A Little Macaroni

I have a picky eater in my family.
A very, very picky eater.
What he will eat varies from time to time.
He will eat something over and over for months,
And then one day he will throw a fit over the thought of consuming it.

Right now its:
Granola bars
Breakfast biscuits (kind of like granola bars)
String cheese
Grated cheese
Eggs
Chicken nuggets
Crackers of all kinds
Cereals of most kinds
Oatmeal occasionally
Bananas
Grapes
Peas
Breads
Chips
Spaghetti
Spaghetti-O's
French fries
Baked potatoes
French toast
Pancakes
Frozen waffles
Pizza

And...

Macaroni and Cheese

And that is, seriously, all my child will eat.
It could be worse,
But is seriously lacking of more fruits and especially, vegetables.

He will also consume some certain baked goods: donuts, cookies, cakes, cupcakes and... ice cream.
And M&M's.

He is very specific about how he will take the food.
It cannot be broken.
It cannot have air bubbles in it.
And he must be given the opportunity to prepare it.

Ephram starts every day asking me for macaroni and cheese.
He would literally live off of macaroni and cheese if I let him.

He really enjoys making macaroni and cheese.
He watches the water come to a boil,
Takes the cheese out of the box,
Pours the pasta in the pot,
And then tells me how many minutes to put on the timer.
He knows that mommy does all of the hot stirring.
Because everyone is big enough to do something,
(Thank you Daniel Tiger)
And Ephram is big enough to do cold stirring.

While we wait for the 7-13 minutes to pass,
He gets the butter out of the fridge
And I get the milk.
And he tells me this every time.

He stacks all of the ingredients together in the middle of the stove,
We get out the colander,
And wait for the last minute.
That's when our countdown begins.

After I drain out the water,
Ephram puts in the butter.
He always tells me,
"Ephram likes butter!"
And as I hand him a few slices to put in the pot,
He sniffs them each and says,
"Mmmm, good butter."
But it sounds like this,
"Eeeemmmm, guh buddy!"
Then he shakes the cheese powder down in it's packet,
I open it,
And he pours it in,
While I pour in some milk.
Then he stirs it.
All by himself.
When he is done, he tells me so.
And I come over and say,
"How hungry are you today?"
And he holds up 10 fingers and says,
"Ephram ten hungry!"
And then we dramatically fill up a bowl to the appropriate level.
He usually eats 2/3 of the pot.
(Because in between our macaroni days, he holds off and eats less of other foods.)

Then,
Happier every time,
He carries his bowl to the table,
And eats it.
With a big spoon.
In no time flat.

Yes,
This boy likes macaroni.
He used to like my homemade macaroni.
But now it's not macaroni unless it's Kraft.
I'm hoping that will change someday.

But because I've learned that he will actually cease eating until he gets what he wants,
I'm no longer trying to force his tastes to change.
He'll survive.
On his macaroni days, which come every 2-3 days, he is so happy.