The One Where I Pull My Hair Out

Ok, right now I am just frustrated. Like really, really, seriously annoyed by the level of Sweetie Pea's pickiness. When I was pregnant with him (oh, glorious naivete!) I always said I didn't want to raise a picky eater. Well, that part hasn't changed, I still don't want to raise a picky eater, but right now I'm finding I don't have a choice. When he first started on purees, I offered him everything I could think of, and he gobbled it all up. Ok, I thought, I've done my part. He's a great eater. Ha ha...NOT. He has gotten so picky it's driving me insane.

At present, here is a list of things he deems acceptable: any kind of fruit (thank heavens for small favors), scrambled eggs, cheese (obsessed), peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets (but no other forms of chicken), macaroni and cheese, pasta with tomato sauce, bread/bagels/waffles/pancakes, turkey meatloaf, yogurt, cottage cheese, oatmeal, tilapia/salmon/tuna (depending on the day). Under no circumstances do vegetables make it onto the list. I have fallen into the trap of making him his own little meal at dinnertime because he usually flat out refuses to eat what I've made for us, which is exactly what I said I wasn't going to do. But he's too young to understand "you eat what mommy made for dinner or you don't eat," or "just try it," or "if you finish your beans, you may have dessert." And I need him to eat a decent dinner because he doesn't need one more reason to be up during the night.

Somebody help me. I tried the whole pureeing-veggies-and-hiding-them routine and it was a fairly effective way to sneak some vegetables in, but let's face it, I don't have all kinds of time for that lengthly process every week. Plus, I don't want to hide veggies, I just want him to eat them. He doesn't come from picky genes; in fact, I know no one on either side of our families who is a picky eater. It is so frustrating to put a nutritious meal in front of him and have him act like I'm trying to coerce him into eating a plate of sewage. Seriously, he makes awful faces and pushes the fork away, and sometimes, for added effect, he gags. GAGS. 

Is this just a phase? Until it passes, I've been trying to remember to at least offer him what I've prepared for our dinner, though he almost always rejects it, before giving him something else. I am so.annoyed.

Any suggestions or advice are appreciated!