New Mom: Lunch Rut

It was 11:00 p.m. Sunday night. We had been away for the weekend and had nothing in the fridge. New Girl’s lunch bag awaited. I had nothing to put in it. With her allergies, it’s both important and difficult to find proteins to include with her lunch. Cheese, eggs, yogurt, and the like are all off the menu for her, as are fish and tofu. I usually keep a supply of hotdogs or frozen grilled chicken for exactly this situation. But even those were nowhere to be found. I had no bread to make a sandwich, no beef to make a burger. So finally I scrounged together some pasta, frozen peas, Italian-style deli turkey, and a plum of questionable freshness. Then I reached for my ultimate desperation food — canned peaches. I figured that at least she’d enjoy those, if nothing else.

When I went to pick her up from school, I sheepishly looked at her daily sheet, afraid to see how resoundingly she had rejected my sorry attempt at a lunch. And wouldn’t you know, she had eaten every last bite of everything, except the canned peaches, which she didn’t touch. I came to the realization that even that child who can throw a major tantrum at the most embarrassing moment, who can interrupt your sleep on the night before your most important work presentation, who can get sick at the most inconvenient times, can also throw you a curve and give you a break just when you need it.