Real Time: Well, At Least His Brain Works

From the moment he started eating non-mashed solid food, eating fruits and vegetables has been a deep struggle for Aidan. When he was two, I devised elaborate storylines simply to coax him to eat a piece of roasted broccoli or butternut squash. He gagged and threw up while eating the worst offenders, and he refused to acknowledge that anything that fell into those two camps of fruit and vegetable could ever be delicious. Over the last seven years, I've consistently worked with him on enjoying what his natural inclinations fought against, and he's now a defender of fresh blackcaps and blueberries, along with roasted broccoli, butternut, brussels, and carrots (though fresh bananas, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and more are still on the hit list).

Raw vegetables still cause problems, but in the last two years, he's learned to enjoy a limited few, including fresh sugar snap peas. So this morning when he asked when we were planting the gardens, he then asked if we were planting peas. When I told him we were, he said, "Good! YUM!"

Capitalizing on this, and adding in a bit of peer pressure, I told him how glad I am that he now knows how delicious some of his old enemies are and talked about how eager I am for him to enjoy fresh sungold tomatoes with the rest of the family. 

I said, "I can't wait until you gobble them along with us, Aidan! Everyone in the whole family loves sungold tomatoes. You're the only one who doesn't! Do you think EVERYONE in the whole family is wrong, or do you think maybe you're wrong?"

Without skipping a beat, he replied with a devious grin, "Everyone in the whole family is right-handed. You're the only one who isn't! Do you think EVERYONE in the whole family is wrong?!"

Touché.