After school one day, Henry greeted me at pick up time with a package.  It was a “snack” he had been given by a friend and he needed help opening it.

Not Candy

Notice that the package clearly states that this “snack” is sea vegetable.  Roasted seaweed!  There is even a photo, albeit somewhat misleading, that plainly shows the contents to be green.  I pointed this out to Henry who responded to my concern with the famous Erickson eye roll and an impatient, “I know!”  Never one to miss out on the chance to watch my children suffer, I promptly tore the wrapper open and waited for the inevitable.  Would he spit it out?  Fall to the ground and writhe around in agony?  Beg for a drink to wash the foul taste from his delicate American tongue?  Instead, this happened:

And then this:

And some of this:What!?  It seems that Henry likes sheets of roasted seaweed!  Who knew?  “I eat this all the time,” he informed me before dismissing me with a wave of his grubby little fingers.

Later, at home, Ava spied the empty package.  “You bought this for Henry?!” she accused.  “No fair!”  Hello, this is SEAWEED, children.  Sea VEGETABLE, no less!  Apparently Ava has been eating it all the time, too.  On purpose.

“It really is delicious, Mom,” Lucas chimed in.  “Crunchy and salty.  You can’t go wrong with that.”  Lucas has been sampling roasted seaweed as well.  With gusto.  And all of this without me having any idea.  I had absolutely no knowledge of this new favorite snack.  They come home from school requesting “those Korean dried noodles” and wanting “fairy bread” for their birthdays.  Who are these little citizens of the world?