Amari's Favorite Foods

Time is passing in a hurry. Carrie's fall break has come and gone, Thanksgiving is less than a month away, and between then and now Amari will be two years old. This birthday feels monumental - I'm sure they all will - and I've already begun feeling the alchemy of sadness/excitement of moving forward into the next stage of our lives. In lieu of anything that resembles consistency with my writing, I am going to countdown to Amari's second birthday with Top Ten lists to remind me of things that may soon no longer be...

Amari has been a good eater her so far. She tries new things and surprises us by enjoying things like Wasabi Seaweed. Although she initially made faces at it and tried to wipe her tongue clean, after a few moments she said, "More. More," ate some and said, "Tickles."

Honestly, to anyone still reading, this is really just for me. Feel free to read on, but I can't promise you'll find much interesting. I've realized recently that part of the reason I take so many pictures and videos is because I want to have cues that will help me remember things, have stories to pass along to Amari when she's older and hopefully curious.

In this spirit, I present this list of the top ten foods (in some particular order) Amari  has most enjoyed in her first two years of eating.

1. Cottage cheese - this was an early favorite and has held its number one ranking almost as long as Tiger Woods held his.
2. Miso Soup - salty, noodley, what's not to like?
3. Ribs - go figure.
4. Rice (and beans)
5. Popsicles
6. M & M's
7. Waffles
8. Pasta - not just mac 'n cheese, but almost any pasta
9. Strawberries - blackberries and blueberries, too, but not raspberries at all
10. Coffee - I know, not a food, but she really loves the stuff

It's crazy how much she loves coffee. And yes, I do monitor her intake, but if I didn't she might live on that and cottage cheese. On time, when I was driving Carrie to work about six months ago, we passed Starbucks and Amari said, "Mmmm. This one," and pointed at the building. Also, when she was just learning to talk, she would point at the Starbuck's logo and say, "Mama," to which I'd say, "I wish. We'd be loaded."

One last item that should also be on that list is apples - a late addition that made the cut recently when our trees began bearing fruit and Amari and I created a daily ritual of sitting on the porch enjoying their harvest.

Mmmm...pasta.

Hunter and Amari keep the doctor away