Zucchini

I have always wanted Charlie to be a good eater. By that I mean someone who likes most vegetables, isn't afraid of cuisine from other countries and is willing to at least try something once. I started this quest from the beginning by making all of his baby food. We exposed to him to lots of different veggies, fruits and flavors. For the most part I have been pretty successful. Broccoli is one of his favorite vegetables, and he will eat Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Cajun, American, and French food (these are all that I can think that we have had him try.) But over the past several months, he has refused to eat zucchini. The only way I could get him to eat zucchini was to purée it and add it to red sauce. But, that wasn't good enough, I want Charlie to like vegetables, not simply get his nutrients from me sneaking veggies in to other foods. I finally remembered how the only way I would eat zucchini as a child was when my grandma fried it. Now, this wasn't fried zucchini like you get on the appetizer menu at some restaurants. The zucchini was sliced in thin circles, dredged in flour and pan fried until crisp. They almost had the consistency of potato chips. Then we would salt then and eat them for a snack.
So I fried up some zucchini and placed it on a plate in the middle of the table, placing a few pieces on Charlie's plate. While Doug and I dived in, we tried to convince Charlie how yummy it was. His first response was "me no like zucchini". After cajoling and scheming, we finally resulted into bribery. "If you eat on piece of zucchini you can get down and play." After some dramatics, where he pretended to eat some, he finally ate one piece. Wow! he liked it, he ate the remaining pieces on his plate and the few scraps Doug and I had left behind. I felt like doing the victory dance!!!
Tonight for dinner I made noodles and chicken, one of his favorite meals. In the broth I added onions and carrots for the veggies. Charlie took one look at the carrots floating in his bowl (once one of his favorite vegetables) and declared "me no like carrots".
AAAGGGHHHH back to battle vegetable, staring carrots.

For Charlie's birthday he received some money from his Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Tom. We went to Target yesterday and I let him pick out any one toy he wanted to buy with his birthday money. After walking down EVERY aisle, he decided on this motorized dragon. It walks, flaps his wings and roars. Here are some pictures.


Charlie asked me to take this picture of him, his dragon & T-rex.



Alex chasing the dragon


Roaring like a dragon