Life As A Mango Cake

If you are what you eat, Mason is going to turn into a piece of fruit.  Or a piece of cake.     

Brazilians love their fruit and they love their sugar, especially together.

My mother-in-law (MIL) has a mashed up banana waiting for Mason every morning when he wakes up.  Never mind that I want to mix it with the organic brown rice cereal I lugged all the way from the States.  No, the flavor of his fruit can't be marred by something so healthy.  But what IS okay to put on the banana?  Chocolate milk mix.  And that's how he eats it.       

Just an aside on bananas: my MIL swears by their medicinal quality.  Who knows, she may be on to something, but I really doubt that Mason's daily dose of bananas is what's kept him from getting sicke here, as she claims.

MIL: See, Laura (they call me Laura because Laural is too hard to say, though my FIL decided Laura was too hard, too, and calles me Loress), see how the bananas are keeping him so healthy?  Look at his chubby thighs- that's from the bananas!  Hear his healthy breathing?  That's from the bananas, too!  Make sure you never stop feeding him bananas.  Promise me, okay?  OKAY? 

Another funny aside about banans: Gabi HATES them.  My MIL went crazy the first few times we were here trying to get her to eat some.  She'd mash it, bake it, put it on cake, dip it in chocolate, freeze it, dice it into yogurt, all to no avail.  She finally gave up on Gabi, but now she has Mason.  And she's in heaven because he LOVES bananas.

For lunch, Mason gets papaya and mangoes and watermelon.  A baby fruit salad.  And my MIL spoon feeds him whatever fruit smoothie she's made for the day (the lime one is to die for!).  When we first got here I would try to give him vegetables first, but my MIL would frown and whisk him away to sit in her lap and eat his fruit and smoothie.  It's no wonder he started spitting the veggies out.  He's not stupid, he knows what the good stuff is.

Since lunch is the big meal of the day in Brazil, it's also when they have their desert.  So after everyone is done eating, my MIL will fix herself an extra big plate of desert, usually cake, usually with some sort of fruit in it, and feed half of it to Mason.  That boy loves bananas, but he loves cake more.  He won't move from my MIL's side until the plate is clean.  Yesterday, I came into the kitchen and my MIL had him on the floor LICKING THE PLATE.  I tried to take it from him to put in the sink, and the kid got all frantic and clung on for dear life! 
   
For the rest of the day, everytime the kid turns his head, someone is shoving some more fruit or cake in his mouth.

It's a good life.

My MIL did the same thing with Gabi when she was a baby.  And then when she got older they added ice cream three times a day, cookies and sugary yogurt for a snack, and syrupy juice whenver she wanted it.  This trip has been no different, except they've been hovering to make sure she eats enough rice and beans.  She is Brazilian, after all.  They love their rice and beans, too. 

I'm not too worried about the lack of anything else.  It's only for three weeks, we'll fix it when we get home.  But I do laugh when they wonder out loud why she has such a sweet tooth.  And I bet they'll be just as surprised when Mason turns out to have one, too.