You Won't Believe It!

I have such exciting and shocking news for you, dear readers! Tonight, at dinner,

Rachel....
Ate....
Broccoli.

Just in case my dramatic presentation didn't catch your attention, let me say that again:

Rachel...
Ate....
Broccoli.

More than one piece! In fact, she actually asked for MORE!

Those of you who know Rachel even a little bit, know what a big deal this is. This child eats ZERO vegetables. Not even corn. Not even carrots. Not even sweet potatoes (or regular potatoes, for that matter). It's so bad I have almost given up trying.

Tonight we were having an incredibly healthy meal of Sam's Club pizza (can you read the sarcasm there?). Because I was feeling guilty about this, I threw a bag of frozen broccoli in the microwave to steam. I almost wasn't even going to try to give any to Rachel. Thankfully, she seems to for the most part be over her extended phase of throwing unwanted food on the floor. These days, when she doesn't want something I give her, she will just whine and hold it out to hand it back to me, until I take it from her. I thought this is what would happen tonight with the broccoli. So imagine my shock when she ASKED for it! Before I even gave her any! She said, "I wan flower." (Yes, she called it "flowers," completely on her own.)

The first bite of the broccoli, she put in her mouth while she still had a bite of pizza in there, and she actually ate it! The next bite, eaten with no pizza, produced the usual response (spitting it out, saying, "Don' like it!"). I decided to experiment....maybe she would accept it if the flavor was mixed with the flavor of the pizza. I put a "flower" on her piece of pizza and gave it to her. And she ATE IT!!! She asked for MORE!!!! She kept saying, "I wan flower on pizza." She probably ate at least a dozen bites that way, if not more. I sure hope her digestive system can handle so much vegetables! Ha ha!

To be entirely honest, this novelty did eventually wear off, and she started picking the broccoli off the pizza, but she really did eat quite a bit this way before growing tired of it. Bill and I just looked at each other in shock, not wanting to make too big a deal or draw too much attention to it, so that she wouldn't stop eating it. Granted, the next time I try to feed broccoli to her this way, she will probably refuse to eat it. We've learned that just because she eats something once (or twice, or twenty times) doesn't mean she'll eat it the next time. Try, try again, though, I guess. And tonight, I'll take the victory, small though it may be!