Domo arigato.

My child used to inhale everything you put on her high chair.  Vegetables, she’d eat them.  Fruit, no problem.  Bread, heck yes.  Meat, she didn’t discriminate.  Once infancy became a distant memory and toddlerhood crept into the picture, all of her former eating habits flew out the window.  Now the majority of her food ends up on the floor, and the pieces that don’t end up on the floor get shoved off to the side into one disgusting pile of randomness. 

Needless to say, meal-time at our house has become a constant battle of yin and yang with Anna being the yin or the yang – whichever one is considered stubborn and detests all things food related. 

Always the inventor, I've been trying to come up with ways to make my child eat. Wanting to avoid a visit from CPS, I've given up the idea of shoving the food down her throat and have decided to treat my daughter to a baby-style cultural experience... dining like they do in Japan.  Or how I assume they dine in Japan based on the movies I’ve watched.  This is about as cultural as I get, folks. 

Welcome to Domo Arigato Diner, a place where one can sit on a pillow, pull up a high chair tray and dine on the random bits of food that mommy and daddy have served – stuff like beets, chicken nuggets, apple pieces and wheat bread.  We’ve even thrown in some cheese for added flair.  This, my friends, is the only way my child will eat.  I’m tempted to start training her to use chop sticks now.  Then again, she’d have to train me.  I never was any good at that.

For the record, she added in the pillow for comfort. She's a genius!