The 10 Second Rule...

Hunter has never understood that when food drops on the floor it is now dirty and you shouldn't eat it. When he was quite younger we'd go to the movies and he'd crawl off our laps to sit on the floor and eat all the fallen popcorn that had been sitting there for who knows how long and from who know how many different people. There are too many times to relate how many times Hunter would show me a piece of candy he found on the ground that he was already chewing up.

It's probably true that a little dirt won't hurt but we all know that the 10 second rule is just a bunch of crap. However, we figured if we could teach this to Hunter than maybe eventually we could move on to the if you drop it don't eat it concept.

Last week we took a family field trip to Costco. My kids love going there for all the free food. (I must say thankyou to the sweet little lady who gives each child their own whole Go-Gurt. And we wonder why our kids love this place.) Hunter went up to one of the "free food" spots and took one of the freebies. The little chunck of meat slipped off the flimsy paper cup onto the floor. He imediately bent over picked it up and took a big bite. I seriously thought the lady who was passing them out was going to have a heart attack. Her jaw dropped, her eyes bugged, she grabbed the meat out of his hands and told him not to eat it, and gave him a new one. Hunter looked up at her and said "but I haven't counted to 10 yet." Kory and I both kinda chuckled. I was just so excited to hear him repeat what we've been telling him for quite some time now. To think he may actually be "getting" what we've been trying to teach him. It was definety something gross. We all know you just don't eat something that has beed dropped onto Costco's floor.

Yesterday Hunter wanted left over spaghetti for lunch. After warming it up for him he wanted to take it outside and eat on our front porch. He kinda tripped on the ledge making him tip his plate a little too much causing this.... He didn't seem to care so why should I??? I've been fighting a cold the past few days and the cold finally won. So not sleeping good at night because I can't breathe, being pregnant and fighting morning sickness that tends to last all day, babysitting this week and teaching preschool, I'M TIRED!, I really didn't care how, where or what he's choosing to eat.
Kory happened to be home at the time of this little incident. After him eating just a few bites Kory looked at me and said, "You gonna let him eat that, off the porch?" I should have had a quick come back something along the lines of your the one watching him do it, maybe you should do something about it. Instead I had a flash back of our house being sprayed recently for bugs. They usually squirt down the entire front porch with their pesticide. I decided it probably wasn't very safe for him to eat it so I helped him clean it up and got him some fresh spaghetti.