Rolls of Squishy Deliciousness :)

Every once in a while, I try to have Special Mommy Night with each of my children. One-on-one time is a rare commodity in a busy house with four children. The parents are outnumbered. But last week, Josie and I went out for a special date. Josie is six years old and she is my adventurous eater. She will try (and like) pretty much anything. This is a great change from her early beginnings, when she would only eat strawberry-apple fruit poofs, watermelon, yellow cheese, graham crackers, yogurt and the occasional meatball. Now she loves things that most kids would turn their noses up at: livermush, pinto beans, couscous, prunes, spinach, any kind of Chinese or Mexican food, and now, to my delight, sushi. When she was little she used to say, “Shoo-shi. I no like shooshi!” Well, now she does. Once in a while we have “sushi night” at our house. If you don’t count the huge mess and inevitable grains of rice everywhere, it’s always a major success. The girls love to get out the bamboo mats, the sheets of seaweed (aka “mermaid food”), the chopsticks and the piece de resistance: the soy sauce. Soy sauce. If I put it on a rock, they would eat the rock and then ask for seconds. But on Josie’s Special Mommy Night we decided to go out for sushi. Just the two of us. Of course, while we were on the way to the mall, she got to play a game on my phone (an oft-made request around here.) We held hands in the parking lot and I savored the feel of her little pink-nail-polished hand in mine. In the restaurant after we ordered, we decided to sit on the same side of the booth so we could snuggle. As we waited for our food, Josie poured herself a big ole serving of soy sauce in preparation of her main dish. When it finally came, she chowed down on vegetable maki, shrimp tempura and our new found favorite: Las Vegas roll. The only problem is the humongous pieces of crab, avocado, cucumber, cream cheese and spicy mayo rolled into one are so big that Josie had a hard time shoving them into her mouth. She did it, though, with her chopsticks. I was so proud. She decided that Las Vegas roll is “the best sushi of ever” and called it “yummy squishy deliciousness.” When we were done, she paid the bill herself (with my money, of course). Then she got to ride one of the kiddie rides out in the mall, questionably named The Magic Mushroom. Weird. Next, we checked out the shoe store and she tried on as many shoes as she wanted. She is a girl, after all. She got a pretzel with not one, but two sweet glaze dips, which she polished off while riding up and down the escalator several times while peeking at me from over the railing and waving. On the way home, I “interviewed” her and recorded her answers on my cell phone. Here is what she had to say about me: “Well, my mom likes to takes her kids out to dates. Especially Josie. Thank you, thank you. She’s my mom so of course I like her. She’s good. She spoils us in a spoiling kind of way – with fruits and vegetables. She sings me a good song at bedtime, but she doesn’t teach me to chew with my mouth closed.” I did pretty well right up until the end. All things considered, Special Mommy Night was pretty special. It was for me, anyway. --from my May 6 article for www.mentorpatch.com