My son is finally starting to retain some of the information that we’ve been telling him since he was a baby. Some of it is by rote. He repeats over and over again – I am Korean. Mommy is Korean. Aunt C is Korean. Daddy is not Korean. Sometimes, he throws in that C (his plane-mate) is Korean. We have her picture on our refrigerator from Christmas. We know that the concept hasn’t really set in yet because he also insisted last week-end that his very blond little friend A was Korean too.

On of the things that we want our son to be is comfortable with Korean food (actually all foods). At the Korean new year party, he ate some Korean noodles and they seem to have made a lasting impression. At least a half dozen times in the last week he has mentioned the noodles. “Yesterday,” he says. “I had noodles with tofu and egg. Yummy.”

It’s one of those moments where I want to jump and down. He got it. Though he was hesitant to try them at first, he finally took that first bite. Here was a parenting plan that I made that actually worked the way I wanted it to. How often does that happen? My goal is that my son will be exposed to so many different types of food (not just Korean) that nothing will seem abnormal and he’ll try anything once.

Okay, my son’s favorite foods are still hotdogs and macaroni and cheese, but he also likes tofu, Korean noodles, Thai food, Chinese fried rice and sushi. Yep, my three year old has found a new fondness for sushi. We bought some sushi (vegetarian and fish) this week-end and my son took to it right away. The vegetarian sushi had three of his favorite foods (tofu, carrots and rice). We visited with my husband’s family and I got a big kick out of asking my son to tell everyone what he had for breakfast. Yes, it was an unconventional breakfast, but it was good.