Thursday, June 07, 2007

One Hour

Yep. That's how long it took Carver to eat his dinner last night. One hour. Not a minute less. The obvious question is what in the world must I feed the child that would require an hour's worth of chewing-or not chewing in his case. Well, here's the menu...homemade chicken salad with lots of chopped apples and grapes, 1/2 of a whole wheat tortilla, roasted asparagus with fresh Parmesan and apple slices. For those of you turning your nose up at asparagus, believe it or not that wasn't the initial problem. He and Springer both eat asparagus without a fuss although last night even the asparagus didn't escape his displeasure! He gobbled down the tortilla and half of his apples and was quite happy until we said 'no more apples until you eat your asparagus and chicken salad.' Well he quickly deemed the asparagus "stems" "very yucky" (I added a little more Parmesan) and would not touch the chicken salad (which he tasted as I was making it and declared it "good".) We pleaded, talked about everything in the world in an attempt to divert his attention and finally just left the table completely (it didn't take the rest of us that long to eat our dinner). Eventually, G divided his plate into a 'must eat' section. Minutes passed. One bite of asparagus down and nothing more. We took away his night time reading. He cried. G and Springer left the room completely...he would not budge. We went upstairs to get Springer ready for bed (taking Lucy with us-he's too smart!) As we were upstairs (for all of 3 minutes) he, in a moment of pure "Carver drama" (Micah, this is completely you), went to the family room and retrieved a framed photograph of G and me "because my little heart was feeling so lonely". Oh my word, all of this over chicken salad! I was at my wits end so I said (in my nicest voice-truly!) "No problem. You don't have to eat dinner. There are a lot of children who won't have dinner tonight and one missed dinner won't hurt you. I'll bet you'll be ready for breakfast in the morning!" He looked a bit unsure and clarified that he really didn't have to eat. Then, in a moment of "what the ***** are you thinking he said "May I have dessert now?" I truly bit my cheeks to keep from laughing! Was he serious? He was. Now the tears really came. Then suddenly as if the rains parted and all became clear he said, "If I eat my dinner may I have dessert?" That did it. The child ate everything he had been asked to eat and enjoyed his fig newton for dessert. After all of that a fig newton did the trick! Who knew?! He thanked us sweetly for "giving me just a little more time to finish my dinner." He still went to bed without his bed time reading, but he was so tired that he fell asleep before I left his room. Ahhh....to be four and a half!

2 comments:

keri said...

this is my life! how funny...when i read the first sentence i had to laugh. r and i have been battling it out with ella lately and how long it takes her to eat. and it is often an hour! i DO NOT understand the logic that is going through her young mind!!

Paola P said...

ha ha! i'm not really laughing at you guys...i just know this game well...times 4! well, actually times 3 since josh would probably eat a tube of toothpaste if i served it to him!