New Broccoli and New Hampshire Pizza

A few years ago I heard the story of new broccoli.  Apparently it's better than regular, old broccoli.  My friend told me that her friend's kid refused to eat broccoli.  The parents tried every which way to get the child to eat the vegetable and all attempts failed.  One day, when the mom was cooking dinner, she told her son that she wasn't making broccoli; she was making new broccoli.  He probably wouldn't want it since he didn't eat broccoli.

Of course the child wanted to try anything that was called "new" and has been a broccoli fan ever since that day.

I have to brag a little and say I think I do a pretty good job of getting my kids to eat.  While they aren't the kinds of kids who will be adventurous enough to try tika masala and escargot, they do a pretty good job of eating overall. 

Aaron, however, won't eat pizza. 

...

I know.  I know.  Pick your jaw up off the floor and keep reading. 

When the boys were about a year old I started taking them to a pizza shop around the corner from my Chicago home.  It was amazing pizza and for about $5.00 I could get enough pizza for the three of us for lunch.  The boys happily gummed their pizza and I got out of the house for an hour.  It was great.

One day, when Aaron was maybe two years old (I'm totally guessing) he declared that the red sauce was "sour."  (Sour was the word for any food he didn't like.)  I thought it was a phase but for the next two plus years pizza was verboten on his plate.

My parents live in NYC and white pizza is popular there.  My parents introduced him to white pizza which is basically just bread and cheese.  We were now able to go out for pizza as long as the place could make a white pizza for Aaron.  Over the last two years we have scoped out the restaurants that could make pizza without sauce and life was decent again even if we had to order double the amount of pizzas we wanted.  At least we came home with leftovers and I could have cold (white) pizza for breakfast.

A few months ago a parent at my boys' school decided to treat the kids with some pizza.  Aaron asked the teacher for white pizza.  The teacher explained that the "red pizza" was the only kind of pizza she had and Aaron could eat it if he wanted or eat nothing at all.  He ate it.

I was shocked.

But now I knew that eating pizza was a possibility.

This past weekend my family headed up to New Hampshire to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary.  One night we got pizza.  We ordered a red pizza (or as everyone else in the world calls it: a pizza) and a white pizza.  Aaron ate a piece of white pizza and wanted more.  Someone (I think it was me...but maybe I'm stealing the credit) told Aaron that we ordered New Hampshire red pizza which was different than other red pizza.  Aaron decided to try it. 

He ate it.

He liked it.

He can now attend birthday parties where they only serve pizza -- I mean New Hampshire red pizza.

Yesterday we went to a food court and I ordered a piece of white pizza and "New Hampshire" red pizza even though we were in Boston.  Miraculously they make New Hampshire red pizza.  (wink wink)  Aaron ate it and liked it.

So we have learned a few things. 

• Broccoli is yucky. 
• New broccoli is yummy. 
• Red pizza is yucky. 
• New Hampshire red pizza is yummy. 
• Kids are easy to fool

Now, if only I can figure out a way to get both of my kids to eat mac 'n cheese again.  They stopped eating that a few days after I bought a package of 18 boxes at Costco.  Ugh!

Our Family Doubled

About a month ago Jeff came up with a magical, invisible friend.  She (I believe it was a she when she first appeared) showed up a few times over the course of a week and would often stay for a short time.  Aaron's magical, invisible friend came a few times too but very rarely. 

Then the friends disappeared.

A few weeks later Jeff's friend came back again.  She is here to stay, it seems, considering how often she has been with us.  Over the last week or two I have learned several things about her.  Her name is Silly.  She sleeps in Jeff's bed most nights under her own blanket but sometimes sleeps up in our lofted space on the toddler sized plastic slide.  (I'm sure that's not very comfortable.)  She has two moms.  She sometimes eats with us or comes into the car with us but sometimes she will eat the dinner her moms cook or ride in a car with her moms.  Oh, and her moms are named Miss Movie and Miss Candy because they let Silly watch movies (i.e. a cartoon on Netflix) and give her candy.

Aaron's friend is named Shiny.  We don't hear much about her, although we do know she is a she.  Just yesterday I found out that she is not a human being; she is a star.  Aaron drew a picture of her and she was a red and orange "star" -- although it looked more like an amoeba and she may have been red and orange because those were the colors of crayons Aaron got at the restaurant.

So it seems that our family of four is now eight and it includes two daughters (one human and one star) and two moms who are named after overindulging their children.