Exploring the exciting world of veggies

This will likely sound crazy to some, but I LOVE to watch my kid eat.  I sometimes sit with my face way too close to his face, and just watch him happily chew, sometimes even hum, or dance, as he eats.  I'm not one of those "All Organic" or "Everything MUST be healthy, no exceptions!" Moms...but I do enjoy being in charge of what our toddler eats.  I love knowing that for the most part, the meals I prepare for him are balanced, and have what his little tank of a body needs to grow.  He still hasn't even tried juice.  I never banned it or anything, he's just crazy about water, drinks a ton of it, and he drinks his milk...but that's it.   If he's anything like me, once he tries something sweeter, (like juice) he'll prefer it. I'm probably just postponing the inevitable, but whatever....I'm happy to do it.  I realize this might sound like I'm on a power trip, but I love being in control of what he eats.  It makes me feel like I'm doing a good job as his Mom, when I make an effort to provide him with a healthy diet, and wide variety of foods.

One day last week, as I was making a salad to bring to work, Luke started asking for, and reaching for what I was prepping...cucumbers, celery and baby spinach.  So I sat him down, and started giving him the raw vegetables, one at a time, to see if he'd actually eat anything.  I was so excited when over the next 15 minutes, he gnawed on a celery stalk, ate and loved the cucumbers....the spinach leaves got spit out and thrown on the floor.  2 out of 3 ain't bad.  Since then, I give him cucumber slices and celery stalks as a "treat" and so far he's buying it.  It might seem stupid, but I was so proud.  I let him eat cookies, cake, and sweets on occasion, but I try to keep it to a minimum.  I must admit, I have an advantage here, he's not the slightest bit of a picky eater, on the contrary, my kid eats EVERYTHING, vegetables, sticks, books, paper, crayons...seriously.
I grew up without junk food in the house, and was SO pissed about it as a kid.  I'm now entirely convinced if potato chips and Little Debbie's were freely available to me, I would have likely been a chunky kid.  Instead, I felt cheated with raisin granola bars in my lunch bags, when the other kids had Twinkie's, Hoho's and Snowballs.  I spent absurd amounts of babysitting job money I earned in Junior High on candy at Ben Franklin.   Big props to my Mom for teaching (forcing on) me healthy eating habits.  Nothing overboard, just traditional, and balanced....everything in moderation. We ate McDonald's, but not often.  I did inherit her sweet tooth, and we're both known to hide candy in the house, but I totally get it now.  I admit, I spent a hunk of my 20s rebelling, knowing I could eat whatever I wanted.  There were a few years full of boxes of sugary cereal and 2 liters of regular sugary pop, but I reigned myself back in and now I eat (mostly) healthy.  I appreciate the fact that I know which vegetables I really like.  

To be clear...for parents who feed their kids more category "junk" food than I choose to... no judgement here.  That's the beauty of it, they're YOUR kids.   I'm married to a guy who grew up with all those kinds of treats at home, and he turned out fine.  I feel that I might have ended up more on the chunky side as a kid, had I not been raised eating well, so I'm using the same approach with my own child.   That, and, of course it's better for his health overall.   I know some parents have kids who are picky eaters, so you do what you can.  Only downside of the veggie "treats" is the pieces that end up on the floor don't get eaten by the dog, who wants cookie and cracker remnants only.