A first for Anne

As your kid gets older, the amount of "firsts" go down and down. Think about it-those first few days of life, everything is a first! The first time they breath air, the first time they cry, the first time you hold them, the first time they look into your eyes, etc. Then the next time they look into your eyes, it isn't a first anymore. I know Anne still has lots of firsts to go through-her first day of school, her first date, first kiss, etc but those are getting fewer and farther between. Two nights ago, she had a first! Her first time eating salad! Anne's always, always, always been more of a texture girl than a taste girl with regards to rejecting foods. Up until she was almost 2 years old, she could not eat anything that had any sort of crunch to it at all. She would eat veggies, but only if they were well cooked and mushier. Anything with a crunch immediately got spit out. So we worked with it but quickly learned to not even try and give her stuff that wasn't well cooked. The other night we were having salad (as we do most nights) and I decided that Anne could try one little lettuce leaf. She's been doing much better with the texture thing-so much so that I don't even really think about it when making her food-but still, I was a bit apprehensive about the lettuce. This was pure crunch-no getting out of that. She, of course, did not want anything to do with it. In fact, when I had decided to put salad on her plate, I was so excited and told John it was going to be her first salad-she comes running in from the other room and says "No salad! I don't want salad!" Well, we are not parents who cater to what she wants to eat-if I put it on her plate, she has to eat it. I put one little lettuce leaf, one walnut and several raisins and some ranch dressing on all of it. She hemmed and hawed about the first bite, but actually didn't complain once she was eating it. She even asked for more and went on to eat 2 or 3 more leaves! Whoo hoo! Anne's now an official member of Mommy and Daddy's Dinner Party.

Anne's first salad!

See how thrilled she is with this prospect?