I’ve just experienced one of the most amazing moments of my experience as a father. I am so proud of my son. I am delighted, grinning, and dancing around. From head to toe my son and I are empowered and there is a whole new world laid out before us.

Sound a little dramatic? Well let me tell you something: My son has a diet which consists of bagels, french bread, strawberries and cheese pizza (plus a couple of gallons of water mixed with white grape juice and cherry juice, or lemonade in a pinch,) smoothies and absolutely nothing else. We just went to the grocery store to prepare for our tasting party this morning. My son proudly perused the isles of the store and picked out absolutely everything which looked like something he might like to taste.

We came home with a banana, a red apple, a green apple, hershey’s kisses, pretzels, potato chips, fresh strawberries, papaya, cherry pop tarts, and green grapes. We made up plates featuring samples of each item and set them out on the table. Four slices of apple, four strawberries, four kisses, etc. We invited Aunt Allison, and Rory to the party. Four seemed like a nice quiet gathering and we were all a little cautious sitting around the table. We each took a turn and went around the table trying everything, and describing how it tasted to us as we went along.

My wonderful little man loved the stawberries (of course,) but he also loved the potato chips, the red apple, and the grapes. We were all so so about the green apple, and the pretzels, and divided on the banana, and the chocolate, but we all absolutely hated the pop tarts and the papaya. Who knew that fresh papaya with lime juice tasted so much like someone’s shoe?

This is a milestone in my son’s life, and in mine. We are already planning our tasting party for tomorrow, what we will taste, and who we will invite.

Wanna come?