The Plight of a Picky Eater

Toddlers are picky eaters - this I totally understand. I would like to say though that Julian falls into the 'impossibly picky' category. He has only maybe 10 foods that he regularly accepts, and efforts to get him to try new foods have been routinely failing since he started putting his own food in his mouth. Because of these challenges, going out to eat (or being out and about during dinner time) is something that creates anxiety for me. If the restaurant does not have french fries, then my kid will likely starve. No joke.

So, this evening when Eddie and I decided to take Julian on an impromptu mall shopping trip that went a little longer than planned, we had to think on our feet. Julian was asking for a hot dog (one of the very few acceptable foods, although he is rather picky about it's preparation.) We searched the food court to no avail when we remembered that this evening was the big pep rally in town...and it was taking place just outside the mall. Insert hopeful face here!! So we began the grueling trek through the purple-covered crowds and finally find our way to the first food tent promising hot dogs....only, they're out of hot dogs. We move on, still hopeful and find a second tent - this one actually has hot dogs and we purchase said hot dog and a limeade for more money than a whole meal would cost at McDonalds....but that's ok, because we have a hot dog. This is all that matters! Now, Julian being picky about how his hot dogs are CUT, we ask for plastic-ware. They have none....so again we brave the crowds and finally find a tent with a plastic knife. We are literally patting ourselves on the back at this point. We head back into the mall, sit down our STARVING toddler, cut up his hot dog and present it on his plate. He takes one look at it and responds "Ketchup."  Oh crap. How could we forget ketchup? There's no way we're spending another 20 minutes walking through insane crowds to chase down ketchup, so once again Eddie hits the food court as I sit with my child reassuring him that a hot dog is SCRUMPTIOUS even without ketchup....to no avail. Eddie returns sans ketchup (his search turned up none) and my child fell apart. We are looking at $4 worth of hot dog here, and a starving child and I cannot for the life of me make the hot dog go INTO his belly and thus end our suffering....so we did the next best thing. We wrapped the hot dog in a napkin and we made off for sonic like a bat out of hell. (In case you don't know, tater tots are like acceptable food #2.) So, 10 minutes and a lot of tears later, we have tater tots in hand when my child again asks for a hot dog. With ketchup. So here we go...we hand him his hot dog from earlier, manage to snag a couple of ketchup packets from the car hop and squirt a bit on his hot dog and watch as he licks it off and asks for more. More ketchup gets squirted onto the dog....more gets licked off....more squirted on, more licked off. By the time we start wondering why we don't just let him suck it directly out of the packet (FOR PETE'S SAKE) he finally shoves the whole piece of hot dog into his mouth.

With no ketchup on it.

Following the same pattern he actually consumed every last bit of hot dog, and not ONE piece had ketchup on it when he chewed it up. He also proceeded to eat his weight in tater tots (also sans ketchup.)

I don't think I will ever understand that kid.