Back when C was in his early speaking stages, he went through a brief little phase where he was suspicious of everything we put on his plate. I’m not sure why, because he had a very wide range of things that he liked. In fact, J even fed him hummus once and he gobbled it down.

On second thought, never mind. Any child who has been fed hummus is entitled to be suspicious of his or her parents.

In any case, we were sitting at the table one evening eating shake and bake chicken when he looked at it and pushed it away. “No!”

I tried to coax him into eating, but was having no success. Finally in frustration, I said “but it’s chicken! You like chicken!”

He looked at the little piece of chicken on his plate for a moment, and then he looked at me. “Bok-bok?”

“Yes!” I shouted triumphantly, and then at his horrified look, “uh, no! No! It’s a nugget. Nug-get.”

Yes, I’m not always the brightest bulb in the box. And yes, I do believe he went hungry that night.