Thank You, Cheesecake Factory.

 Let's start with: I'm not a fan of the Cheesecake Factory.  Maybe it was the 3 hour wait a few years ago in DC. Maybe it was watching a table of four eat enough food for 10 people one day ten years ago. Maybe it's just plain snobbery.

BUT.

Iain is in a very picky phase. Yesterday, at lunch, he ate almost nothing. And he was a pill. I was dreading today. But it turns out that if you make a kid hike about 2.5 miles in the morning, then give him a little time to chill out, then take him out on a sunny, warm day...the Cheesecake Factory is the perfect place to go.

He ordered a grilled-cheese sandwich from the kids' menu. They subbed mozzarella for cheddar. I ordered a salad and it came with a little pile of onion rings on top.

If you've been keeping track, Iain eats onion rings. He eats grilled cheese but only with mozzarella. In other words: a win. He ate the sandwich. He ate the rings. He was happy and nice and relatively well-behaved.

So I rewarded him with his choice of cheesecake. He picked chocolate mousse. And below you can see what he did with it. We helped him with the whipped cream. Because he hates whipped cream (!).

Happy kid. Very chocolately. Also, yes you have correctly read this post. He ate a large piece of buttered bread, a grilled cheese sandwich, onion rings, and a large piece of cheesecake. Yes, he had breakfast. He's over next to the desk eating strawberries right now. 

"Hi! I'm a fairly cute glutton!"