07
They randomly picked a restaurant for lunch. Now that there are more people in the family, it's difficult to please everyone, and figuring out where to sit is also a problem.
Chu Qinghuai originally planned to sit on one side with Zhong Wan and let the three children sit opposite them so that it would be easier for the two of them to serve them food. However, Cai Cai and Xiao He started an argument over who should sit in the middle.
This was the first "battle" that occurred after the whole family was together. The new parents went from being at a loss to being helpless and finally giving up.
Xiao Hebao is the youngest, but she is the best at expressing her thoughts, saying each word with great force: "I want to sit in the middle!"
Cai Cai: "I also want to sit in the middle."
Xiaohe: "I was the one who said it first, you can't take it from me."
Cai Cai: "No, I want it."
Neither of them was willing to back down, and neither of them was even as tall as the table. One had one hand on his hip, while the other held his head high.
"snort!"
There's only one middle spot, so someone will inevitably miss out.
Zhong Wan and Chu Qinghuai also realized that this situation would only increase in the future, and since they could not satisfy everyone, they might as well accept that no one was satisfied.
Chu Qinghuai pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "Mumu will sit in the middle, and you two can sit on either side of your sister, which is just right."
Before the other two children could react, he had already lifted Mumu into the middle high chair, and the other two didn't object.
Zhong Wan looked at the man in surprise: "Wow, you really have a way with things."
They seem to have figured out a little bit of the trick to taking care of children.
This is a restaurant that serves stir-fried dishes. In the past, when Chu Qinghuai and Zhong Wan had their own time together, they would order a maximum of three dishes. Now that there are more people in the family and their second child is a picky eater, they have to put more thought into ordering the food.
It needs to be a balanced diet of meat and vegetables, and it needs to be nutritious. Although it can't be as healthy as home-cooked meals, at least we can't let the children eat things that are full of strong seasonings.
He ended up ordering four light dishes and a soup, and packed up the leftovers.
While waiting for the food, Zhong Wan made sure to follow the proper eating rules.
Zhong Wan had just bought three sets of identical children's tableware at the mall. She let them each choose their favorite color so they could use their own. She planned to put the staple food, meat, and vegetables in separate plates for each child at each meal. This would ensure fairness for each child and allow her to check on their vegetable consumption.
Most importantly, she doesn't plan to feed the children anymore, as it's too tiring for adults. She wants to teach the children to be self-reliant and have enough to eat.
It doesn't matter if they don't eat well; she can teach them a hundred or a thousand times. She doesn't believe she can't teach three children to eat.
Zhong Wan knew that her own obsessive-compulsive disorder was quite severe, and she took this opportunity to "treat" it.
"How about we all use spoons to eat later? Mom and Dad won't feed us, we'll have a competition to see who can eat the fastest."
Zhong Wan tried to encourage them to eat properly by having a competition, using methods she had learned from television. However, real children don't follow the rules. Mu Mu shook her head and said, "Why do we have to compete to see who can eat the fastest?"
What good is eating fast? She couldn't figure it out.
Zhong Wan was taken aback, and couldn't really explain why.
"Okay, then let's not compete. Let's eat slowly and each of us can eat our own food, okay?"
They all said it was good.
Xiao He whispered to Mu Mu, blinking her innocent big eyes, "Are we eating spirit fruits?"
"No, it's a very delicious dish. You'll see in a moment."
Xiao He's mouth formed an "O" shape as she surveyed the restaurant's layout, finding it increasingly novel.
After the dishes were served, Chu Qinghuai put the same amount of meat and rice on each child's plate. In addition to vegetables, Mumu and Xiaohe ate green vegetables, while Caicai had four green broccoli florets in her bowl.
Cai poked at the granules on the surface of the broccoli with his hand, pouting with reluctance on his face, so he finished eating the boneless ribs first.
"Daddy, I want more."
He pointed to the empty plate, wanting his father to make him some more ribs.
Chu Qinghuai answered without even looking up, "Eat the broccoli first."
"It doesn't taste good."
"It's delicious."
After saying that, Chu Qinghuai ate a broccoli in front of him, saying, "I'm not lying to you, it's really delicious."
Cai Cai didn't move, so she looked at you with a pitiful expression. He couldn't help but soften his heart and said, "I'll give you a piece of rib as long as you eat one bite."
Cai Cai was still well-behaved. She slowly put the broccoli into her mouth with her left hand, took a big bite, chewed it carefully, and then picked up the small plate with her right hand to let her father pick up some ribs for her.
Chu Qinghuai picked out a small piece of pork rib for him, and Cai Cai was very satisfied.
Of the children present, only Mumu and Caicai knew how to use a spoon to eat, but most of them still ate with their hands, inevitably spilling soup or rice on their clothes or the floor. Zhong Wan resisted her obsessive-compulsive disorder and decided not to look at the mess, planning to clean it up after they had all finished eating.
Mumu and Caicai use spoons to scoop rice into their mouths when they eat, but Zhong Wan noticed that Xiaohe doesn't use utensils at all.
"Baby, eat with a spoon. Look at your hands, aren't they dirty?"
She did hold the small spoon, but that was all; she ate almost the entire meal with her right hand.
"Not dirty at all."
