Food Friday: Pre-Dinner Dinner

When Kyle and Owen were 3 (and younger), we’d often feed them dinner early, get them to bed, and then Braydon and I would eat later. After a long day of work/school/daycare, it is hard (sometimes impossible) for a 3-year-old to wait for dinner. Meera, just like Kyle and Owen when they were her age, is often hungry/cranky/whiney by 5:30. But, unlike when Kyle and Owen were her age, she doesn’t have the rest of the family catering to her schedule and working our lives around hers. So, pretty often, Meera will stand on a stool at the counter by the stove while I cook, eating a “Pre-Dinner Dinner” of her own. I’ll often give her whatever is already ready (some rice from the rice steamer, or some plain pasta that’s just come out of the pot), and she’ll eat that and some raw veggies (that haven’t been cooked for dinner yet). This will usually completely ruin her appetite for dinner. But it helps keep everyone sane. Then she’ll often play in her little “kitchen” right next to our dining table while the rest of us eat dinner.