This summer, my eight year old niece came to visit, and my daughter was home, too.

My daughter is in her early 20's, and has been my biggest cheerleader for weight loss surgery. She's a microbiology major (microbiologist study viruses, bacteria and fungus) pursuing entomology in grad school....entomology is the study of insects...but with microbio she can apply this to medical research, insect vector spread illness, microbial food science, pharmaceuticals, etc. We had her for a month before she left for her internship this summer:)

So anyway...My little niecey was coming and I was loading the grocery cart with "kid food"....spaghetti O's and Captain Crunch and pringles and ginger snaps and pizza rolls...and a dozen other crimes against nutrition.....and my daughter.....put her foot down.

"Mom, why are you buying that crap?"

"Because little Chickadee isn't on a diet, I am."

"Um...we all share genetics, Mom, this isn't a kindness. And watching her eat junk could be a weird pathological transference of food addiction."

"So, I shouldn't buy any kid friendly food?"

"You're on a serious diet preparing for surgery. You don't need to buy this crap. No, you don't. Why don't you let me handle getting things for her?"

I'm always amused when my daughter puts her foot down with me...so I conceded. But my daughter didn't buy anything....which worried me.

A couple days later, little Chickadee came for her week long visit, and we went grocery shopping. She adores her big cousin. Two peas in a pod...both biology nuts. They go canoeing and hiking and look at pond water under the microscope and collect bugs and play weird genetics games online together.

So we're at the store and my daughter goes..."Chickadee, pick out three things you'd like to try. Any three fruits or vegetables that you want."

Chickadee thought this was fun...so she picked out....an eggplant (because it was purple), a starfruit (because it was cool), and a hunk of ginger root (because she wondered what it was).

After we got home, my daughter showed Chickadee a bunch of recipes using the three ingredients, and asked her which ones she'd like to try. They decided on a Thai chicken dish because it used both the ginger and the eggplant, and the starfruit could be part of a sweet salad. Chickadee was thrilled with ginger tea. Slice the root up with a little honey and lemon....she was all about it. Yum!

Then, they got in this huge discussion about plants and bugs and coconut milk.....and how kitchens are really laboratories....and that tons of chemistry and physics and biology goes into cooking.

And they made an Amazing...Healthy...Dinner. Chickadee was proud of it. She learned all sorts of stuff...had a wonderful time with her big cousin....and no one ate spaghetti O's. For the rest of her visit we planned our meals around the produce that Chickadee picked...(with a few gentle suggestions from her cousin) At the end of the week we all went to a farmer's market and Chickadee fell in love. She brought home all sorts of healthy foods to try, and got some succulents and flowers....and spent way less money than I would have spent on junk food...half of which would have been thrown out.

I'm humbled by what a cool kid I raised and what an awesome mom she's gonna be someday. Or professor, or researcher, or maybe all three.

And I stayed on my damned diet and really loved watching the girls make better choices for themselves.

Omg! This was great to read. Your daughter sounds brilliant.

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She is. I think it skips a generation. Bahahahaha!

Ok, this is a funny side note...

My daughter has been sad that I have not suffered more nausea since my surgery last month. Of course she's happy I'm doing well and feel good.....but she'd given me strict instructions to save a sample of my vomit if I happened to.....because she wanted to study the changes in my gut microbiota since the surgery.

"Just a little bit...stick it in the freezer for me!"

Don't ask how we got the presurgical sample. LOLOLOLOLOL

Scientists are creepy people.

But alas...so far....no puking. So she's outta luck. We agree that forcing a vomiting for her curiosity post surgically is dangerous and unacceptable.

"So Mom, how you feeling? Any nausea?"

"No, you vulture!!!!"

Mad cackling...

Lmao!!! She sounds like my sister.. my sister is currently in pre-med Abe is working her way to become a doctor. She's very analytical and does crazy weird things too! Your daughter sounds like a lot of fun to be around & it seems like you have a great relationship with her!

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2 hours ago, Creekimp13 said:

healthy foods to try

@Creekimp13

teach "them" in their early years of life,

proper ways of healthy eating.

sounds like you and daughter are being

great role models - keep up the good

work, hopefully niece will pass on to

her family and....etc. etc

kathy