Chicken in Your Coffee

This morning I was waiting in line at the coffee counter with my darling little girl.  She was telling me what she wanted while the woman ahead of us ordered.

"That has cow milk?  I don't eat cow milk.  Some people like cow milk.  Some people eat cow milk in their coffee, but I don't want cow milk in my coffee.  Some people eat chicken in their coffee.  I don't eat chicken.  Maybe she like likes chicken in her coffee, but not me.  I don't eat that."

Oddly, I remember going to a party before I was vegan, and I had brought some vegan cupcakes with me.  Everyone there was making jokes about what a vegan cupcake had in it, and one lady actually said, "You know, like there's no chicken in these cupcakes."

Can You Hand Me My Burger, Mama?

Oh, still chuckling at this one.

A Pita Pit franchise recently opened up here in town, and since my daughter has never had fast food, but must know from TV that fast food is burgers, she believes that this is a burger place... I guess...

The idea is that you get a pita, and then like Subway they have all these veggies and spreads and you choose what you want.  They even have a kid's menu with a "lil' hummus" wrap, which is just a hummus pita with whatever veggies she likes.  My daughter likes spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, pineapple, and olives in hers.  We call it a pita.  I maybe called it a wrap at some point as well.

My daughter, on the other hand, says to me, "Can you hand me my burger, mama?"

Oh, my sweet sweet child.  If this is the closest she gets to a burger, I'm delighted.

Teething Tablets

I lean toward the crunchy lifestyle.  The vegan granola stereotype tends to fit nicely.  So when my baby was teething, I got him some Hyland's Teething Tablets (no longer on the recall list, it's okay).

I forget.  I forget that I have to check EVERY label, and that "natural" products are not automatically vegan, and that most homeopathic products contain lactose because they are evil voodoo.  I mean, because lactose is a preservative (HOW?!  WHY?!  It doesn't preserve milk, which spoils in a matter of hours if left out!).

Anywho, I had gotten these tablets and was giving them to my son as I read the label (that's the wrong order to do that, FYI), and I stopped and said, "What?!  There's lactose in these!"  My husband guffawed in disgust as well, and when my daughter asked for one too, because her teeth suddenly hurt as well after we gave the baby fun candies out of the bottle, and I had to tell her that they had cow milk.

This was all several months ago.  Then I found Humphrey's lactose-free teething tablets and we've been right as rain ever since (other than the four molars assauting my son currently and the canine that is looking like it can't wait it's turn).

Today, as I was giving him a teething tablet, my daughter gave me a stern look and took one out of my hand to hold directly in front of my face, "Do these have cow milk in them, Mommy?"

Thankfully, I was able to say no, because I don't know what she would have done to me if she found out I gave her baby cow milk again.

Catching Fish

Where did my daughter learn to "catch fish"?

She had a cat toy the other day that is a stick with a toy on a string, and she told me she was catching fish to eat!  I reminded her when we saw people fishing, how they were hurting the fish.  I told her how they catch the fish by putting a hook through their lip.  Ouch.  Then we caught nori and ate it because that's in the ocean too, and we love to eat nori!

Then, a couple days later, we were driving to the greenhouse for a picnic in the tropics (since there's snow and cold outside).  I told her that there were going to be pretty fish to see (there's a koi pond in the greenhouse).  Again, she said she was going to catch the fish.  I told her we don't eat fish, or catch them.  She asked if her friend eats fish... and I answered honestly that she does.

"I will catch a fish for J and she can eat it!"

Hmmm...  I talked again about how catching fish hurts them, eating an animal means it dies, and that we don't do that.  Once she saw the fish she had no interest in hurting or eating them.

I think she's working through the disconnect between her friends who eat animals and the fact that she doesn't... and why.  It's going to get a lot harder before it gets easier.

Costco Samples

Sometimes when we go to Costco it seems like the sample people don't realize that it's not appropriate to offer food to a three year old, but usually they do.  There's also the response they give when you say, "we don't eat chicken/milk/bacon."  They give you that startled look like you must be insane.

Yesterday, on the other hand, I was pleased as punch with the sample people.

The first sample we saw was for Wholy Guacamole.  We love this product and it was served with vegan chips, so we all got a sample.  We decided to buy some.

Next, we saw a cheese sample.  My kids didn't even notice it, but when she offered me a sample and I said, "I don't eat cheese," she seemed a bit confused... Oh well.

The next sample was a smoothie, which poor Violet was very excited for, but I told her it had cow milk in it and she quickly turned away.

After that we saw a chicken sample.  She asked if it had cow milk and he said, "This is chicken."  He looked to me for confirmation as to wether or not she was allowed, but she just turned and walked away without another word.  She told me after we were away from the table that she doesn't eat chicken.  Correct.

The next sample was chicken broth, so when Violet asked what it was, and the woman told her, she again walked away, but said, "I don't eat chicken."  The woman was really nice and just said, "Oh, well then you better not eat this.  It has chicken in it."

We saw a salad in the following aisle, and I read the ingredients and gave her a sample.  She loved that and said thank you.  The sample guy smiled at the little girl who was so happy to get some salad.

With that yummy salad still in our minds, and the excitement of a vegan sample behind her, she approached another table and very excitedly asked, "This have cow milk?"  It was chili with cheese.
"That has cow meat and cow milk," I told her.  The woman working the table actually looked pleased that I wasn't going to feed it to my child and said, "That's right, there is cow and cow's milk in this.  You don't want that."  Violet didn't want that, and said as much, but then I spotted a hummus sample.

"HUMMUS HUMMUS HUMMUS!!! OH YUMMY!"  It's always easy to spot the vegan kid at Costco.