Do you ever go to . . . man what’s it called? . . . Spice Avenue? Spice Station? Something like that. Indian place up State a bit, like across from Palazzio? We just recently tried it out and they make a ton of amazing vegan dishes and the owner is super awesome.

Yay SB vegans!

I took care of four kids from two families, ages 2, 4, 5, and 6, and the two with dietary restrictions were 4 and 5. No worries about you thinking you may sound judgey, I know that’s not the intent of your site, or you, (and you weren’t judgey BTW.)

Thank you!! Available is a great word. The kids would all band together when it came to allergies (there was a nut allergy in the mix too) but I think that the term “ice cream” was applied very generally in the home. There was “Special Ice Cream” and almond butter was more often than not called “peanut butter”. Although these weren’t terms I was fully comfortable with, it wasn’t always easy explaining “Its almost like peanut butter!” To a 2 year old who didn’t know anything different, and when the peanut allergy home was generally lax in their personal rule enforcement, but asked me to stick to it as best I could. Lax, as in they called almond butter “peanut-but-not-peanut-sortof?” It didn’t help that I’m a big rule lover, and enforcer. Tears were shed, but over the course of 4 months I think we did pretty good together.

Thankfully, the summer ended with our favourite treat being toast and jam from the local cafe! All’s well that ended well, but I was left a little confused as how to discuss similar ideas with kids in the future.