The Stash Continued . . .

I must admit that I walked through the kitchen right after I posted about the stash and I couldn't help but bend down and check if there had been any new deposits. All clear. The food must either be in the tummy or in the trash.

I had a friend tell me how strange it was for there to be a stash at all. At their home, they just have a slop bucket for anything left uneaten. But we don't have any goats or other animals to eat up our leftovers, so no slop bucket around here.

It is not that we stand over our children and force them to finish their food before they may leave the table, but they do have to finish their food before they can have a fun snack later on or a treat at the end of the meal. Sometimes, what's coming must seem much better than what has already been given - hence the stash.

On Thursday morning while we were "super-cleaning" the house I walked into the kitchen and was greeted with a pile of dried-up, old food on the floor. Apparently, it had been discovered within the deep recesses of the booster seat of one of my children when it was removed from the chair. It was obviously neither in the tummy or the trash - no more assumptions on my part! When I asked her about it, her only reply was, "Me did that a long time ago," and she walked off to finish her chore.

Now her booster seat is flush to the cushion and is she is no longer so "boosted" with the ability to deposit the remains of various meals within.

As of yet, I have never found a fruit, vegetable, nut, or piece of pasta stuck aside. I may need to consider scaling back on the initial portion sizes for some of the other "food groups." (Yes, pasta and nuts really could be considered a food group around our house.) And, of course, I will probably continue to check out the original stash for quite some time. At least you'll know what I'm doing if you are at my house and you see me looking under the table after a meal!