Every. Day.

Eli eats the same thing for lunch every day. A peanut butter and pepperoni sandwich. Peanut butter on both pieces of bread, so that the whole thing sticks together. Four slices of pizza-sized pepperoni in the sandwich. Four extra pieces on the side. Sandwich cut into four triangles.

This meal is now referred to in our house as The Usual. (Or, if you're Eli, it's The Noozhul.)

I always present this food on a plate, in some artful arrangement. (Or not.)

He always does the following:

First, he rearranges the food elements. Two sandwich triangles go at the top of the plate, for eyes. One triangle goes in the middle, for a nose. The extra pepperoni is lined up along the bottom of the plate, for a mouth.

The fourth sandwich triangle stays in his hand. He eats this one immediately, all the way up to the crust. (And he gets every bit of soft bread off that crust.) Then he pulls the crust apart into several pieces and sprinkles them along the top of the plate, for hair.

The face is complete.

Now he begins eating the face. First one eye, then the other, then the nose. Each sandwich piece is eaten down to the crust, then the crust is torn apart and added to the pile at the top of the plate. Finally, he eats the pepperoni slice mouth.

When he is finished, there is just a pile of torn-up bread crust on his plate.

He then declares, "I won!" (no matter how many times I point out that meals are not a speed competition and/or that it's not exactly a fair match when he begins eating before anyone else).

Lunch is over.