Is it too early to use the 'no dessert for you' threat?

If your meal options were a chicken and vegetable casserole made by your dad (see also: grilled cheese sandwich, homemade spaghetti and meatballs, cottage cheese with fruit) or some store bought combination of pureed meats, vegetables, starches, and goodness knows what else, wouldn't you choose something from behind door #1? I'm going to go ahead and assume you would, because if it was my choice to make? I would most definitely run far, far away from anything including pureed meats.

Even if the chicken and vegetable casserole did spend enough time in the food processor to come out looking like...well, like food processed chicken and vegetable casserole, I guess.



My child, on the other hand, she's having some trouble letting go of the pureed meats. Well, maybe it's not even that, since she hasn't exactly been clamoring for the purees lately, either. Maybe it's just that she's becoming a bit of a picky eater, this kid. And since Steve or I usually end up wearing something she's not all that into eating, I'm not very happy with this turn of events. We'd been slowly trying to introduce table food into Brigid's diet over the last couple of months, but when we went in to see the pediatrician last week, she mentioned that Brigid should basically be off of baby food by the time we head in for the 12-month appointment. So we needed to step it up.

And we have. And it has sucked. A LOT.

Now she's fighting the table food, ignoring the baby food, and becoming too distracted for the bottle. It's like she heard the doctor say she was 80th percentile weight/50th percentile length, and decided she needed to watch her figure. It's becoming a little frustrating, honestly.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Two nights ago, she did give in to the spaghetti and meatball concoction Steve put together for her, and yesterday for lunch, I'm told she put back an entire quarter of a grilled cheese sandwich. So we'll get there. Eventually. I guess.

And anyway, if all else fails, a kid can always exist entirely on Nilla Wafers and yogurt melts, right?

Right.