Dinner Time Awesomeness

Yiayia sent us home from Connecticut with a pile of homemade food that we can use for dinners over the coming week.  Tonight I heated up the pork chops she had grilled, and cooked some broccoli and cornbread stuffing to go on the side.  Julia, who was once my (very) picky eater, gobbled up every last bite of her dinner and earned her dessert.  Madeleine, who was once my great eater, went and hid in the crack between the couch and the wall the minute I attempted to give her a bite of broccoli.  With a promise of dessert should she eat her pork and broccoli, I was able to entice her into taking a bite.  And then several more bites.  In fact, she no longer hid and refused to take bites from me, and I thought I had actually succeeded.  Little did I realize she was receiving the bites, but refusing to chew them, instead squirreling them away in the corners of her mouth without actually eating them.  As she sat on the couch watching the end of her "Dora the Explorer" episode, I brought over a bite of cornbread stuffing to reward her for eating so many bites in a row of meat and veggies.  The stuffing was apparently the bite that pushed her mouth from being chipmunk-cheeked full to being gag-inducing full.  After two forceful gagging sounds, she suddenly vomited all over her lap, legs, and the couch.  Vomit is gross as it is, but when it's full of barely chewed food, it's even more vile.  UGH.  I was so pleased to have to clean the couch, the floor, the clothes, and the child, right before I sat down myself to eat.

Once she was clean, Madeleine willingly accepted another bite from me, this time of stuffing with a small broccoli floret.  Not a big bite and nothing gag-inducing, but either the taste made her feel sick after vomiting up the very same food, or she just didn't want to eat it, because next thing I knew, both pieces were in a pile of mush on the floor.

I gave up.  No more pork, broccoli and stuffing for Madeleine.  (Also, no dessert, even though I did manage to get her to eat some other food.)  Later in the evening, I offered her a slice of cheese and a slice of bread, which she sat happily munching, as if the whole vomiting incident had been no big deal.  In fact, she even cheerfully reported on her current vomiting status:

MADELEINE: (brightly) Mommy!  I'm not BARFING anymore!
ME: Oh, great.  I'm so glad.
JULIA: She said "BORFING."  Mom, why does she say "BORFING?"
MADELEINE: Julia, BELAX!  You're in charge of your SAWED.

Wow.  Not only can Madeleine control her barfing at will, but the crystal clear logic she speaks is unequivocally comprehensible.