Pasta & Parmesan

It is really amazing how much my boys can eat... especially when it comes to pasta. If it were up to them we'd have pasta every night. I try to keep pasta to a 1-2 night per week maximum. But if you ask Kyle -- anywhere, any time of day, at any moment -- what he wants to eat, he'll always say "PASTA!" He likes all shapes of pasta; he likes whole wheat pasta, fresh pasta, or absolutely any kind of pasta; he likes red sauces, cheese sauces, garlic and oil sauces, pesto sauces, cream sauces, lemon and butter sauces; he likes filled pastas-- ravioli, tortellini, and he likes plain pastas. The boy just really likes pasta. Watching Kyle eat pasta is quite something. People who witness it find it rather shocking. Even though I witness it over and over and over I still find it rather shocking. He can't shovel it in fast enough. He almost always ends up using both hands to try to manage the pasta and get as much of it as possible into his little mouth as quickly as possible. That boy can put it away. I simply cannot imagine how much pasta I'm going to have to produce in order to keep up with feeding him when he's sixteen. And Owen, well, he loves his pasta too. But he's especially fond of the parmesan cheese. Both boys love parmesan -- fresh paremesan -- the sharper and more aged the better -- they particularly love the super-expensive, imported-directly-from-Italy parmesan (is that weird for 2 year olds?!). They'll eat it in chunks right off the wedge, or they'll eat it grated -- they don't care how they get it, as long as they get it. But Owen... he verges on parmesan obsessed. I've taken to trying to limit his parmesan intake because it just doesn't seem right to let a 2 year old eat a whole pound of dense, sharp, seriously expensive parmesan. So, now I give it to them grated, and I give it to them pre-rationed off in little bowls. They each get one bowl-full, they can do with it whatever they wish, but once they've eaten it all they get no more. Kyle has taken to just pouring the whole bowl over his pasta right off the bat. Owen, however, carefully tries to pace himself by sprinkling a spoonful or two over his pasta then patiently trying to not be tempted into eating the whole bowlful straight up. This works for him... for about two minutes. But his temptation always gets the better of him. By five minutes into the meal (max!) he can't take it any longer and he just lifts the whole bowl full of freshly grated parmesan to his mouth and downs it.