I Don't Like That

When David was a baby there was only one thing he wouldn't eat—pears. Everything else was devoured. As a toddler he would eat everything in sight. When we ate out with several of my cousins and their families when he was just 15 months old he ate all his food and half of everyone else’s at the table.

When he became about five years old he would go through spurts where he only wanted to eat one thing at every meal. For about a week it would be hot dogs then he would refuse to eat them because he didn't like them. Then it was scrambled eggs, then ... well you get the gist. At around this time he convinced himself he didn't like anything with barbecue sauce on it, it couldn't even touch the rest of his food or he would refuse to eat it. If I made ribs, his had to be cooked separately without any sauce.

Just a few months ago after cooking a dinner with one set of chicken with barbecue sauce it and another without he decided he wanted the chicken with the sauce—aargh! I explained that he would need to eat the chicken that was made for him. This of course only made him want the chicken with sauce even more. So I let him use the leftover sauce on his. That did it. “I love barbecue sauce,” was the new refrain. He even laughed over his long refusal to eat anything with barbecue sauce.

This past weekend I made ribs and Rich and I had to fight to get any of the ribs before David scarfed them down. He even requested that I save three of the ribs so he could take them to school the next day for lunch.