The Wrong Applesauce

Thumper caught a cold from Rerun (his first cold, poor baby), so he’s not sleeping well at the moment.  Which means I’m not sleeping well.  Which means that I’m exhausted in the mornings, and that means that we’re always running late.

I was packing Ane and Tad’s lunches yesterday morning, and was asking Ane what kind of fruit she wanted in her lunch.  Tad’s menu rarely changes.  His standard school lunch is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an applesauce cup, milk in his thermos (or a juice box, if it’s Friday), some kind of cracker or crunchy snack (usually Pirate’s Booty), and then some kind of treat.  I asked Ane if she wanted applesauce, and then Tad piped up.  “Mom, can I have applesauce?”

I held up the applesauce cup.  “Yes, Tad, it’s right here.”

“No, applesauce.”

I stared at him.  “This is applesauce, Tad.”

He stared at me as if I had said something incredibly stupid, and then talked to me as if I was deaf.  “No, applesauce.”

I stared back at him.  “This IS applesauce!”

“No, the green one!”

I then realized what he was trying to tell me – and why he hadn’t been eating his applesauce all week long.

This is what I had been sending him.  This is a Target-brand, all-natural, no added sugar applesauce cup.

And this is what I usually send him – Tree Top applesauce cups, purchased in bulk at Costco (also all-natural and no sugar added).

And then I tried explaining until I was blue in the face that the Target applesauce was STILL APPLESAUCE and it tastes JUST THE SAME and if I took it out of its cup and put it in a bowl in front of him, HE WOULD EAT IT WITHOUT A QUESTION.

And he just as firmly told me that he NEEDED the GREEN applesauce.  The Target applesauce doesn’t say applesauce on the lid.  He will NOT be fooled.

And when I was done trying to explain this to him again, he gave a big sigh and looked at me.  His look said, “You poor deluded woman, you can’t even figure out what applesauce to buy.”

And then he said, “Mom, can I just have a banana instead?”

He got the banana in his lunch.

We stopped at Costco after his speech therapy session yesterday afternoon, and I handed him the bulk box of Tree Top applesauce cups.  He kissed the box, gave a huge sigh of relief, and said, “THAT’S IT!  That’s my applesauce!  Thanks, Mom!”

Ane shook her head, and said, “Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll eat the other applesauce cups.”

I know she will, and that the applesauce won’t go to waste.  But… seriously.  This boy.

When I told Grandma about the applesauce, she said, “You’d better hope Costco doesn’t stop selling that Tree Top applesauce!”

I said, “I can always buy it somewhere else.  Or I can buy a green Sharpie and just write ‘applesauce’ on the Target cups.”

Somehow, I don’t think that would pass scrutiny, so I won’t try it.

So much for me thinking that he’d become more flexible.  Apparently, you can mess with his schedule, but don’t mess with his applesauce.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 10th, 2013 at 1:12 am and is filed under Autism Adventures, Children.
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