When Olivia was 4 months old, I happily started feeding her rice cereal just like the doctor advised. This was such a momentous occasion with the video camera, regular camera, and Andy and I both in the kitchen waiting anxiously to see how our twins would eat. Little did we know that Olivia would turn into a very picky eater...actually she didn't eat. She refused to eat anything given to her. Sometimes I would get a couple of bites into her mouth only for those to be spat out again. Olivia endured speech therapy for this refusal to eat and continued drinking baby formula until she was 15 months old because she couldn't get enough calories, fat, and nutrients from the small amount of food she would occasionally eat. One time she ate mashed potatoes. And like every other good mother would do, I promptly made mashed potatoes for her every day. But guess what? Eating mashed potatoes was a one time thing. She still won't eat mashed potatoes. She also would sometimes eat cereal bars. I brought food with me to the therapy appointments and a cereal bar was always placed in front of her to eat. Sometimes she ate it and other times not. She also hated the spoon. How dare I try to feed her with a spoon!!!
Well...today at church poor Olivia had a huge surprise in for her. She eagerly volunteered to help the large group leader because she was intrigued about what was under the tablecloth. Olivia and 2 boys were selected for this activity. What was there when the tablecloth was lifted? Baby food!!! This was a food competition of who could eat the bowl full of baby food the fastest. Andy and I looked at each other and said, "Oh no. She doesn't like this. She never ate baby food." The teacher talked for a couple of minutes while Olivia nervously played with her hair. She kept pushing it behind her ears and running her hands up and down up and down. The nerves she experienced. Her tummy had to have flip flopped back and forth over and over. Finally her teacher said to eat the food. The boys dug right in and shoveled spoonful after spoonful into their mouths. Olivia bravely put 2 bites into her mouth and then the tears started. She just couldn't keep up with how quickly the boys were eating. The other kids were cheering on Olivia and the two boys, but it was too much for her. An eating competition in front of 30 kids pushed her to her limit. She tried to keep the tears from falling and thankfully the competition ended shortly after that. She stood in front of all the kids and did something that was so difficult for her. Andy and I cheered for her and told her how great she did . In the end she received a bag of Skittles for her hard work. And what did I do? I lost her candy. Bad Mommy.
Don't worry about Olivia. She recovered quickly from her experience. Andy and I joked with her several times about her being the one out of all the other kids selected to eat baby food, and she laughed right along with us.
