Mealtime Math

My mother-in-law told me that children sometimes have to be introduced to new foods up to twenty times before they will eat them. I guess it must be true, because after about that many times of spitting out green beans Asher has suddenly decided that he likes them. He asks for them. And then he asks for more. Ah, life's little triumphs. One night last week we had chili for dinner. Asher only wanted to eat the kidney beans. This might be genetic, since, when Hugh was a kid, he turned up his nose at all chili ingredients except meat. I wasn't interested in wasting the rest of Asher's dinner, but I didn't want the battle of trying to force him to eat either, so I had to come up with something. I had two weapons at my disposal, both already part of the planned menu: cheddar cheese and olives. Over and over, I asked Asher to eat a certain amount of the rest of his chili, after which he could have an olive or a small piece of cheese. I did all different numbers of things, just to keep things interesting--four pinto beans, two pieces of meat, a pinto bean and a tomato, etc--and I counted the bites out loud, telling Asher how many he had left if he paused. Effective? Yes. Pathetic? Maybe. But maybe it will help Asher learn some math, doncha think? In other news, this past weekend, I managed to scrub my whole house and bake something, both for the first time since Simon was born. So, at the moment, I'm feeling pretty good about myself, even if my success was mostly a result of Simon doing lots and lots of this: