Holy Clean Plate, Batman!

So anyone who knows my kids knows they are not the best eaters, Leah especially.  Food has not been Leah's thing since she was a baby, starting with rice cereal.  The day she ate seven bites of cereal was cause for celebration.  I used to have to sing or read to her while she ate her baby food.  Making the leap to table food has been an Olympic effort.  I have tried a plethora of strategies just to have her try new food:  stickers/rewards chart (lasted about a week), not leaving the table until she takes a bite (she fell asleep once), not getting anything else to eat until the next meal (she went about a week with no lunch or dinner).  When she was really young, she wouldn't even tolerate a new food on her plate.  The "old" Leah would stop eating altogether if her plate was "contaminated" with a new food.  Over time she graduated to allowing the new food to sit on her plate but not even thinking about touching it.  From there it moved to licking the new food and finally trying one bite (reluctantly and often gagging). 

One day during Kindergarten the switch flipped and Leah would willingly try new food.  While she didn't add any new foods to her unbelievably small universe it was still a huge step.  I mean, Leah does not eat any of the "traditional" kids' foods:  mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, grilled cheese, etc.  Up until about a month ago, she would only eat freeze-dried fruit instead of fresh fruit. (Now she will eat fresh apples slices.)

So since about May I've been able to get Leah and Aaron (who is not nearly as bad as his sister but is definitely influenced by her negative opinions of food) to eat three or four bites of each food being served at dinner before they could have "Leah/Aaron food."  Tonight Matt and I experienced a totally new phenomenon:  a clean plate AND asking for seconds.  For dinner I made grilled pork chops, cheesy noodles (egg noodles with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top) and steamed green beans.  Aaron wolfed down his three bites of pork cops almost immediately.  Leah ate her noodles, then her bits of pork chop and with the help of our game ("You're not going to eat my [insert food name here]"), her green beans.  Aaron did the same.  Then Leah asked for more cheesy noodles as did Aaron.  Matt and I were thrilled (and simultaneously dumbfounded).  We celebrated with Ghirardelli dark chocolate brownies.  (Well, they had brownies; I had Oreos.)  I hope this becomes the norm and not an anomaly.  It's been a long journey to get here.

Aaron and Leah on their second helping of cheesy noodles.

Leah shows her first-ever clean plate
after eating "grown-up" food.