Skip to main content
Making Storytellers.
posts Oct 03, 2014

Yummy, Yucky

By...Tom

Over the years, Auntie Suz (family friend and kindergarten-teacher-estraordinaire) has introduced the kids to some of their favorite kids' books.  Their favorite Auntie Suz book for Halloween was "Hallo-weiner" (about a weiner dog, of course).  Their favorite Auntie-Suz book for 5-ish year olds was Skippy Jon Jones.  And their favorite Auntie Suz book for 3-ish year olds was “Yummy, Yucky.”

I believe that Steinbeck once worked on a similar plot line but he couldn't make it work. I believe that Steinbeck once worked on a similar plot line but he couldn't make it work.

Ahh, yes.  Yummy, Yucky.  The classic tale of a diapered protagonist who learns about opposites by tasting things like apple-pie and mud-pie (“Apple pie is yummy…mud pie is yucky”).

You get the idea... You get the idea...

Actually, that’s pretty much the whole book (“chocolate sauce is yummy…hot sauce is yucky // burgers are yummy…boogers are yucky”, blah, blah, blah).  Another example of “why didn’t i think of that?!?”  Sigh...

Lately I feel as if I have been living my own version of “Yummy, Yucky” as Audrey takes her healthy-eating explorations to new, crazy levels.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m all for a bit o’ healthy eating (as long as I can still mix in some of my unhealthy eating, too).  But...

“Tom’s smoothies made with strawberries, bananas, OJ and yogurt are...yummy." “Tom’s smoothies made with strawberries, bananas, OJ and yogurt are...yummy."
“Audrey’s smoothies made with spinach, chia seeds and other things that have NO place in a liquid are...yucky.” “Audrey’s smoothies made with spinach, chia seeds and other things that have NO place in a liquid are...yucky.”
 
“Audrey’s September kick making ginger tea by boiling real ginger pieces is...yummy.” “Audrey’s September kick making ginger tea by boiling real ginger pieces is...yummy.
“Audrey’s October kick adding turmeric and other weird stuff to that same tea is...yucky.” “Audrey’s October kick adding turmeric and other weird stuff to that same tea is...yucky.”
  And then there is the grand-daddy of them all. “The general concept of experimenting with new healthy drinks can at times be yummy.” “The jar containing a floating ‘symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast’ (a SCOBY) that Audrey received from a friend who introduced her to the idea of making and drinking homemade kombucha…that is just plain YUCKY.”  
What IS that?!? What IS that?!?

Have no fear.  We still have ice cream and cookies and mac&cheese and all of the other staples of a healthy diet around the house. In fact, as I type this Audrey is eating Cheetos.

BUT she is balancing them out with a cup of ginger and turmeric tea...