And the winner is ..... Mummy!

This evening, dinner time, that time of day that usually puts me in mind of witching hour and seems to render my children unable to speak to me without whingeing. Oli-in-the-middle is our little fruit bat, the child will mainline as much fruit as you can possily throw at him at any given time, will he eat a vegetable though? Nope, not if he can see it anyways (hence my stunning ability to hide veg in all manner of things!) Anyway, he's 4, he's always been like this and I've grown used to watching him eat everything except the veg on his plate so have just assumed that was how he'd stay. Jbird will eat pretty much anything as long as you give you him a full rundown of what it's doing to his body (slightly boring at every meal but we do the whole 'this provides Vit C/D/Iron and makes you run/jump higher/faster') He's happy with that, J's our little athlete so reassurances that by eating veg he'll retain his 'fastest boy in Y2' crown always work their magic. Leni-lou's another voracious eater and is happy as long as noone interferes with the way she wants to eat. I look back fondly on the days when I could spoon feed her, she's now insistent she can do it and has a total freak if you dare try and do it for her. My walls/floor/table are testament to her fiercely independent streak when it comes to feeding!

So, today, after a day of one tantrum after another *grits teeth, I know, I know, he's just started school, he's tired and strung out and this too will pass but c'mon, give me a break, he's been HORRIBLE* it was dinner time. Tonight's dinner was pizza and steamed veg, a mid week standby for days when I don't have the inclination/energy/brain power to come up with ways to hide veg in proper food stuffs. It's pretty standard Ol behaviour to eat the pizza 'as long as it's not touching the vegetables' and leave anything green/leafy/vitamin filled on his plate. This evening, after an afternoon spent in meltdown for various reasons (slipping on the wooden floor and 'breaking my foooooot', Peppa Pig not being on, his milk cup being 'just wrong' etc etc etc ad infinitum) the child ate every last thing on his plate - babycorn, broccoli, carrots and peas. Every.thing. And then had seconds, all the while telling me chirpily how much he 'loves carrots, they make my eyes see better'. This is the child who even as a weaning baby would resolutely seal his mouth shut if I veered a spoon full of broccoli smush too close. The child who, aged 18 months, made himself puke rather than ingest a pea.

He had seconds!!! I can't tell you how much I wanted to stand on the table doing a victory dance whilst chanting 'in your face Ol, told you you'd eat veg one day, you looooose, I win!' I may do it later, in private, to myself.

One small step for Ol-kind, one giant leap for Mummy-kind .... mind you, he's staying for lunch at school tomorrow and having hot dinners (he's been packed lunches up until now) so I wish the dinner ladies (sorry, midday supervisors) all the luck in the world with him. Bet they're far too professional to do a victory dance anyway.