Security in Chinese Food

I really, really like Chinese food!! It's one of my favorite things to eat with my mom. We have always made tradition of eating it together. Smart Guy doesn't like it, so that's about the only time I ever get to have it. The first time I can ever actually remember having it with Mom was after Prophet was born. She had come to stay with Smart Guy and I because I was on bedrest and needed her, so she packed up, left Illinois and Dad, and came to take care of me for what we hoped would be about three months, which would have been full-term. Unfortunately after one week of her being there, the same week that Princess Diana and Mother Teresa both died, I gave birth to Prophet 12 weeks early. It was so stressful, but Mom was there with me thru it all. She went ahead and stayed until he was supposed to have been born because my health was not good at the time and I just simply needed my mom there with me. He'd been home from the hospital for about 2 weeks by the time she left.

The first time I ever remember eating Chinese with Mom was after one of our daily visits to the hospital to spend the day with Prophet. On our way home, we stopped and had Chinese at one of the shopping plazas in Robinson Township right outside Pittsburgh, PA where the hospital was. It was good, but I was too focused on my baby and myself at the time to really be able to enjoy anything.

The day after Prophet came home from the hospital weighing all of 4 pounds, we had to take him back out to his first dr.'s appointment. Mom and I dressed him up like a little doll and doted on him like crazy. We have pictures of that day. He was the first grandchild and much longed and waited for. The doctor had him as the very first patient after lunch so he wouldn't come into contact with anyone who could have made him sick with anything, mainly RSV since the season was in full swing at the time. After the appointment we took him to his very first lunch outing...Chinese!! We put his seat at the back of the table facing away from anyone's stares... babies that small are a magnet, but unfortunately you really can't show them off because of their health issues. I had imperial shrimp that day for lunch and actually for the first time felt like a mom. I had my baby home with me and was dragging him out like a somewhat-normal mom.

As time passed, Chinese food became Mom and I's "thing" together. Whenever I came home to visit, we would have Chinese. As Prophet hit the finger foods stage, his Grannie started giving him fried rice and those little fried donuts covered with sugar that you find on every Chinese buffet across the country. Trying to get that sugar off of little tiny hands that were struggling with tight muscle tone and didn't want to open was always a challenge and we would just laugh and laugh at it. The only thing a wipey would do is move the sugar around. We usually ended up having to rinse them in the sink. The rice was usually everywhere but his mouth... in his shirt, in his diaper, and all over the floor.

Then D.K. and the Bee came along and the tradition continued just with one more guest at the table with each new little person. They've all just kinda grown up knowing that when we visit Grannie and Pa for more than 2 or 3 days, at some point we'd get to have Chinese food for lunch or dinner. One Halloween the kids actually ate dinner there in their Halloween costumes while in the middle of trick or treating.

So this evening when Grannie said to everyone, "If you all could pick anywhere to eat dinner out tonight, where would it be?" They all said "Chinese". Personally I said I wanted to go somewhere where I could get "fried squid, roasted pigs eye balls, and boiled cows butt". My children have lived with me long enough to know that I'm crazy and this suggestion was met with a resounding "Mommmmmmy!!" from all three of them. It was great!!

So tonight, as soon as Pa (Dad) got home from work, we all put on our coats and headed to the Chinese restaurant that we always go to. It's got a buffet so everyone gets what they want. The women that work in there know us when we walk in and always give us our drinks for no charge!! The boys are old enough now that I just let them go up with their plates and get what they want... where have the years gone!! It seems like Prophet should still be sucking the sugar off his donuts and practicing his pincer grasp with rice and peas.

Everyone had an interesting variety, but D.K.'s plate was the best. He had two different kinds of shrimp, at least 4 cheese wontons, chicken fingers, pizza, teryaki chicken on a stick, fried rice, green jello (eaten with chopsticks... the only thing he ate with chopsticks), onion rings, donuts, and something else that has escaped me at the moment. Yes, he always eats that much and no he's not fat, but he is over the 100 % in height. He's only seven, what's he gonna be eating when he's 16. Prophet had about 3 cheese wontons, shrimp, fried rice, chicken, ice cream, and he ate it all with chopsticks. He's actually very coordinated with them. I guess the years of occupational therapy paid off since I'm 32 and can't figure those things out. Bee's favorite part is always the ice cream. Tonight she ate almost all of it by licking it out of the bowl and not using a spoon. You should have seen her face.

So, I bet you never thought you'd actually see a post this long about how Chinese food has been a secure, consistent thing in my life. It respresents a time in my life of trasitions and the feeling of being a real mom finally. It represents a tradition that my mom and I made together when I was a grown woman and we were not just mother and daughter but best friends. Silly, I know, but that's okay... some of the best family traditions people have don't make sense to anyone other than themselves.