Asher the Chocoholic

Look what I saw yesterday on my Facebook feed? Chocolate!!! They looked so delicious I resisted the tempatation to pop down to the nearest convenience stall to grab a few bars of these! My friend Evelyn has the same thought as I did: If only we could pluck chocolate out of the picture to eat! That would be fabulous! And that reminded me...

Picture from Geek Culture - Name them all and be a Chocolate Geek! :p

Do you know who's a chocoholic like me? It's Asher! Shawna and Isaac both like to eat chocolate as well, but the one that reeeaally appreciates chocolate and can eat it for meals is, without a doubt, Asher. 

Asher has always been a picky eater, and when he was young, he refused to eat solids at all. He would refuse porridge of all consistencies, refuse noodles and pasta of all shapes and sizes, refuse breads of all make and texture - he just didn't open his mouth. We got desperate at times and tried to force food into his mouth - and he would either spit them out, or gag on them.

At first, we thought:"Oh, he's still young! Haven't learn to eat solids yet." But by the time he was 18 months old and Shawna was eating rice and noodles with gusto - we knew the "he's still young" excuse couldn't really hold. Then we started worrying that he had some kind of "condition" that causes him to gag and have trouble swallowing solids.

My mum wondered whether it's because his teeth were too small. But we put him beside Shawna and saw that their teeth were roughly the same size. So, scratch that. Then my sister asked whether his tongue was "stuck to the bottom of his mouth" - but, no, when he cries or laugh we can see his tongue waggling well, and he can stick out his tongue as long as Shawna can. So, nope. Tough luck being a twin, buddy!  You ain't pulling wool over our eyes!

Asher & Shawna, my Little Twin Suckers, I mean Stars - Little Twin Stars @ 17 months old

Last year, in June 2011, we visited Perth, Australia. Asher and Shawna both went on a food strike as there weren't familiar with the food and environment there - we tried cooking porridge/rice/noodles but they wouldn't eat. This is quite usual for Asher, but not so for Shawna. At that time, they were both still breastfeeding, and so they depended on me for sole sustenance for the whole of the 10 days we were there. They were 17 months old. They sucked me dry, really.

So, it was actually in the Perth 2011 trip that the twins ate chocolate for the very first time in their lives. My cousin Yew Hui was trying to pacify Asher to ensure that he would remain seated in the carseat during the long drives - so she fed him the chocolate pastelles that they sold at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. And then we realised, that Asher had no trouble chewing and swallowing chocolate. He ate them at lightning speed. We have never seen Asher eating anything that fast before! We tried giving him bigger chunks of chocolate, and chocolate cake, chocolate muffins, chocolate cookies... and it confirmed our suspicions - Asher had no problem chewing and swallowing solids! Oh! The little tike!!!

And hence the chocoholic was born.

Back in Singapore, Asher continued to refuse all other solids and only drank my milk for sustenance. We were trying to wean the twins off my breast and so we tried to introduce formula milk, which they did take a little of. Shawna decided one day to stop drinking from me, and so she self-weaned herself. Now, Asher had both breasts to himself, making him one happy boy indeed. On weekends, we decided to give Asher a bit of practice eating solids, so we allowed him his chocolate fix of chocolates and chocolate cake etc... Thankfully, we slowly managed to transit him to solid food thereafter... and his food fads... well, I will leave that for another post.

Cheeky Asher the Chocoholic! @ 33 months

So that's cheeky Asher, our Chocoholic boy. We do not allow the kids to eat chocolate or other candy very often, though. Coz it is heaty and they have a tendency to start coughing if they eat too much of it. So, most of the time, they'd get to eat chocolate say once a week, or even two weeks or more, if they have been coughing. Not very often.

One day, in the morning while we were getting ready to leave the house for school and work, I saw Asher, walking, and while he walked, his left hand pulled open the pocket on his shirt, while his right hand reached in and plucked out an imaginary item and he popped this imaginary item into his mouth! He then started moving his mouth in a chewing motion...

Me: "Asher? What are you eating?"

Asher:"Chocolate."

I was stunned. And started laughing. 

Me:"Oooh, looks good. Can I have some chocolate too?"

Asher:"Sure!" 

And he reached into his pocket, picked out another chunk of imaginary chocolate, and fed it into my open mouth. He then took another piece, and popped it into his own mouth, happily chewing... and walked away.

I was giggling to myself and went to find hubbs to tell him about it. Suddenly, I had a pang in my heart. Was I too strict in not giving him the chocolate he so loves often enough? So much so that he had to pretend to eat chocolate?! So poor thing! But then, too much chocolate is really not too good, so I'm glad he found his own way to eat chocolate! Ah, my clever chocoholic Asher! :)

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