Dinnertime Blues

I think I've mentioned on the blog once or twice that one of our main struggles with Eli is eating at the dinner table. This child has hated to sit down to eat since he was born. He is a wonderful on-the-go eater. He'll eat as many healthy snacks as you can put before him, but asking him to sit down to eat a full meal is just torture. Torture for him and torture for us. We've been very persistent and it's starting to pay off, but sometimes it's just so frustrating. 

The same night we made the Oobleck, I made Pioneer Woman's chicken pot pie. YUM-O! I've said before just how much I love Ree Drummond, but she has certainly helped make me LOVE to cook. I actually enjoy it now and don't treat it as something I have to do just because we have to eat. I love looking up new recipes and trying them out on my family and friends. This chicken pot pie was not a new recipe, but I hadn't cooked it in a long time, so it was time for it to make a revival in our house. 

(Sidenote: Chicken pot pie is actually one of the meals my hubs doesn't like to eat that much. Crazy, right? Well, when we first got married and I thought cooking was awful, I made chicken pot pie, taco soup, chicken spaghetti, and shepherd's pie all the time because they were easy. Josh got tired of those meals because he had them the first 5 years of our marriage. Every now and then one of them has a great comeback, but for the most part they've been sidelined for years!)

This particular night I called Eli to the table and he immediately said "I don't like that." Well, that doesn't fly in our house. If Mommy cooks it, you're going to eat it. Eli wasn't too thrilled with that idea. He sat there and pouted for quite a while. Josh and I finished our food quickly (it was SOO GOOD!) and then it was just Eli. I told him he had to start eating and couldn't get up until he finished. He really didn't like that and started to cry. I just happened to have my camera sitting next to me, so I started taking pictures of him crying. I just wanted to distract him and get him in a better mood so he would finish his food and be done! At first, he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of Mommy taking pictures of him...

Then it was kind of funny...

Then it became a game....

My trick worked. He turned that frown upside down and was able to finish ALL of his meal. Maybe I should keep a camera near me at all times...