The Joy of a Picky Eater

I never thought I would have the child that would make faces at his vegetables, spit out his food or would mash beans in between his fingers. And yes, "mash" is a word....at least in the South :). This child used to eat like a horse. Anything you would put in front of him would inevitably go into his mouth. But then the Eat Like a Horse phase vanished and in it's place I got the You Can't Possibly Expect Me to Eat That phase. I would get soooo frustrated when he refused to eat that I would sit there for over an hour trying to get him to. Nothing I tried would get him to eat. So finally I just gave up. It wasn't worth the time or energy to force him to eat something he didn't want to eat. The kid isn't going to starve to death. I finally decided that if he's hungry enough he'll eat what I give him. I would at least make him try it. But 9 times out of 10 it would get spit out. I'm sure I'm not the first parent to dread dinner time for this sole reason. Nothing is more discouraging sometimes then to come home after a long day, fix dinner, only for it to be spit out or frowned at. Whatev. But tonight was a different story. For some unknown, unexplainable reason.....Kenny ate his food. The massive amounts of tater tots on his plate helped. Ok, maybe not MASSIVE amounts....but a sizable portion. Because seriously....who doesn't like tater tots? He even shoved some peas into his mouth after I promised him more tater tots. So given the fact that he had noodles as his main course, followed by a handful (or possibly two) of peas, and a heaping portion of tater tots, I can rest easy tonight knowing that I actually did feed my child and know for a fact that he won't starve to death in his sleep.