"But I don't love bugs."

So I once prided, perhaps even goaded Nancy on the fact that my kids are such good eaters. They eat onions - raw, sauteed, fried, green onion, yellow onion, or red onion, - mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, eggs, sushi, shrimp, crab, oatmeal, cornmeal, grits, dragonfruit, starfruit, kiwi, pomellos, yogurt, milk, whole wheat bread with the crusts (they prefer the multigrain or twelve grain bread), apples with the peel - pretty much everything.
I accomplished this task by setting food down in front of them. And like all kids, they occasionally would come up with the: "Ohhhh, I don't like that."
I simply tell them: "What? You've had that before and you loved it!"
That being said, they'd smile as recognition (sometimes a confused recognition, as they don't remember if they had actually had it before) lit their faces and they'd dig right in. Followed by enthused agreements of how they do like the food.

Well, that has worked for the past eight years. I have few objections to food from my kids, Deklan doesn't really like lettuce - but at 8 years old he will eat it if placed in front of him without complaint.
Piper who is 7, doesn't really like kidney beans, refried beans, or pork and beans - but I remind her that while we don't have it often, when we do, she eats them and while she doesn't love them per se, she does eat them. With a few glasses of water she tends to agree, they're not so bad.
Malachi is my picky eater. He's four and half and he doesn't like food mixed (If we have tacos, he used to eat everything separate - lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, onions, taco shell, meat, or beans, all in their own separate pile on his plate. However, the last time we had tacos, he ate it all on his taco shell!

I have to admit, I thought I had the situation handled. After all, I am the pickiest eater you'll probably ever meet. I knew what I had to do to make sure my kids didn't turn out like me!

Well, Kai (malachi) has bamboozled me!

We went to Boston Pizza today and while we were waiting he asked if they had Kraft Dinner. (His favorite.) I said "No, they don't have Kraft Dinner. They have 'Bugs n' Cheese'" He looked up at me with his big brown eyes and patted me on the cheek while he said. "But I don't love bugs mom."
Well. How do you argue with that?
I don't like bugs either.
I tried to explain as did Piper that it was Bug shaped Pasta. To no avail, he ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and fries.
Piper and I ordered Nachos. We offered some to Kai.
"But I don't love those black things on there." He said pointing at an olive.
I offered him a tortilla chip minus the olive.
"Why is it green?" He asked me.
"To make it fun to eat." I told him.
"I don't love green chips. It looks like a leaf." He told me.
Right. Once again. How can you argue with that? At four years old, my fully launched explanation of how lettuce also are leaves goes right over his head.
Great, now he probably won't eat lettuce either.
Plus, lettuce has bugs sometimes... and we've established how he feels about those.

Now I am sitting here wondering how to phrase my response the next time I set food in front of him. He's already beaten me to the punch line!