My toddler surprised me today as he was riding his little bike around Camperdown Park. He pointed over to Store Espresso and said “I wanna get nana bread”. How could I say no?
He’s actually getting to be a pretty good judge. While there are a lot of different variables at play, he’ll always get stuck into a really good banana bread and attempt to devour the whole thing. An average banana bread, however, he might take a chunk or so, but won’t be all that interested. And sometimes he actually says “no”. That’s when you know there’s something wrong.
The banana bread I had to fight him for the most was the one at Bruce. I literally had to pull out dirty tactics like “Hey, what’s that over there?” and tuck in while he was distracted. And then when he realised it was all gone, he was like “All gone? Can I have more?” I felt so guilty.
Even the baby can say “bana buh” now, as he points his stubby lil finger with wide cake eyes.
So I’ve started doing “cafe training” with the little tikes. For the longest time, the toddler refused to sit still and any attempt to eat in resulted in inappropriate volume, constant dropping of items from the highchair and an embarrassing quantity of food on the floor. But now he can manage a babyccino without tipping it over his own head, and as long as I come thoroughly prepared with a tub of “waiting” snacks and small, lightweight toys that don’t bounce or roll when dropped, we can successfully get through a small meal! And the baby is better-behaved than the toddler was at the same age. He’s patient enough to be generally quiet, as long as I promise him banana bread of course.
So far we’ve done cafe training at Matty & John’s, Cocoa & Coffee, Eighty Ate, Celsius Coffee and One Another, and the toddler liked Eighty Ate‘s banana bread the best. Watch this space – he’ll be doing the reviews soon!