Nathanny-man likes everything but is rarely willing to put something new in his mouth.  And by new, I mean anything he hasn’t eaten in the previous 3 days.  If he liked it 2 weeks ago, that means nothing!  It’s back on the “new food item” list!  Once we get one bite into him, he happily eats the rest of his food.  It’s that first bite that requires the extra parenting effort.

Tonight, Matt invented the Taste Test Game.  Frankly, I’m shocked that this even worked!  We asked our son to take a bite of his porkchop.  He said, “No, too hot!”  We waited for it to cool down and asked him again.  He said, “No, too bid!”  We chopped it up and asked him again.  He said, “No, it’s wutty!” (yucky).  So Matt said, “Let’s play the Taste Test Game.  You close your eyes and open your mouth and I’ll put something in your mouth and you can guess what it is!”  I immediately knew that he was going to cram porkchop bites into Nathaniel’s mouth and wondered why Thanny didn’t see through this scam instantaneously.  But he was excited about a game, and he responded with “ohtay!!!!” and a huge smile.

So what did Matt do?  He gave him a bite of porkchop!  Obviously.  When asked what it was, Nathaniel shrugged and said, “I not know!”  But wouldn’t you know it, Nathaniel liked porkchops… again. And Craisins… which he had at lunch but now that they are cooked and juicy at dinner, they are back on the “new food item” list.  He was SO proud that he could guess each of his food items on the first try on the ninth through twenty-seventh rounds of the new game.

I wondered where Matt came up with this and then I remembered… we did watch Mary Poppins recently.  “Snap!  The chore’s a game!”