etc.) So there he was, the kid that doesn't like vegetables normally, downing raw scallion bits and cilantro leaves and wood fungus and lilly buds. I may have mentioned before that if we make a Chinese noodle soup for him at home he'll eat finely chopped green veggies like baby bok choy, etc. and he'll eat almost any vegetable if you do Chinese fried noodles w/ the veggies minced in. He also really likes mushrooms if they have a Chinese-flavored sauce soaked into them. So maybe he isn't so picky after all and just doesn't like the way Americans make a pile of one type of veggie in larger pieces with butter. I don't mind too much b/c I prefer Chinese food anyway so we make it once or twice a week now. He just started liking canned peas though, which is new for him b/c he hated peas before that. Still doesn't like fresh/frozen.

By the way, Jame Jame has a cold right now and is pretty congested but his fever seems to have broken at least for now and he's been in good spirits the whole time and his fever was never very high. Once he is over this cold I plan on starting to get involved in the adoption playgroups locally and join a little gym gym class once a week and the library time for toddlers once a week. I can't wait to get out more with him with other people gathered besides just strollering him or carting him in grocery stores and playing at outdoor parks. B/c of the giardia thing and now the cold we've had little time w/ other children and often only go outside in the neighborhood or to stores. While I am looking forward to getting out more with Jamie, I have to keep reminding myself that it isn't going to be this really relaxing fun time where he plays with other children while I chat w/ the moms the whole time. He is at the very normal MINE stage where he wants whatever someone else has and doesn't want it taken from him. So it will be a lot of teaching time I'm sure. Hopefully he'll have some fun too though he does tend to get kind of stressed out around other kids, wanting everything they have and not being satisfied w/ anything for long. I guess that is normal too. Hopefully we'll find some good fits for us.

I'll add some recent pictures later or tomorrow. ;-)