No matter how Zhong Wan taught her, she only treated the spoon as a decoration. After more than ten minutes, the spoon was cleaner than her face. Zhong Wan didn't care anymore and let her eat however she wanted.
This was Xiaohe's first time eating human food. Her older brother and sister hadn't lied to her; it was really delicious.
She wasn't picky about food at all and ate with more relish than anyone else. She could even enjoy bland vegetables. However, she ate very slowly, and her chin seemed to droop, with half of what she ate falling off. Zhong Wan was afraid of discouraging her, so she would pretend to praise her for eating so well.
"Little bok choy, I ate the little bok choy," she said happily.
Between them, a wooden-faced Cai Cai keenly noticed the word "vegetables" and even craned his neck to look at her, saying, "Don't eat me."
Xiao He held a small green vegetable in her hand and said in a clear voice, "I want to eat you."
"You don't want to eat vegetables!"
Chu Qinghuai went to pay the bill. Zhong Wan, who had just finished wiping the floor, looked up and heard this. She exclaimed "Eh!" and told Cai Cai, "You can't do that. How can you not let your sister eat vegetables? Vegetables are so good!"
Cai Cai pouted: "Hmph!"
"This little rascal has quite a temper." Zhong Wan touched his face, but her hand was covered in oil, so she "disgustedly" used a wet wipe to clean it for him.
Xiao He pretended to be knowledgeable: "Green vegetables are the best."
Despite her young age, she's quite mischievous and loves teasing her older brother.
The only one who understood things, Mumu, began to worry with melancholy: what would she do if her younger siblings were causing her so much trouble?
-
The best entertainment after dinner is of course shopping at the supermarket. Chu Qinghuai specially pushed the biggest shopping cart so that the babies could sit inside.
The three children, like large, fluffy dolls, sat in a row, their postures and expressions similar, all dazzled by the wide array of items on the shelves.
A well-matched couple taking three good-looking babies out will definitely attract attention. Some passersby will even ask if they are triplets. Zhong Wan always answers with a slight embarrassment, "No."
They are just ordinary people, and receiving too much attention will definitely make them feel uncomfortable.
While it's certainly a happy thing for her children to be liked by others, Zhong Wan eventually started to worry: "Our babies are so beautiful, what if bad people target them? I don't even want them to go out anymore."
Chu Qinghuai put his arm around her shoulder, "What are you thinking? How could that be?"
He felt the other party was being completely alarmist, saying, "In today's society governed by the rule of law, bad people won't get away with it so easily."
He pushed his cart toward the freezer section, picked out the small steamed buns he usually ate, and prepared them for tomorrow's breakfast.
Chu Qinghuai and Zhong Wan were discussing which flavor to get, while the three little ones in the shopping cart were also whispering to each other.
Xiao He pointed to the vegetable section next to her, where tomatoes, potatoes and other vegetables were neatly arranged in categories, with a striking pile of small bok choy among them.
"I see bok choy!"
Her head darted around, searching for oranges.
Cai Cai was very excited when he saw so many green vegetables. He couldn't eat green vegetables and didn't like any cooked vegetables, but he felt a strong sense of affinity for these raw vegetables.
"I saw it too!"
He even wanted to jump up to see, but Mumu stopped him in time, saying, "Don't jump."
"Okay." He was just too excited.
Dozens of bright green, tender vegetables were huddled together. Mumu smiled happily, her hands supporting her chin. No one noticed that a fist-sized vegetable suddenly rolled out from behind the little guy and hid right under the yogurt.
...
After shopping at the supermarket for more than half an hour, Zhong Wan bought small toys for each child. Everyone was happy and ready to wait for Chu Qinghuai to finish paying so they could go home.
At the checkout counter, Chu Qinghuai laid out all the items on the counter. When he got to the last item, he realized something was wrong. He found a small green vegetable in his shopping cart, which was so small that he hadn't noticed it at first.
"Did you buy vegetables?"
He held it up in his hand and asked Zhong Wan with a puzzled look.
"No, we buy all our vegetables at the market, don't we? And why would I only take one, especially such a small one?"
He nodded. It seemed someone had accidentally dropped the vegetables into the car while taking them. He handed the vegetables to the cashier and asked her to take them back.
Meanwhile, Cai Cai, the true owner of the little green vegetable, was happily unpacking her new toy and had no idea that the green vegetable had appeared out of her body.
As night fell, whispers could be heard coming from the master bedroom.
"You took him out to play around this afternoon? Why are you so tired?"
Zhong Wan sat on the edge of the bed, frowning as she looked at Cai Cai, who was fast asleep, sprawled out on the bed, seemingly having already drifted off to sleep.
The thought that he yawned and said he was sleepy right after dinner, and didn't even watch cartoons or eat the fruit after dinner, but clung tightly to his mother and acted spoiled, made Zhong Wan feel that something was wrong.
She could only bring him in, but the child fell asleep as soon as his body touched the bed. His sleep quality was so good that she mistakenly thought her baby might have secretly gone out to work as a laborer behind their backs.
Chu Qinghuai also found it strange, as this was the first time such a situation had occurred. The three children had the same amount of exercise, so why was he the only one who was so sleepy?
"I don't know, I'll ask him when I get up tomorrow. He eats and then sleeps, he really is a little pig."
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