Suddenly Salad

Here's another fabulous habbit Theo has picked up this summer: When we are home for lunch on these lovely summer days I ask the kids what they want to eat. Theo immediately and unfailingly has been answering with a shout, "A salad! And a pita sandwich!!!" Then he swings out the porch door, slips on his flipflops and heads to the garden. From the kitchen window I can see his little head down there at lettuce level, selecting just the right greens for his personal chef salad. Sometimes he spies a ripe peapod and grabs one or two of them to pop into the mix. Then he plops his harvest into a waiting little tupperware of HOT water (for some reason he needs it HOT) and swishes them around. After that it is over to the hose, a handful of greens clutched to his chest. He uses the hose to rinse the leaves as he marches around the yard. I don't know why he feels the urge to march while rinsing, but he does. His shirt often also ends up rinsed, which is fine and mostly needed. Once they are rinsed to his satisfaction he tosses them into a papertowel that he has already laid out on the grass and then gathers them up and brings them in. If there are some raspberries in the kitchen he will toss them in with his greens, add a dab of dressing and dig in. I never have the pita and the hummus ready for him because I am always too absorbed in watching his little ritual to do anything but smile contentedly. I promised Theo that I would NOT mention what the end result of so many berries/smoothies/salads in his life might be. Let's just say that if you happen to be hanging out in the path to the bathroom when he needs it, you will be run over.