There is a daily battle at the Mason household. Many tears have been shed as a consequence of this battle, and yet it rages on. Thankfully, no lives have been lost. Yet.
The battle is trying to get a two year old to try something new to eat. I can count on both hands the few things that Ben will eat willingly. Sometimes those few things change (and by that I mean that one food is taken off of the list, and another put on in its place), but it's a very rare occasion that it does. Imagine my surprise this week, when Ben branched out!! He took a bite of a carrot (now, granted it did have cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar), and although he chewed this bite of carrot for about an hour, he never spit it out!! He SWALLOWED it. And another day, we were having French Dip Sandwiches, and I gave him about 1/8 of a sandwich. He asked me to dip it, which I did reluctantly, thinking that the odds of this bite of food actually ending up in his stomach would be slim to none already, without having it dipped in a sauce that Ben knew nothing about. I was sure that dipping the sandwich in the Au Jus had just cut those slim odds in half again. I could NOT believe my eyes when he actually took a bite of that sandwich (including the meat), and again swallowed it!!! Now he didn't take any more bites of these foreign foods, but the fact that they reached his intestines is in itself a miracle. This is always the point where Josh and I excuse ourselves from the table so that we can go into the living room (where Ben can't see us) and have a celebration.
Every day I hope that Ben will realize that there are many more things in this big world that taste better than Ramen Noodles. Until that time, I will continue to wage this battle, and keep my chin up. After all, he is only two.
It looks like MAYBE Ben's stubborn eating habits may one day become little more than one of those fun stories children love to hear from their mothers. It will probably start out, "Mom, can you tell me that one again about how I used to make you batty at the dinner table?" Hang in there Em, those days are just around the corner:)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean. Marshall will not eat anything. I can count a handful of things he will eat. Mac & ChZ, chicken nuggets, spagehetti, Pb and honey sandwich, hamburger (sometimes) and a quesadilla. I gues peas and peaches also. But that is about it. I hope like you that one day he will out grow it.You have a very cute family, I was happy to see your blog.
ReplyDeleteBen is so cute! And very head-strong by the sounds of it. We were at the store the other day and found a cookbook called "101 things to do with Ramen Noodles!"...just thought it might help! =P
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