Progress!!

I've posted before about Caleb's horrible food habits. The list of foods that he'll actually eat is pretty short, especially for a 3-year-old. Isaac eats just as many (if not more) foods than Caleb.

But things have taken a turn in the past few weeks. At the end of March, we went out to lunch at Tin Star with some dear friends of ours, Lin and CaLyn. Caleb had a quesadilla--which in an of itself is a pretty new form of food for him. But then he took a french fry and, at CaLyn's encouragement, dipped it into ketchup and ATE it! I know, I know, it's still junk food. But before that point, Caleb never would have dipped any one food into another food. Any time we suggested it, he looked at us like we were crazy.

A week or so after that, I had some chips and queso from Taco Cabana. (We eat healthily around here most of the time, but we do have our vices!) He has always liked chips and asks for them whenever I get them. This time, I told him he could have one if he'd dip it in the cheese first. I expected a flat refusal, but he complied! And he liked it! Ever since then, he has loved chips with queso!

And here comes the real biggie in my book: on Wednesday night, I hosted a pizza party for some of the kids at Awana for meeting a Scripture memory goal. I told Caleb a few days before hand that he could go to the party with me, and that there would be big kids there eating pizza. "I want to eat pizza, too!" he kept saying. He's said stuff like this before, then balked at the actual tasting, so I didn't hold my breath. But sure enough, at the party he loaded a plate with a piece of pizza, went to sit down without me, then called from across the room, "Mommy, I'm eating pizza!" I went over to see him, and I just about cried. My child was eating the same meal I was! There is hope that we can all eat the same food together at the dinner table someday!

After the pizza party, I had to lead Awana, so Caleb went to childcare. I had brought some snacks for him to have during the pizza party if he had refused to eat the pizza, and I gave those to his teacher in case he got hungry later. I had forgotten that there was some blackberry pomegranate yogurt in the bag--a snack I had intended for me. When I picked Caleb up from childcare, his teacher said, "Caleb ate all of his yogurt." I just stood there, with what I'm sure was a very stupid look on my face. "He ate that yogurt? Wow!"

Caleb actually likes yogurt, but until now he's always just wanted plain yogurt with no flavoring. If he'll eat flavored yogurt now, I can make him some with real fresh fruit in there! I can hide all sorts of nutrition in yogurt if he'll let me. He ended up having not one but two more of those flavored yogurt containers the next day. (Which is great because he's currently on an antibiotic.) I hope that he's not stuck on it being in a commercial container, but we'll see.

All in all, I am SO pleased with his progress. We are finally getting somewhere! Please pray that he'll continue to try new foods--and that not all of them will be junk!