All This Over a Plastic Cup of Fruit

Hopefully the humor won't be lost in the re-telling, because this is a perfect illustration of What Really Matters to Cable, and of his quest for independence, especially from his own identical twin.

As I was packing the boys' lunches this evening, a minor scuffle arose over which type of fruit should go in their lunch. Part of the complication stemmed from the abundance of The Fruit Cups, which is cause for considerable food-related excitement in our house. They're a pre-packaged novelty I didn't used to buy, but have since caved on now that Cable and Parker have demonstrated their remarkable ability to peel back the patented Evil Little Plastic Top ever so slightly, drink the juice out, then hold the cup firmly enough to peel that Evil Little Plastic Top all the way off without splashing the contents out onto the table, the floor, or the nearest adult-size pants. (These things are what teachers' nightmares are made of, I swear to God. Those and the Gogurts. The DAMN GOGURTS, I mean really. REEEEEALLY? Who thought up this travesty? I shake my fist at you).

Sorry - I'll get myself back on the path here.

Because they were on sale at Target, we have an uncommonly abundant supply of fruit cups (three packages - gasp) and in three varieties, no less. These are not to be confused with The Applesauce Cup, for The Applesauce Cup is not considered a "Fruit Cup," and is, in fact, a lesser being. So I don't know what I was thinking when I put applesauce cups in their lunch boxes, knowing there were almost three full packages of superior beings from which to choose this necessary component of the preschooler lunch. When Parker came in and saw my obvious error, he said "No, Mommy! Not applesauce [you fool]! Peaches!" This, of course, drew Cable in from the after-dinner showing of the 80's cartoon version of Transformers and he echoed, "Mommy! I want peaches, I want peaches!" So they each grabbed the Terrible, No-Good Applesauces out of their respective lunch boxes and ran to the fridge to make the exchange. Parker got there first, opened the fridge, put his applesauce on the shelf and proceeded to take both peach cups out of the fridge, ran back to the lunch boxes and put one in his, one in Cable's...

Cable, who is occasionally sensitive about taking his own action on important matters like these, commenced his protest: "NOOO, PAH-KOH... YOU DON'T PICK MY FOOD FOH ME!" And with that, Cable yanked the fruit cup out of his lunch box, did an about-face (this is where I stopped and just watched, holding a knife full of peanut butter in mid-air, thinking 'Nah... he's not gonna...'), and I promise you that boy marched himself back over to the fridge, opened the door, put the fruit cup back on the shelf, PAUSED, and then picked the same one back up, closed the fridge and marched back to his lunch box and put that baby right back in, front and center. The only thing that could have made his point any clearer would've been a swift kick to Parker's shins, but thankfully, we're all growing around here, and he stopped just short of that.

Who says we're not making progress?