Ain't No Thing But a Chicken Wing

When Liam, our middle son, was 3 years old, he started watching a TV show called Lazy Town. This show had a positive premise that emphasized eating healthy foods, saving sweet treats for special occasions, and exercising daily. Now, I'm sure every other kid that watched this show understood the message of developing a healthy lifestyle, but what Liam took from the show was that if you eat anything, you're going to get fat. So what did Liam do? He stopped eating most of his food. Liam started losing weight--weight that he didn't have to lose. So, we said goodbye to Lazy Town and the pediatrician put him back on whole milk. She also wanted me to add cream cheese and heavy cream to his diet where I could. Liam's weight got back on track but George and I were a little worse for wear as we were eating things like mashed potatoes made with cream cheese, French toast made with heavy cream, and for good measure (or not so good measure depending upon how you look at it), we added sour cream to everything. I am convinced that this is when Liam's love affair with food began.

About the time Liam turned 5, George introduced us to one of his favorite food finds, phở, Vietnamese noodle soup.  Phở comes in a variety flavors but Liam's favorite is the seafood. When I say seafood, I don't mean lobster. I'm talking about a noodle soup full of squid, scallops, crab, shrimp, and mussels....you know, just the kind of soup every 5 year old loves. The first time Liam had the seafood  phở, we were at a local  Vietnamese restaurant. He ate that soup with such slurpy fervor that the patrons at 3 different tables couldn't help but notice. By the time Liam's face resurfaced from his giant bowl of noodles and suction cups, several of the observers had  started laughing. I was indeed a proud mama as I watched him eat every last bit of the soup, finishing it off with the last tentacle slurping it's way through his little pursed lips.

Liam is a messy and noisy eater who is also quite the carnivore. This combination of messy, noisy and meat don't sit too well with my mother, who is a borderline vegetarian. She won't sit near the boy if he eats seafood  phở or chicken on the bone. In all my life, I have never seen a human suck the meat clean off a chicken bone the way Liam does. When he gets done eating a drumstick, all that's left is the gray bone and the shiny white cartilage. 

One night, George had made hot wings, a family favorite. Liam was sitting next to me at the dinner table. That kid had sauce spread from ear to ear across his face, and amidst all the greasy orange color, I couldn't help but notice that his very first loose tooth was getting ripe for the picking. As Liam was sucking the last little bit of meat from his 5th hot wing, I saw that his little tooth was gone. I said, "Oh Liam, did your tooth fall out onto your plate?" Much to my surprise, he said, "No. I'm pretty sure I swallowed it."

Now, you'll be hard pressed to find a bigger sentimental sap than me, but when my grandmother suggested I hunt for his tooth, I knew right away that I'd be okay with just leaving a note and a chicken wing for the Tooth Fairy.