Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways
acknowledge him,and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I Want Spaghetti!

My son has to be the pickiest eater ever created by God. Of course, let me make it clear. God created my son, not his pickiness.  With that said, out of all the kids I've raised thus far, or had a part of raising, Caleb gets the trophy for being the pickiest!


One of my biggest challenges as a mom is getting nutritious food in him. Vegetables? They are a dirty word. About all he's ever eaten is corn, and minimally at that. Recently, I vowed {to myself only as I really didn't have enough confidence to be bragging about it,} to make a change.  I began with the illustrious green bean.  Daddy eats them, so I was safe in forcing this one on the kid.  Ha ha!  He had to eat 3 bites before his meal was over. I might as well have whipped him for an hour and a half for all the misery we went through that evening. Oh, carrots. Sweet friends of mine made him eat carrots at their house once. They only had minimal success as well.


So I must admit that the challenge itself has defeated me more often than not. It's easier not to fight the fight. Even though veggies are a dirty word, fruit is not such a bad one around the Parker house.  Caleb will eat grapes, strawberries, watermelon, and apples.  He used to love banana's, but they lost their luster some where along the way.  


The main part of his meals are chicken tenders, nuggets, hamburger, pizza, and sandwiches, popcorn shrimp; and more recently fish has been added to the list. He's eaten roast and spaghetti a couple of times. Chopped up pork chops and chicken breast, are sometimes doable. He DOES NOT like macaroni and cheese. What kid doesn't like macaroni and cheese? {hand raised and waving --over here} - Mine, mine!


So, a couple days ago when my precious eater asked for spaghetti I thought he was sick. Oh, wait, he WAS sick. Ha, ha. All kidding aside, he wanted spaghetti. I was too sick to make spaghetti, but promised him at our next trip to the grocery we'd buy what we needed to make spaghetti.


I'm not sure I was feeling better "enough" today to want to make spaghetti, but again he was begging for it and I realized that my picky eater wanted something that was relatively good for him.  Once needed groceries were bought, he nearly couldn't stand it having to wait until time to MAKE the spaghetti. I thought he was going to drive me crazy.  I'm not kidding.  Lock me up and throw away the key already so I don't have to hear, "is it 2 o'clock, YET?" one more time.  At 10 am I told him we'd make it at 2 o'clock, just to try to get a break.  LOL


FINALLY - let's make some "sketti":


Opening the tomato sauce...


Grinning for mom - definitely excited we're making spaghetti...


Adding tomato paste to the pot.  We're a little nervous
about the heat from the burner so we kept quite a distance...


Giving mom a cheeky grin...


The final result.  A delicious plate of homemade spaghetti.


Giving it a taste...


Not only did he eat it all, but asked for seconds. What did we accomplish? He ate a veggie. Yep, the vegetable with the name - tomato. Does he know it? No. Did he like it? Yes. 


ppsst...I'll let you all in on a little secret. I was chopping onions to brown with the meat and he asked what it was. Without a moments hesitation I told him seasoning. I knew if I even said the word onion in that moment all would be ruined.  He wouldn't eat the spaghetti today nor for the next five years.  What he doesn't know wont hurt him, and that's all I've got to say about that.


What does this give me? Hope. That's what I have now is hope. Hope that as he gets older he will continue to be more willing to try new things.


For now, happy eating!


Hugs and blessings,
Pam

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