I am highly omnivorous. That means I love food. All kinds of food. So I just assumed that my children would love a varied diet as much as I do. Like most of the assumptions I made about my children before I actually had them, this one was totally off the mark.
In the beginning, they ate all sorts of things. People marveled that at age two, Middle Daughter's favorite food was salsa. The Boy gobbled down almost anything put in arm's reach, digestible or not. Then something happened, and my children went from epicurious to epicautious overnight. As they began to eye their dinner plates with suspicion, I started finding peas hidden under the place mats. The dog gained weight.
And thus began the era of picky eating. Foods that only yesterday were "my favorite" were today deemed unworthy. And even the worthy foods had to be prepared to exact specifications, then laid with geometric precision on the appropriate plates. I considered creating a database to keep track of the ever-growing list of food rules.
Over the years, I learned many things about food that I never even suspected before I had children. I learned that mashed potatoes are yummy, but the world will end if any other vegetable lands on the plate without its original form intact. I learned that ketchup is a food group. I learned which restaurants do not have grilled cheese sandwiches on the menu. And I learned that, yes, it is possible for a child to subsist on nothing but corn dogs and raisins for six months.