Happy meal or pleasant partaking?

Now I've done it. I knew the day had to come, and it has. My 3-year-old now knows about McDonald's and Happy Meals.

We are not the fast-food eating kind. Frozen meals out the wazoo, yes, but they're organic frozen meals and they don't involve anything fried or otherwise empty calories.

For whatever reason, the golden arches were calling our names today. My husband has been out of town for three days, and I just wanted a break from washing every dish, cleaning every bib and wiping up every single crumb from a meal. So, I took us to the Mickey D's around the corner, knowing full well that this might end up memorable, especially for my 3-year-old Jellybean.

I gave her the (oh-so-nutritious) choices: hamburger, cheeseburger and McNuggets. She chose the hamburger. [Side note: I cringe at the meat quality, knowing a little about cattle farms and meat-packing plants. I wish restaurant chains would start looking into improving those industries, but that's a discussion for another day.] I was dubious because she unconsciously qualifies as a vegetarian bordering on vegan some days. I ordered the apples instead of fries so there could be fruit involved and got a milk for each girl. (The 15-month-old Peanut obviously can't verbalize her own decisions yet, and she's pretty good at wolfing down whatever lands in front of her.)

Full disclosure here: I did not just spontaneously jump in the car and plan to have them receive all of their nourishment from the fast-food establishment. No, I'm the kind of mom who brings vegetables -- organic, no less -- to McDonald's. There was lovely bright green cooked spinach to accompany the Happy Meal. There was also cool cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon to bolster the pre-fab apples. I just can't fill my kids' tummies with exclusively junk. Whether it's OCD on my part or justification, I don't really know, but I had to bring some home stuff.

The most amusing part of the whole meal is that Jellybean didn't like it. Really, not one bit. Not even the colorful Happy Meal bag and milk with a straw (well, that was the biggest hit). She took one bit of her burger and announced, "I'm done with that." She picked up each fry I had put in front of her and one by one transferred them to back to me without taking even a bite. She ate her entire portion of spinach, a couple apple slices and drank all her milk. That was her McDonald's experience. She does like the little toy, though, so that will be our sole souvenir.

As for Peanut, she ate about 1/3 of the hamburger, proclaimed "Mmm!" and chowed down about 10 fries, in addition to her milk, spinach and apples. Maybe she's the one I have to worry about. She has a lot of new words lately -- that would be a riot (tragedy?) if the word "McDonald's" were to spill forth one of these days soon.

So, I think our foray into fast-food dining may have been an isolated event. Even if we're traveling and need the Playland, it appears I am going to have to continue my trend of bringing plant sustenance into Big Mac land. But at least someone else cleaned up our crumbs and wiped our table!