My little vegetarian

Keeley is a very picky eater.  We've gone round and round about this and I'm more forceful about some issues than I am with others.  Every day I think that we are so lucky that she loves fruit so much because a lot of her other choices leave much to be desired.  One thing I've totally given up on is meat.  She has made some progress.  As a baby, she would literally wipe it off her tongue. She no longer does that but will inform you that she doesn't eat meat but that Kayden does.  There is one meal that I make that has prosciutto in it and she will eat that (I don't think she realizes that it is there or that it is meat....).  I think she may be the only preschool kiddo I know that won't eat chicken nuggets or hot dogs...

The other night we were eating breakfast for dinner and we had bacon on our plates (Keeley still gets the same food on her plate, I've just given up on her actually eating the meat).  She asked where the bacon came from and I said from pigs.  I answer questions simply and only provide the information required.  Her follow-up question was how pigs made bacon and when I replied that they were the bacon, the most appalled look appeared on her face.  She said, "real pigs?!"  When we confirmed that she said, "we eat real pigs?"  I clarified that she did not eat them but that lots of other people did.  I then realized that our bacon is actually turkey bacon and told her out bacon actually came from turkeys, but that certainly didn't help the situation.  She then asked how the pigs died....it was not a pleasant conversation and I was pleased when we moved on.

Today I took the girls to the grocery store with me.  While waiting for the fish guy to get my salmon, Keeley saw some other fish in the case that was whole fish.  She asked why that fish had eyes.  When I told her that was the whole fish and the other fish in the case were just parts of fish, she said, "I don't eat fish that swims in the water."  I just shook my head and confirmed that no, she does not eat any type of animal.  Somehow she knew from infancy that eating meat went against her principles....