Picky-Pots!

Wednesday, November 19th--Okay, so last night, for dinner, it was a pathetic sight. My kids have decided they are going to be picky eaters---Brady not nearly as bad as Elise, in fact he's getting better. Granted, both Nate and I are picky eaters (me, of course, liking all the bad foods for me and hating most of the good ones). My pickiness is because I've tried things and just don't like them.
When Elise was a toddler we fed her everything we ate and she loved it all. I was so excited at the thought that my child would probably not be picky. How wrong I was! Over and over again, she would like something one day and refuse to try it the next. Over time I just lost patience and stopped offering or forcing her to try it. Brady has always been a good eater (obviously!) but he seems to follow Elise's lead on many things so he's been trying to be more picky but we've discovered he can be "bribbed" with things such as Xbox or Matchbox cars, etc. (not the most effective way but it works for now). Well I'm at a point that I'm just so sick of making two to three meals for dinner. I know a lot of it is my fault, I should have put my foot down a long time ago.
Last night I made spaghetti. The very word puts Elise into this tantrum-throwing monster so I gave it a new name. She likes pasta, "pizza" sauce, melted cheese and sausage so I told her it's a new dish called "pizza pasta". She was quite skeptical, which made Brady skeptical. I told them both they could earn some time on the Wii if they would just take a few bites. Brady did right away and decided he liked it so he finished his plate. WOOHOO! Elise, on the other hand, holy moly, what a drama queen! I told her she needed to eat two big bites and then she could be done. She held that fork with the first bite for over an hour, making up excuse after excuse "I need a drink", "I have to go potty", "My head itches", "Brady won't stop talking to me", "Bohdee keeps licking my feet", etc., etc. Finally, Nate and I had enough. Nate picked her up and was taking her to her room when she promised she would take a bite. She sat there again for another 15 minutes. It was only when we turned on the Wii to play a game of family bowling did she realize we meant business. She couldn't stand to be left out! She took a bite and rather than gagging she went........."mmmm, this is good!" An hour and a half later, tantrums galore, only to find out if she had just tasted it in the first place she would have loved it all along. OH the humanity!