Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ailey is a picky eater. Duh, right? She's 3. Her palate invites such things as mac-n-cheese, quesadillas, jam sandwiches (hold the pb, please). She is at least good about her fruits and veggies. She might turn her nose up at hotdogs, but she'll eat broccoli. I swear she's also just never hungry. She sometimes eats less in a day than other moms are probably feeding their kids for a snack. So having a hungry kid to try new foods on isn't in my field of experience.

A few days ago as Ailey and I rolled through the grocery store she said, very matter-of-fact as if she says this kind of thing all the time: "Let's have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight, Mom." Huh? You won't eat spaghetti, tomato sauce of any kind, or any meat other than Papa Murphy's sausage, and you're asking for a meal you've never eaten before? "OK, honey. We'll have spaghetti and meatballs tonight." It just so happened that I had some meatballs, and I always have the other ingredients on hand. As I started to make dinner Ailey still seemed to be on board with our spaghetti and meatballs. She watched as I put the spaghetti into the pot and she informed Andy what we were having for dinner.

Now, Andy and I are still in the habit of feeding the kids and then eating our own dinner after they are in bed. It's been our habit for a long time, and, well, habits are hard to break. The few times we've attempted dinner as a family either Andy or I or both of us end up eating our food cold or warming it up later after they are all in bed anyway. Mostly because Marin and Silje are still high maintenance at meals - they only get a few bits at a time on the tray, they're sometimes spoon-fed, and they're always screaming asking for something. I know other families are able to pull off dinner as a family regularly - send me your tricks! But we're still working on getting there.

For spaghetti and meatballs, however, we tried dinner together. I think Andy opted out of eating immediately. He took on Marin and Silje (who aren't yet picky eaters and devoured everything except the spaghetti noodles themselves) while I sat down to eat next to Ailey to observe what she would do with this dinner that she had asked for but that I was pretty sure would go uneaten.

There's something to be said for Mother's Intuition, but I really don't think my predictions deserve that much honor in this case. Anyone who's been around picky 3 year olds could have guessed that she still would have nothing to do with tomato sauce, still wouldn't like the feel of spaghetti, and still sticks her nose up at any meat other than Papa Murphy's sausage. She did eat up the garlic bread alright.

I have yet to nail down the source of Ailey's spaghetti and meatballs dinner request. It may have been that Emily Elizabeth had spaghetti and meatballs with Clifford recently. Or maybe it's because she's been reading On Top of Spaghetti by Paul Brett Johnson, one of our favorites. No matter, if she actually asks to eat something I will happily oblige and maybe one of these days she will actually eat it!