What's For Lunch?

As I am sure is the case in a lot of families, we spend part of most weeknights packing lunches. I pack my lunch darn near every day and Wesley prefers to pack his lunch most of the time. The other night while Duane and I were gathering the lunch fixin's, Duane came up with the idea of packing a lunch for Ryan to take to Grandma's. Ryan recently uncovered/rediscovered a Hot Wheels lunch box handed down to him from his cousin, so it seemed like a good idea.

Ryan came into the kitchen and helped decide that would go in his lunchbox. We decided on a PB&J (no crust), baked chips, a juice box, some blackberries and a few mini oreos for dessert. Ryan was so excited to have a lunch box sitting in the fridge next to mine and Wesley's. Yes, everyone was happy - until the next morning.

When it was time to get the lunch boxes out I said something along the lines of "Here's Wesley's lunch box to take to school. Here's my lunch box to take to work and here's Ryan's lunch box to take to Grandma's." That's when Ryan whipped his head around and said, "No! Not to Grandma's! To school!"

Ooops! Apparently Ryan was so focused on the "packing lunch" part that he forgot or didn't hear the "take to Grandma's." It was not a pretty sight when he learned he wasn't going to school. He threw a true three-year-old tantrum which included throwing the lunch box across the kitchen. Thank goodness most lunch boxes are soft sided now.

Wesley was really good about helping talk Ryan out of his tree. "Ryan, you can play school at Grandma's when you pack your lunch. Grandma and I used to play school all the time and she's really good at it. And you still get to pack your lunch just like I do."

Believe it or not, that actually helped a great deal. Ryan calmed down, picked up his lunch box and was ready to go. When we got Grandma's he couldn't wait to show her what he had in his lunch box (and sample a few of the items as a second breakfast.) He ate every single bit of food that was packed - which is a minor miracle where Ryan is concerned. In fact, it was probably the most food he had eaten in a single sitting in a week! There might be something to this packed lunch thing after all.