Jordan

The other day, a friend asked if I could watch her kids for a few hours. (Ages 9 and 2 ½) It would be in the evening so she told me that her 2 ½ year old is very picky about eating and pretty much all he eats is spaghetti O’s or pizza. “I’ll send over a can of spaghetti O’s with him” The first thing that came to mind (and I kept it in my head) was Gross!......there will be no spaghetti O’s in my house! I can work with pizza though. “Don’t worry about it….we’ll make pizza” I told her. So that’s what we did. The kids helped me make the pizza with whole wheat dough and Jordan (2 ½ year old) counted the uncured nitrate free pepperoni as we placed it on top. We also made a salad. Jordan helped tear the green lettuce leaves and I cut up carrot and red bell pepper sticks. I always make sure to make plain salads for kids and keep the veggies on the side. I’ve learned that children like things separated. We put lettuce into bowls and topped them with a slightly sweet, yummy, poppy seed dressing and displayed the colorful carrot and pepper sticks on a big plate which we set in the middle of the table. Jordan helped set a plate of pizza and a bowl of salad at each setting. He was excited to call the big boys (his brother and my son) to come and eat. We all sat down. I didn’t say a word to Jordan about any of the food that was in front of him. The older boys immediately started eating carrots and peppers. Jordan watching, reached out and took a carrot stick and a pepper stick and placed them on his plate next to the pizza. He then took a bite of pizza. He watched the older boys as they devoured everything hearing his big brother exclaim “ummm….this salad is really good”. Jordan picked up his fork and took a bite of his salad. He smiled! He then decided to try the carrot stick. He nibbled back and forth between the pizza, salad, and carrot stick. Finally, he got brave and picked up the red bell pepper stick, took a bite, and this time decided that he didn’t like it so much. So he went back to the carrot. At the end of our meal time, Jordan ate all of his pizza, most of the carrot stick, and his entire bowl of salad! Success! And not once did I tell him that he had to eat his veggies!