Shrimp Anyone?

OK, we live at the beach, but I have failed to convince my children to eat any seafood. Ann Bennett has always been a pretty good eater, but she's gotten pickier as she has gotten older. About a year ago I decided to TRY to work shrimp into our meals, but this is what happens when I do.



Can you see why it takes a lot to even try? The first time I served it, I gave each child one shrimp and asked them to eat it. After crying for 20 or more minutes, AB finally put it in her mouth. She chewed it up and held it in her mouth for over 20 minutes -- seriously! Carey swears it was more like 30 minutes. I cleaned up the entire kitchen with that shrimp in her mouth! She kept saying she needed help to eat it. Can you imagine holding a chewed up shrimp in your mouth? Disgusting! So, I decided we needed to back down. For now, our goal is to just have her tolerate a shrimp on her plate. She doesn't have to eat it, touch it or let it touch any of her food. It just sits on her plate! She still can't stand it. She about falls apart when she sees shrimp in our house. But, I'm determined. So, in this video, you heard Carey send her to her room when she starts crying. (He got to 3.) She stayed there about 10 minutes -- crying, moaning about how horrible shrimp is and we are to make her see it. Now, the only benefit to this is that Bryant sees how ridiculous this kind of behavior is, and he eats the 1 shrimp he is given. He doesn't like it, so he tries all kinds of things to make it better. Tonight he took a drink of water and then the shrimp. He about gagged on it, but he ate it without complaints. Now, I can sympathize. I remember this sensation as a child -- especially when Mom tried Weight Watchers and served us liver, but that's another story. Carey on the other hand has the following reaction. (Sorry this is so short, I ran out of memory.)

So, dinner tonight was lively. Tragically upset daughter. Gagging son. Laughing outloud husband. But, eventually, we had this happen.

So, is that success? I guess it is at least progress. It took a lot less time for her to calm down and just sit at the table. She would not eat a couple of her tomatoes or a bit of one of the quesadillas because she swore the shrimp had touched them. Again, I used to hate tomato guts, so I can understand this to a degree. But, she came back to the table, ate most of the food and we had no more tears. I think pink baby might have helped. Pink baby was AB's lovey for a long, long time. Now she is one of many "aminals" that AB loves. But, I guess in times of real crisis, you need your MOST trusted friend!