Macaroni!

It's no secret that Aaron loves to eat.  One of his favorite foods is pasta..........noodles of any sort........and macaroni in particular.  Problem is - he doesn't care if they are cooked or not.  Yep, uncooked pasta is, for some reason, a favorite of his. 

We've told him time and again that he really needs to quit eating uncooked macaroni.  We've gone over how hard it must be on his stomach; how hard it must be on his teeth; and how hard it is on our nerves to hear the loud crunching that goes along with chowing down on "raw" macaroni.  None of this matters to Aaron..............not one little bit. 

He continues to sneak in the kitchen whenever he has a macaroni urge and pour himself a nice bowl of noodles to munch on.  Since he knows that we disapprove and will take them away, he's become adept at being sneaky about it.  If he gets by with putting the noodles in a bowl, then he's likely to hide them in places.............. like under his blanket when he's sitting in his favorite chair watching TV..............beside the chair, out of sight..............behind the little door in the end table..............and I've even found bowls of noodles under his bed!  He'll also wait to eat them when we're not around so that we won't hear the irritating crunching.

Today Gary and I walked in the house, and immediately Aaron said, "Mom!  Look!"  I told him to wait a minute while I put some things away, and he said, "No.....look."  So I walked over to where he sat on the floor, cutting out my coupons, and he held this up:

There it was............a very full bowl of uncooked macaroni.  I sighed.    Oh, Aaron.

And he quickly said, "I did not eat any because in my mind I did something wrong." 

Well, how about that?  Of course, my skeptical mind is thinking..............uh huh, Aaron, or did you just not know that we'd be home right now and you got caught?  I know Aaron, and so I wonder.

A few minutes later, as he followed me into the kitchen, he was still talking about his noble deed of handing over the bowl of macaroni.  "Mom, are you glad I used my mind in the right way?"

What could I say?  I told him of course I'm glad that he used his mind in the right way.  And again I smile and somewhat marvel at how he expresses himself.  He's at times almost innocent-sounding, and refreshing in the way he verbalizes his feelings. 

Will he use his mind in the right way tomorrow?  Who knows?  Which is why I'll still glance around his chair and look under his bed at some point for the forbidden uncooked noodles. 

I certainly can't guarantee that tomorrow his mind will tell him the same thing it's telling him today!