Picky Eater No More?! We Won!!!!

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this or not, but both my kids are picky eaters. Mini Me always has been and as he’s gotten older, he has gotten much better although he acts like I’m trying to kill him when I try to give him veggies. Or any fruit other than apples, grapes, and bananas. But his pickiness pales in comparison to Monkey who has been on a ‘beige’ diet since he was pretty much 2 years old. He was rocking the whole food thing, eating guacamole and all kinds of nifty stuff, until he realized that Mini Me would turn up his nose at many of the things on his plate. Not to be outdone, Monkey started to reject foods that he used to shovel in his mouth.

He’s 7 1/2 now and it has been years of frustration. Crackers, bread, rice, and any kind of processed meats like chicken dogs and salami are great. Bananas, apples, kiddie yogurt drinks, cheese strings. Hmmm. I think that may be it. Notice the colour code? We threaten, we beg, we refuse treats. You name it, we have done it. And don’t even go there with the ‘put it on his plate and make him taste it’ schtick. This kid can out-stubborn a mule except with much more shrieking and wailing. Even his grade 1 teacher, with 25 years of experience under his belt said that my kid was an 11 out of 10 on the stubbornness scale. We were rather relieved to hear that it wasn’t just us who thought that.

So about a week ago, I made Indian food. Rice, naan, all part of Monkey’s beige diet. Butter chicken and aloo gobi (curried cauliflower and potatoes) not so much. You could have knocked me over with a feather when, an hour after dinner Monkey casually says to me “Yeah, I tried the yellow stuff but I didn’t like it. Aren’t you proud of me?” Excuse me? He tried aloo gobi? WTF? I think I asked him for clarification about 5 times. “You mean the yellow stuff on your plate tonight?” Yes. “The Indian food I made?” Yes. He was looking at me like I had lost my mind by this point.

When I put him to bed I had to ask once more. “So sweetie, what made you want to try something new tonight?” He just looked at me and said “Well, I was tired of always fighting with you guys so I decided to try some new foods. Are you proud of me?” Proud? I was ready to weep with joy.

Since that fateful night, he has tried ham (delicious!), raisin bread (also delicious), sausages (too spicy, but we will try milder ones next time), pan-fried potatoes (wow, they’re kinda like french fries!) and yogurt that wasn’t strawberry or banana flavoured (yummy!). It has all been led by him so far because quite frankly, we don’t want to jinx it.

Last night he decided he wanted to try a hamburger (or Crabby Patty as he calls it). He took a basket at the grocery store and picked out some lettuce and buns, after making sure I had meat and tomatoes here at the house. I made them tonight and to be fair, he wasn’t a fan. I think the ground beef was off-putting to him. But he did go in the fridge and get out the salami and some cheese, then made himself a ‘hamburger’ with that and lettuce on a bun.

Next he wants to try chicken nuggets. I am crossing my fingers because at last this is something that I can make and which is reasonably healthy and not processed. Still, I wonder what goes on in that boy’s head. I shouldn’t be surprised though. This was the kid who went cold turkey from breast-feeding at 9 months between the 7am feeding and his usual 10am pre-nap feed. Done. Over. Never took the breast again. When he makes up his mind there is no going back.  I think we should just enjoy it for what it is and claim victory. How many parents get to hear that their kids are finally listening to them because they got tired of fighting? It’s a first for us, with 10 1/2 years of parenting under our belts and I’ll bet it’s the last.

Carnivores R Us

Saturday was a rainy day here in Toronto and by lunchtime, I was starting to get restless. Muppet has been working crazy hours lately, which means he has been getting about 5-6 hours a sleep every night when he really needs at least 7. He has this uncanny ability to bank sleep though, which means that if he can stay in bed until 11am even once, he’s good to go for another week of deadlines. While he was snoozing away, I decided I just needed to get out for a bit and as I looked across the room at Mini Me glued to the computer and his Minecraft game, I formulated a plan to bring him with me. I knew that to get him away from that computer screen, I would need something enticing, something intriguing, something delicious, something… meaty!

Mini Me is a carnivore through and through and that boy has never met a sausage he hasn’t liked. We often buy them from the St. Lawrence Market which is in downtown Toronto and where you can get a great variety of good quality, lean meat sausages. I wanted a bit of an adventure on our rainy day, though. I wanted to try out a meat store that had opened in our ‘hood and which was rumoured to have fantastic fresh, farm raised meats as well as homemade sausages in a huge variety of flavours.

When I mentioned this to Mini Me, his eye lit up like it was Christmas morning. As an added bonus, I promised we would stop for a croissant at a nearby coffee shop (mainly because I needed a caffeine fix). He actually squealed with glee at that one. So, off we went.

I love going for walks with Mini Me. It’s when we have some of our best chats. Those conversations make it all worthwhile when it’s the middle of winter and I’m grumping about slogging through snowbanks because we don’t have a car. The walk down was mostly filled with tedious and very detailed descriptions of his Minecraft game, so I smiled and nodded where appropriate and put in some pretty sensible comments, considering I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about half the time. When we got to our destination, after about half and hour’s walk, we were greeted with this…

Wait, there’s more…

Sorry, any of you vegetarians out there for the graphic display of meat porn. We stood staring at the display case, astounded by the sheer variety of sausages. All hand-made, all naturally raised meat, and the smell in that place was AMAZING.

I let Mini Me take the reins and I was surprised by the ones he picked out. Pork and Potato with Leek, Spinach and Ricotta, Moroccan with Cinnamon, Blueberry and Pork. Then he asked if they had anything that was a bit spicier, so the butcher recommended their Buffalo sausage.  I was like “Buffalo spice like the wings?” and the butcher said “No. Buffalo like the animal.” “We’ll take two,” said Mini Me. That’s my boy!!

We left the butcher with our prize and headed over to the coffee-house for a treat. We chatted, drank, ate, and avoided a downpour in the cozy little cafe which I love but which we hardly ever visit. Being so transit reliant, the butcher and coffee shop both are not on the subway line, so we just don’t get down to that ‘hood very often. I really want to remedy that.

As we walked home, we had some great conversations about the kinds of summer job he wants to have while in high school (lifeguarding), which high school he would attend (the local academic high school. He says the arts high school is better suited for Monkey), and when he could have another Junior Nerd Night (next weekend for Dungeons and Dragons). We looked at the houses we were passing and noticed some interesting architecture…

As well as a very stubborn snail who we tried to pry off the middle of the sidewalk but who was determined to stay put.

It was such a great afternoon. My little boy is growing up. He has interesting things to say and is getting adventurous with the things he likes to eat. He really pays attention to what is around him and has so much love and compassion. He’s learning to love architecture  and the city he lives in. I can’t wait to see what kind of man he is going to be.

Oh, and the unanimous favourite in the sausage department? Buffalo. Who knew?