Chip Off the Old Block, Unfortunately.

My son won't eat macaroni & cheese. Do you know how much this pains me?!?!?! Adam is trying to blame Jeremiah's picky eating habits on ME, can you believe that? However, some of the things that Jeremiah refuses to eat are my favorites! So how can that be my fault? Noodles. He won't eat noodles of any kind, for crying out loud! I could live off noodles! This is what Jeremiah does with noodles (or anything else "mushy"):

Our daycare provider, Michelle, had a small victory this week-- she got him to eat ravioli and peas! Apparently there were some tears, lots of song singing, and applesauce as a "chaser." But he did it! And he even said, "Mmmmm." So, we were bound and determined to continue this at home this weekend. Today for lunch we attempted spaghetti-o's.... and it did not go well. I held Jeremiah's arms down and held his head still while Adam tried to spoon a spaghetti-o into J's mouth (as he was screaming and wildly shaking his head back and forth). We got 1 "o" in there and Jeremiah promptly stuck his fingers in his mouth, grabbed it out, and threw it on the tray. Hmmm. Well, in an effort to show our 13 month old that we indeed ARE the parents and he WILL do what we say, we tried again. And Jeremiah spit out the "o" again and then started gagging. Huh. So, the 13 month old won, we gave up and he gobbled down applesauce, string cheese, and muffin instead.

So, are we crazy? Is our 13 month old running the show here? Being a picky eater myself, I feel bad MAKING him eat stuff he doesn't like. However, I do feel that he WOULD like a lot of different things if he would only TRY them and actually chew them up and swallow them (I wonder if this is what my own mother went through with me?). But really, we can force food into his mouth all we want, but how can you force a kid to chew and swallow?!?!?

In an attempt to get Jeremiah to try some fruits (because we can't just cut them up and he'll eat them. No, he just uses his little finger to smoosh them.) we bought those little mesh feeding/chewing things. We thought if he just gets a TASTE of a fruit and likes it, then maybe he'll be more willing to pick it up off his tray and eat it. I tried pineapple yesterday, and although I think it was a bit sour for his taste, he chewed away on it and sucked the juice like crazy. So then I tried strawberries at dinner time. And he basically smooshed the mesh bag in his hands and watched the red juice squeeze out. So. There goes that great idea.

Oh well. I'm not ready to stress out about Jeremiah not eating mushy foods. He's as healthy as an ox and getting bigger and taller every day! So he must be doing okay on his "bread diet." I figure he'll come around sometime and will soon realize just how GOOD mac & cheese is (maybe I need to try Spirals?)!

One person (kind of) who is benefiting from Jeremiah's eating habits?

Molly LOVES meal time! :)

In other news, Jeremiah got another "owie" yesterday. It was Jeremiah Vs. the metal puzzle holder, and Jeremiah did not win. See his lip?

He likes to pull all the puzzles out of the rack. Then yesterday he thought he needed to carry the puzzle rack somewhere, and then he fell and it flipped up and hit him in the lip. Ouch.

If you are in the mood for cute, here's a little video (sorry about the shaky camera... how do people walk and take video at the same time?!?!?!).