The Culbertson Crew: Sandwiches!

Growing up, I loathed sandwiches in my lunchbox - the slather of way too much mayonnaise, the folded, slimy turkey, a thin slice of cheese made for many trades or trips to the trash. After graduating high school, I realized that I could have just told my mom that I HATE too much mayonnaise, I like my meat shredded into membrane-thin slices, and I would have liked some lettuce and tomato to kind of "block out" that deli meat taste. Nowadays, I really only eat lunchmeat if I can eat it within about 30 minutes of making the sandwich, or I'll just grab a sub from Jimmy John's and let it go at that. All that to say, I discovered in college that I LOVE peanut butter and jelly. It doesn't get that slimy, stale taste after 4 hours of being out of the refrigerator, it's cheap, easy to make, and just tastes good to me (especially with Doritos or Cheetos)! Fast forward to now...most days I eat a half pbj sandwich with a side of fruit and chips and I'm good to go.

I'm trying to help the girls along to new milestones, one including not cutting up their food into teeny tiny bites and maybe even graduating to eating sandwiches. I figure, they have all of their teeth and should be able to bite, but I've found that biting down is kind of a new concept for them. But, today, I thought I would jump right in, so I made them a very thin pbj sandwich so that the insides wouldn't ooze all over the place, and sure enough, they seemed to enjoy it. (I felt slightly guilty? bad? for introducing sandwiches at their age when they'll probably be eating them for a long time in the future, but that may also my own "sandwich phobia" that I've carried with me from grade school . Post traumatic sandwich syndrome.) Claire picked her square right up and took a real bite of her sandwich!

Caroline would bite down if I held the sandwich, but if she picked it up, she mostly just sucked on the pbj to draw it into her mouth. Whatever works!