Experiment No. 4

This experiment was accompanied by a little more drama. But here are the results:

Chicken (not nuggets)...4/10. Might try it again.
White Beans... 2/10, spit out.
Yogurt with Chunks...10/10
Green Bean... 1/10, spit out.
Carrot with Ranch Dressing... spit out, 1/10.
Raisins... 10/10
Cashews... 9/10
Mandarin Oranges... 2/10. Half swallow, half spit out.

Addie and JJ joined our experiment. They both swallowed EVERYTHING on the plate. Here are their ratings:

Addie: 8, 5, 10, 2, 1, 10, 5, 5,
JJ: 10, 10, 10, 1, 9, 10, 10, 10

"Bored Pants"

So, a couple of weeks ago, we were in Michigan for Spring Break. We did a lot of swimming. On the way to the pool, I was carrying the swim gear (while Rob carried Sam, thanks, babe for saving my back for a week), and I asked Rob why his swim trunks don't have a "liner". You know, like swim trunks usually do??

Apparently they don't in California, at least not among the surfing population. They wear board shorts...no liner. And my question was comical to him. Only the tourists wear trunks with liners. It's how they identify them. How would I learn this kind of thing? I don't know.

Anyway, I was looking through Ben's summer clothes now that the weather is nice, and guess what I found... board shorts! From Grant E. (who, incidentally, lives in CA) Thanks, Grant. I thought they were just regular, "wear to school" shorts because, you know, no liner. I'm learning.

So, Ben was excited to have "board" shorts like Rob. And today we went swimming at the community center. He announced to his friend Jack M. who was also swimming that he was wearing his "BOARD PANTS", which made me smile. I thought he meant BORED. I said, "Ben, is that because you wear them when you're BORED? Why are they called that?". He said, "No, you wear them when you're doing something with BOARDS." (construction work?). I said, "I think you wear them when you're ON a BOARD, like a surf BOARD." He smiled, said "Oh.", and kept swimming.

We are both learning. :-)

So, somebody back me up here, my mid-west dwelling friends and family... Am I the only one who didn't know about lining-free swim attire??

Food Experiment No. 3

On the plate:
Mozarella cheese... One bite swallowed, one bite spit out.
Ham... Like it okay. Swallowed.
Banana Chip... "Zero out of 10." But he swallowed it.
Grape Jelly... Ben says "asi-asi" which means "so-so" in Spanish. He spit it out.
Refried Beans... spit out. "I'd say, 2 out of 10."
Smack and Cheese (Credit to Josh D. for the new name)... "asi-asi." He swallowed it. Another bite. Now he says, "I think I might like this. I think I like Smack and Cheese!"
Chips and Salsa (2nd try)... "Hot," he says. But ate the whole chip and swallowed it. "Asi-asi" again. 5/6 out of 10 rating.
Ovaltine Milk... "I love this."

Food Experiment No. 2

Same rules. Here are the results:

Yogurt (with fruit chunks)... swallowed. Rated it 9 out of 10! He said: "Not perfect, but not too bad."
Chip with mild salsa... tried it. Liked it. Ate three more chips with salsa.
Kidney beans... spit out.
Almonds... loved them. Asked for more.
Turkey... spit out.
Provolone cheese... swallowed it, but didn't like it.
Strawberry... spit out.

Food Experiment No. 1

Ben and I are doing some experimenting with new foods. I'm going to log his success here, so he can look at it, and so YOU can give him encouraging comments! He will have about 8 new foods on his plate. About a bite of each. He has to try all of them, chew them well and think about whether he can swallow them or not. He is allowed to spit them out if he really doesn't like them. Ready?

Experiment No. 1 Results:

Turkey... spit out
Ham... spit out
Chicken... spit out
Hot dog... spit out
Apricot Jam... spit out
Peanuts... liked them. Asked for them as a snack the next day.
Celery with Peanut Butter... spit out
Chocolate Milk... said he LOVED it!

Even though he didn't swallow most of the foods, he did a great job of giving them all a fair chance. Big progress for Ben! Of all the meats, he decided that turkey was the one he'd like to try again in the next experiment and see if he could swallow it.