Cereal in Milk Tastes Good!

A few days ago, Mary was eating a snack of a cup of chocolate milk and a bowl of dry Os cereal. She reported to me enthusiastically, "Mama! I dipped some Os into my chocolate milk and it was yummy!" I chuckled to myself as I realized that Mary doesn't even know that people normally eat cold cereal in milk. Since John has always refused to eat milk with his cereal, I just stopped serving it and Mary grew up not seeing it.

Perhaps sister and brother talked, I don't know, but after Quiet Time today, John raced downstairs ahead of me and, when I got there, I found him with Ovaltine, milk, and Os cereal on the counter.

"Mama, I am going to make chocolate milk in a bowl and put Os inside it."

I tried to act casual. "Oh? That sounds like a good idea."

He really did it.

And he really ate it!

I have written less and less on this blog about John's limited eating to respect his increasing age, but those closest to us know how rough it is. (And then along came Mary who eats anything and everything. When she sees an unrecognized food, she typically asks, "Mama? What is that food called? I want to try it!" And Margaret is so far seeming to be the same way.)

To see my boy eating cereal in milk made me almost burst into tears of joy. I literally run up the stairs to tell Chris, then ran back down to keep watching John in amazement. We've been through so much, we've watched him throw up so many hundreds of times, we've tried so many techniques to help him, we've cycled through not doing anything particular at all (which is "where we've been" lately), we've paid so much for occupational therapy (feeding therapy). Cereal floating in milk is one of the most difficult mixed textures and I never thought I'd see the day when my boy ate it.

Those of my readers for whom cereal in milk is one of the easiest and junkiest snacks for their kids will realize by the depth of my thankfulness and happiness just how difficult is John's eating.

Mary liked it too . . . not that that is a surprise!