Eat your Vegetables!

An important update on Wombat's eating habits:

He hates vegetables. (Which is good news, because 'hating vegetables', I believe, is one of the development milestones you hit in early infancy and do not come to terms with until early adulthood, if even then.)

We discovered this when, after being thrilled by how well he is eating his solid food, I bought a jar of peas to try. (Even though, personally, the idea of mashed peas, as well as the green color of the actual product, make me want to not eat anything and possibly get rid of anything I have just eaten. I'm just saying. But everyone convinced me that babies love peas. And a daycare teacher told me that she was considering making her own peas baby food, and I thought - what the heck, I guess I could also do something similar and give my kid any peas at all, huh? So I bought a jar. )

You should have seen Wombat's face after one spoonful of peas. He gagged. He stuck his tongue out completely and attempted to rid it of all traces of peas with his hands. He coughed. He wrinkled his entire face into a disgusted grimace. When I attempted to give him another spoon, he performed a head fake that, had an NBA scout been nearby, would have put him on a team at the age of 8 months. He looked at me with a befuddled and angry look of "WTF is this $#$%##$?", pushed away the jar and then refused to eat anything else from a spoon at all that night.

I then realized that the only other vegetable Wombat has had so far is sweet potato, which he loves and which is, um, sweet. Everything else he likes is a sweet fruit: banana, mango, peach.... apples and pears are just ok, because they are somewhat sour. Hm.

At our last pediatrician appointment, I asked how much solid food Wombat can eat at a sitting. The pediatrician blithely declared "As much as he wants! As long as it's good food, as much as he wants." He then decided to clarify "Vegetables. He should be eating vegetables". It's a good thing he did, because I still have not internalized the adult meaning of "good", which is "good for you". I am still on the 5-years-old meaning of good, which is "good-tasting". So is Wombat. And I have no idea how to convince him to ingest vegetables.... he is too young to promise a PlayStation, right? :)