S-T-U-B-B-O-R-N

Today marks one week since B has eaten mac & cheese. ONE WEEK without his beloved meal that he literally had been eating close to every day. It is by far his favorite food - one that he requests by name - yep, that's a 3 word request which we don't get many of.  But here's the thing: he eats it with his hands. Disgusting would be putting it mildly. Not only does he shove it in but he likes to squeeze it between his fingers and often rubs his eyebrows, hair, chair, clothes etc. before we can get him cleaned up. And I'm done with that. He is perfectly proficient with a spoon so it's not a skill issue. And let's face it, it's not like mac & cheese has a lot of nutritional value. He just has SUCH an incredibly limited diet that it's hard to mess with it. And, like I said, he requests it by name. Still, I shudder to think of the idea of having say an 8 year old who eats with his hands.

So last Monday, we bit the bullet. The idea was just to get him to take 1 bite with the spoon and then he could have as much as he wanted the way he's used to eating it. Then gradually, we'd increase the requirement until the hands were no longer an option. He didn't take to the idea. He cried and threw himself down on the floor and did all of the things that toddlers do when they throw a fit. Every time we tried, he would cry and throw himself into my arms pitifully. We've been presenting a spoonful of mac and cheese once or twice a day now for a week and he hasn't budged. He doesn't get upset anymore - just won't go near it. I'm guessing we'll back off a bit and wait and see if he'll request it again. Or we may just be done with mac and cheese all together. Unfortunately for B, I can be stubborn too.

Okay so this picture is from almost 2 years ago and it's not quite this bad now - it's no longer bib-worthy. But you can see he has a long history with the stuff and you can see how it might not be all that fun to clean up. And you can see how stinkin adorable he was!