We’re halfway through Passover, and… well, it’s going interestingly.

We knew, coming into the holiday, that it was going to be a challenge with trying to get the kids to increasingly observe the traditions of the holiday.  R, of course, doesn’t know any better, being two.  The Monster, though, is getting to the point that we can try to teach him about the holiday, and try to find foods that work with his picky eating habits.

One thing is certain – both kids like matzah.  By mid-afternoon on Tuesday, they’d already eaten a pound of it.  (Good thing we had fifteen more pounds of it on hand.)  We’ve managed to get them to scale back a little bit, but still, I think we’re on pace to have more of it consumed in this house than at any point since my grandmother passed and we stopped having seder here.

While R has been his usual flexible self, though, willing to at least try whatever it is we’re eating – chicken, or fish, or the faux mac-and-cheese thing that the wife whipped up last night – the Monster has been his usual inflexible self.  Matzah pizza, which had been “okay” last year for him is suddenly off the list again, and he still won’t try other things.  (We did convince him, Monday night, to have chicken at his grandparents’ house, but that was only with the bribe/offer of more matzah.  We’ll see how that goes at seder tomorrow night.)

Of course, the saving grace has been our decision to drop the restriction on kitniyot – he likes peanut butter, he likes matzah, and he’ll eat the two together constantly.  But, that’s not really balanced nutrition, even for the short term.  So I knuckled under last night and picked up a pizza so he can have something he’ll eat while we’re going through the week without the fighting.

I think, when we’ve finally gotten him to the feeding clinic at KKI (the wife has an appointment coming up to take him), we’ll have to figure out a strategy for broadening his eating habits at these times of year… and then write a Passover cookbook for other parents in the same boat.