These bowls

Back when I was young and foolish and thought silly things like all you had to do was have sex to get pregnant, I wanted to get pregnant. And since I just so confident I’d be having a child I started planning. No I didn’t stockpile diapers, I didn’t prepare a nursery, but every now and then something would catch my fancy and I buy it. Once acquired it would get tucked away for that day I *knew* I’d need it.

These were one of those things.

I bought the bowls and I could see my kids using them. I mean, what kid doesn’t have at least one divided bowl, right? Sure they weren’t cutesy or easy to hold, but they had a lid and they were plastic. They would serve double duty! Not only would they be for eating, but they would be for storing too!

After years of disappointments, surgeries and failures I was ready to throw in the towel. I took them out of the cupboard and moved them in to the ‘garage sale’ pile (back in the days before I Freecycled). That spring as Bill and I were getting ready for our community sale he found the bowls and he took them off the table. “We’ll need these one day” was all I needed to hear to set them aside. I might not have any hope of using them, but he did. And they sat some more and waited.

Then finally we were pregnant. And the bowls were top of my baby prep lists. Sure I wouldn’t be using them for a year or so, but they finally had a purpose, they were no longer a painful reminder. And they needed to be ready to be called in to action at any time.

Once V started on solid food these puppies were in full rotation. They were perfect for corralling pieces of fruit and veg, for serving pasta, for knowing exactly how much of each serving she ate. Her hands and later her spoon would chase that last blueberry around until it was finally cornered and caught. That half of the battle over, it was still a 50/50 split whether it would end in her mouth rather than her hair. They made cleanup a snap, her leftovers went directly to the fridge.

Now that she’s using real dinnerware for her meals she uses the bowls for her school lunches. Every day they hold her sandwich, her veggies and her serving of cheese, and each time I get her lunch ready I think about how long those bowls waited for her to need them. Sometimes it really is worth hanging on just a little bit longer.