Day 3.....Ravioli

Here's our saga centered around food this week. I have definitely been reminded that we do indeed have a two year old running around our house. Normally, he is pretty even tempered and does what he is told to within a reasonable time frame. Of course there are definitely days where Sam is not the exemplary little boy that most come to love and adore. Some days, he turns into a different beast when he is at home with his mom and dad.

This week's ongoing issue has centered around what?? Ravioli. Thursday night, I made ravioli for the family to enjoy. Sam normally eats anything and everything ever given to him. He definitely has a good appetite to say the very least. Thursday night, he ate the fruit and absolutely refused to eat his main dish. Pushing it away and saying things like "I don't like it" and "It's too hot" (mind you the food has been sitting in front of him for at least 1/2 an hour at this point). Standing our ground, we decided if he doesn't eat the ravioli, he eats nothing else. Needless to say, no attempts at eating ravioli were made and Sam stood in the dining room sulking for another long while (I lost track of time).

Moving on to Friday....he ate breakfast and lunch. Time to move on to the ravioli for dinner. Poor Chris was the one that dealt with the meltdown over dinner apparently. I was out with my mom eating and painting (more to come on that in a later post) and I get a text message from Chris saying..."Your son did not eat any dinner and will not listen so he is sitting in daddy's lap until bedtime." I immediately thought....this is not good. Standing his ground, Chris told Sam that he gets ravioli for breakfast on Saturday morning. This boy is going to eat the ravioli if it kills both of us.

Saturday morning (day 3)...I serve up the ravioli for Sam's breakfast. Same excuses...."I don't like it" and on and on. He sat at the table sulking and refusing to eat for probably 45 minutes. I finally took it away and told him that he gets it at lunch again. Lunch time rolls near and same story....

I had to figure out some way to make this boy eat at least one bite. That was all I was asking for at this point. I finally decided maybe I try to go back to the story of the wonderful philosopher, Dr. Seuss. We talked about the book "Green Eggs and Ham." I encouraged Sam to try the ravioli--just one bite and we could finally move on from here. He FINALLY took the plunge. Granted, the first small bite he took, immediately got spit out. Telling him that wouldn't work, he had to swallow to make it count, he tried again. He stuck to his guns saying he didn't like it, but we made an agreement and he got to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and fruit. All of which he chowed down in less than 15 minutes. Guess he was pretty hungry at that point.

Whoever thought that parenting would be easy....I've got some words for them!