She is a TRUE Zahradnik!!!

All weekend long I wanted to make a big meal for Sunday night. It was something I started right after Riley was born ... make something for dinner that took more than 20 minutes. By Saturday night I'd come up with the meal I wanted to make ... dumplings, sauerkraut and a pork roast. To those of you who know the Zahradnik side, this would probably come as no surprise to you as a meal choice. For others ... I grew up eating dumplings and sauerkraut. It was a traditional family meal for my dads side. I LOVE sauerkraut.

Unfortunately, Ryan and Riley have not come to love it like I have. Ryan will eat the dumplings with nothing over top (a crime in my eyes) and Riley ... well, Riley decided last night that he'd eat dumplings dipped in ketchup. Ugg. However, the big test last night was to see if Miss Paige would eat it. She hasn't refused a single thing we've given her thus far (including walleye that Grandma Fern gave her) but I was a bit afraid at what she'd think of her first bite of sauerkraut. I chopped up one of the small dumplings that Riley had rolled out, put some kraut on top and let it cool ... then plopped it all on her tray. I had my camera ready to get a shot of the "what the heck is this look" ... she picked it up, put it in her mouth .... and went back for more without a second thought. No puckering of the face, no pushing it off her tray ... in fact, she started to prefer the kraut over the dumplings. WHOO HOO!! I have finally produced a true Zahradnik girl (as if her moodiness and short temper wasn't a clue anyway).

By the end of the meal, she had sauerkraut in her hair, on the floor .... basically everywhere. I didn't care though ... she'd eaten it and that was all that mattered.

I did warn Shelley this morning about her dinner last night ... telling her to watch out for what may come out the other end. Hopefully it won't be too bad ... for Ryan and I realized that in the daycare diaper bag are all summer clothes still ... and today the highs are in the 60's.

And as a side note ... Ryan, self-proclaimed sauerkraut hater, when asked how the pork roast was said, "It was good." ... at which point I smirked ... I had slipped a little bit of sauerkraut juice into the roast pan. Ha ha ...