"When you concentrate food, you unleash its awesome power, I'm told. That's why I'm compressing 5 pounds of spaghetti into one handy mouth-sized bar."

I imagine all toddlers have a list of about nine foods that they will eat. Any food not on the list goes onto the floor when offered. The parent must then pick up the food in many households, the toddler picks it up in more disciplinarian households, or the dog picks it up in our household. To be fair to our dog, she doesn’t so much “pick up thrown food” as she does “catch thrown food in midair.”

Abbie is no exception. There was a time when I could keep her busy at a restaurant table before the meal arrives by feeding her condiments, but now my only option is to hope that she’ll at least taste the pre-meal bread before flinging it to the ground in disgust. Where Abbie’s list differs from her peers’ is the food on the list. She shares some common foods, especially the universal toddler chow Goldfish. Her list has a couple unique items, though, like broccoli or bran flakes, in place of more common toddler foods, such as pizza or any kind of sandwich.

This is overall a good thing since I’d rather she eat broccoli than pizza. Broccoli is healthier than pizza, plus I can buy a one-pound frozen bag of it for $.79 compared to frozen pizzas that sell for at best $2 each and are often of a quality that makes even our dog hesitate before picking a thrown slice off the floor.

The problem lies in finding acceptable entrees. As great as broccoli is, it’s still a side dish. Abbie refuses to eat pizza or sandwiches, eliminating wide swaths from the canon of toddler main dishes. Too often, her suppers fall into some combination of macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and ham. I try to introduce new foods, but they usually wind up on the floor and/or in the dog.

We have a few backup foods. Anything she can dip in ketchup usually works, though sometimes the ketchup is the only thing she technically ingests. Spaghetti is usually acceptable too as long as no meat gets in the way.*

Last night was spaghetti night. We had a few abandoned strands of spaghetti leftover from the last spaghetti night, so I broke up a few days of macaroni and cheese with ham by reheating the spaghetti with a fresh jar of sauce.

The boys ate their supper without complaint, or at least they limited their complaints to the standard issues: Being locked in high chairs, waiting too long after their nap to eat, and having to watch his brother get a forkful while he sits helplessly with an empty mouth. The food they liked.

Abbie was unimpressed with her meal. I sat her down with a plate of delicious spaghetti, and she screamed. I added a handful of Goldfish to calm her down, but she didn’t break her pace. I placed her milk on the tray, and she immediately threw it on the floor. I doubted that she’d calm down at this point, but I left her in place anyway just to see what happens. Maybe she’ll surprise me and start eating. Maybe she’ll live up to expectations. The worst she can do is throw her food, and that’s okay since I only gave her a little spaghetti.

Then she threw her food. The whole plate landed sauce first on the floor. I let her out of her booster seat, and she continued screaming. I believe this is what’s known in the parenting world as a “tantrum,” so I let her go. The worst thing to do with a tantrum is to give in, so I refused to give her anything else to eat.

Abbie screamed under my feet for several minutes, and I did my best to ignore it. Eventually she calmed down a bit and lied down on her bed. That was good since my nerves were running out, and I still had a lot of work to do. The leftovers needed put away. The boys needed out of their high chairs. The dishes needed washed. Thankfully, the dog already took care of the floor.

* Though I haven’t tried adding hot dogs to the spaghetti sauce. Hmm…