You Won't Believe What Drew Ate!

A little background: my oldest, Drew (age 10) is the World's Most Finicky Eater! He truly does hold the title. He has been this way since he was about 18 months old. That was the last time he ate scrambled eggs, which he used to enjoy. He was around that same age when he had his first - and last - McDonald's hamburger. Wolfed it down completely, said he liked it, and would never agree to eat another one again.

I'm sure his diet is part of the reason he's so small. I do try to introduce him to healthful foods but I learned long ago [WARNING: the rest of this sentence is not for the squeamish! You may want to skip to the next paragraph. Still here? Don't say I didn't warn you!] - he can barf at will, without any silly tricks like using a finger. That's pretty much when I gave up the Food Fight. Meanwhile, none of the doctors he's ever been to have been particularly concerned about his finickiness.

He likes sugary breakfasts: waffles and pop-tarts, especially. I can, sometimes, get him to eat slow cook oatmeal, sweetened with just a touch of cinnamon and sugar. This summer at camp he discovered French Toast. He doesn't like the way I cook it, though (I, too, am a title holder: World's Worst Cook), so I end up buying the Eggo frozen kind.

He loves peanut butter and jelly sandwiches made on whole wheat bread. He'll eat chicken nuggets, but not chicken tenders. You see, once you bite a chicken tender it's no longer covered by batter on all sides so it loses all appeal. A nugget he'll pretty much eat whole. This is the only meat he'll eat, other than the occasional hotdog (which he'll eat begrudgingly). He'll eat macaroni and cheese only if it's made from the foul orange powder! Nothing that looks like real cheese, please. He'll eat cheese pizza, though. His favorite all time food, though, is pasta with marinara sauce.

He does sometimes eat raisins, apples, grapes and the occasional banana. He very rarely eats candy and despises soda. The only 'sweets' he'll eat (besides breakfast) are the cheap iced oatmeal cookies from WalMart. He'll drink milk, Hawaiian punch, lemonade or fruit juice. This past year, he actually added broccoli to his diet. He used to eat only the teeniest florets, he's now started to eat the stems.

And now to the point: Yesterday afternoon he says, "Mom, next time you and Dad have sushi, can I try some?" After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I called Dear Hubby who raced to the local grocery to pick up some California rolls for dinner. Our favorite sushi place had already closed for the day. I sat across the table and watched - with tears in my eyes - my picky baby eat four (!) California rolls. Heck, six filled me up. Granted, he ate them with his fingers and dipped them in ketchup but still....it's sushi! (more or less) He said he liked them - and this is the kicker - he'd like to have them again sometime! Woo hoo!