What Exactly is Cow Milk?

Code for chocolate milk... that's what it is.

After visits on Fridays, where Leonard and Penny spend roughly two hours eating, I pick them up and take them back to daycare.  I always ask them what they had to eat for lunch and even though it's always the same (fast food), I pretend that I'm glad they ate.  Today there was a vast assortment of things listed when I asked... grapes, two bananas, cheese, pretzels, chicken nuggets, french fries, lemonade, and cow milk.  I informed them that all of the milk we drink is cow milk.  The two of them (or mostly Penny) insisted that we don't have cow milk at our house, but that their dad gets it at the grocery store.  Obviously, I asked how it was different than the milk we have at our house and I was told that it gets chocolate mixed in it.  So not only do they get stuffed full of terrible food for a couple of hours every Friday, they get chocolate milk to wash it all down.  How they don't both end up laying down in agony from the sugar assault on their systems, I do not understand.  Maybe it's just me, but I think if you're telling a small child that chocolate milk is "cow milk" and regular milk is not, perhaps the priority isn't on health at all and you should reconsider your choices.  We have never had a meal that the kids did not enjoy and we try to avoid sugary foods.  Anything that you put in front of them, they will eat.  The upside is that we do not have to deal with any picky eaters and have the freedom to make whatever we want for meals, knowing the kids will eat with no protests.  The downside is that they will do the same thing at visits... it's there, so they'll eat it.  As a special treat for having gotten her cavities filled, the kids' dad brought Penny some Oreo cookies.  You know... sugary chocolate cookies.  Wonder where those cavities ever came from in the first place.

I realize the banana and the grapes are healthy foods, but they only ate one banana between the two of them and the bag of grapes seems to be most of the way full.  When kids have all of those other options, fruit tends to take a backseat.  The thing about all of this food is that once we get it all home to take up space in our refrigerator, Leonard and Penny don't even ask for it.  I'm pretty sure that they're just eating it because that's what is put in front of them.

I realize now that this entry is more of a rambling rant about poor choices.  I wish there was something that we could do about it, but we have already voiced our concerns to Marty and, while he was understanding, there isn't much that he can do about it either.  Here's to hoping that they just get tired of eating all day every Friday.