Pizza Pat

So, to help Matthew try things without it being a battle each and every night, I have started something called "try it Tuesdays." We had our first one last week and he tried.... something I'm sure. But right now I can't remember what it was. Oops! Anyhow, for August I have a whole list typed up of the things we're going to make on "try it Tuesdays" for trying. This doesn't excuse the other six days of the week-- when there is something new on the table he still has to take a bite of that food. He's gotten so great with corn. He doesn't gag on his bite of rice anymore. Bites of spaghetti still have gagging and choking effects though and same with the mac-and-cheese noodles. Besides the trouble foods, he has done so well though. I mean truly truly so much better. I can't believe how far we've come putting our OT skills to work this year, not having therapy anymore. We no longer do a sticker chart but we still use the calendar. He's just been doing so great. I can't believe all the choices now as opposed to where we were a year ago, begging for OT to start and still eating bacon and bars at each meal. I'm so proud of him. We have come so far. One of the things he's gotten great at is pizza. We started with a small tiny one bite once a week. Built it to two bites. Built that more and more and more and.... and he's even eaten a whole piece now with hamburger on it! --not even just plain ol' cheese. SO...

Back to the title of the post, Pizza Pat. Have you ever read the book Pizza Pat? Well, it's a favorite here. I'm going by my sleep deprived memory with Mark talking in the background, so this might not be exact, but it goes something like this:

Here is Pat.
Here is the tray that Pat bought.
Here is the dough all stretchy and floppy that goes on the tray that Pat bought.
Here is the sauce all gooey and gloppy that goes on the dough... that goes on the tray...
Here is the cheese all stretchy and sloppy that goes on the sauce... that goes on the dough... that goes on the tray that Pat bought.
Here is the sausages spicy and choppy that goes on the cheese... that goes on the sauce....

...you get the idea.

Well. So. For "try it Tuesday" last night, we made our own Pizza Pat pizzas.
Here was the deal: You make it. You eat it.

First, we got all the ingredients we needed ready to go. Then we tried pepperoni. Which at first, was sad. Matthew took a tiny nibble off the edge and wanted nothing to do with it. However, in the end peer pressure won out and Mark was using it, so he wanted to. I made him take a good bite before he put it on the pizza... And, he found himself liking it.

Oh yah, this is how Micah spent the pizza decorating time...

Mark really liked this. He did a great job!
Matthew added cooked bacon to his.

And in age order left to right, here's our pizzas:
Mark's had a mountain of cheese on top of pepperoni and sauce with bacon on the top.
Matthew's had one with pepperoni on it and one without, little cheese and lots of bacon.
Mine is plain cheese. (surprise surprise) Though, to please the boys, I licked a pepperoni, I didn't want to bite it though.
Daddy's is double decked pepperoni.

Matthew eating his pizza (after it had cooked and cooled of course)Mark enjoying his.

Matthew really having fun eating it.

I was tickled that this was a success.

Micah woke up and moved to the table...

And enjoyed chewing on a spoon.

And that completes our first film captured "try it Tuesday"... honestly, I can't remember what the first one was last week, so I checked the calendar. It said "rice" ... oh yah. I remember that didn't go well... Mark did NOT approve of the new plan. LOL.

Hopefully I'll have more "try it Tuesday" success stories to share in the weeks to come.