Eating relatives

I've been having food woes lately. Not my own. (Although I do wonder why do chocolate chips have to have so many calories.) Kaitlin's. I have managed to raise a picky eater. Not only is she picky, but she vehemently refuses try any new foods. Last week I fixed broccoli with dinner and after countless attempts to get her to eat that vegetable, she tried it, and liked it! But, alas, this is a rare occurrence. I've tried very hard to not fight her on it. Kaitlin is the queen of drawing me into power struggles. She really gets a kick out of it. Particularly with eating. She gets this devilish little look on her face that says, "You don't even want to go there, Mom. Haven't you learned that you can't make me do anything?". Then she slides down from her chair and runs out of the kitchen, all of the food on her plate untouched. Until a few days ago I had a strict policy of ignoring her. And denying her any further food for the night. That didn't work, though, because our nighttime routine is: dinner, get ready for bed, go to sleep. Where's the punishment of no further food for the night? There is no night in Kaitlin's life. She goes to bed before the sun is fully set.

Last week my sister invited us over to dinner at her house. I brought the leftover carnitas from Jill's party and she bought rice and beans from Mi Ranchito (which makes the best rice ever!!). Kaitlin would touch nothing but the rice--the only food she'll eat in any of it's myriad forms. So at the urging of my sister I resorted to the preferred desperation tactic of parents everwhere--the airplane. I showed Kaitlin how it worked. Then I let her choose who would be riding on the next plane. We ran through everyone in the room--Jenna, Gabriel, Andrew, Mommy, Alexander. Then we came to Raul, my sister's husband. I shluld mention that Kaitlin and Raul have never really bonded. We usually hang out with Jenna and her kids during the day. We rarely see them after Raul gets home from work. So the few times Kaitlin has spent time around Raul she's hardly acknowledged him--too much playing to do, thank you very much! So it came as no surprise that Raul took his airplane ride last. For some reason Kaitlin especially relished eating Raul, and now he is the only relative that Kaitlin will to eat. Nobody else will do. Tuesday night at Target, as if I wasn't already embarrassed enough, I had to fly almost every bite of food into Kaitlin's mouth saying, "Here comes Raul on the airplane--open the door and let me in!" Then at Kneaders for lunch yesterday it was the same thing. Only Raul would do. Does Kaitlin have a little crush on Raul? Does Kaitlin get some sort of reaction from me when she yells out Raul's name? I don't know. All I know is that it works, and we're keeping it up until Kaitlin's food repertoire is vastly expanded.