There were two common phrases heard round the Wilson dinner table during my formative years: "a soldier bite" and "the clean plate award." I'm not sure about the origin of either phrase- my creative parents or something from their own childhoods? A soldier bite was small (from the parents' perspective) portion of some despised food usually of the vegetable persuasion that had to be eaten for "your own good." Kind of like be a trooper and just eat it. The clean plate award is self explanatory and was of course created long before we had a dishwasher.
Another one I picked up along the way was "eat it or wear it" and I know that one didn't come from my mom. For some reason it makes me think of my brother's neighborhood friends Chad and Brent Arrowsmith and their mom. The moved away in elementary school, and I can't even remember what she looked like, but I think she said that when all 4 of us kids were in her kitchen. Maybe Dave has some memory of that??
So I find myself unconsciously passing things like this along to Willa. We haven't had to try any soldier bites yet because we've yet to try anything that she won't eat. Today we're having parsnips- so all of us are going to have a soldier bite at first. There are pictures to document the fact that wearing her food is something Willa already enjoys, and she's a natural in the clean plate department.
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