Food issues

I cringed as I put the title on this blog, which I'm doing only because Drew made me promise not to headline it "Bad Mommy Part 435." It's easy to feel like I'm a bad mommy when Rachel refuses to eat anything but the following: Gardenburgers. Liquid vegetables from baby food jars. Cheese sticks. Pasta shells. Apples. Water. Milk.

Drew has decided that we are too complacent with giving her whatever she wants to eat, which I'm beginning to resent. When I was pregnant, we vowed that we wouldn't fix two meals a night to satisfy our little princess. She'd have to eat what we ate, or she wouldn't eat. (Well, maybe a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A brilliant friend of mine offered that choice to her son when he was going through a picky period. After a month, he got tired of it and resumed eating what the rest of the family was eating). Well, she's not even 2 years old and I'm already a short-order cook. How did we get here?

At daycare, she has started refusing the lunch which she ate quite willingly when she was in the infants section. Teacher Karen thinks that Rachel is holding out until she gets home and gets to eat what she wants. (Rachel did, however, love eating the turkey sandwiches they made yesterday). When she moves to the Toddler 2 section, we will no longer be able to supplement the day-care food with food from home. She eats whatever they serve her, or nothing at all. (We have decided to stop bringing supplemental food, just so she's prepared).

The last two nights I've tried to feed her tomatoes (Monday) and corn kernels (today). The tomato was a total disaster -- when I didn't immediately take it away when she rejected it, she sobbed -- and I mean really sobbed. She had a huge look of betrayal on her face: "Why is Mommy so mad at me? What have I done?" And tonight wasn't much better. I ate the corn with her spoon, I took a couple of kernels in my hands and put them in my mouth, making yummy noises all the time -- nothing.

I am at my wits' end. I want to take this kid to restaurants here and overseas. I want her to discover how wonderful food can be when prepared with love and energy. But I can't do that if she doesn't like what I cook.