Small Victories

OK, so this post is not centered around Christmas as each previous post this month has been. Rather in this season of blessings and thanksgiving for the Lord's birth, I want to share with you a recent blessing that you may think small, but in our house it is potentially huge. (How that for a Christmas tie-in? It does work...think about it when you're done reading the story.)

Last night, we began the dinner-time routine just as we had many, many times before.

All kinds of cut up food in front of Colin, and just let him go. Low maintenance. Just gotta keep an eye out for choking. OK, so low-medium maintenance.

For Brian and Sean, Mommy decided to make them a special treat. Quesadillas! Yummy! Moe's restaurant is one of their favorite places, so Mommy was trying to capitalize on that and bolster our chances for a pain-free dinner.

No such luck.

"I don't WANT QUESADILLAS!!!," shrieked Brian. Sean soon followed suit, good little brother that he is.

Brian then followed with a full-fledged tantrum, complete with crying, screaming, back-arching ...the whole enchilada (pun intended). One of his better efforts.

At 4 years old, it's now become more of a control thing rather than an "I don't like the food" thing. I could understand if we were trying to feed him liver, or okra (sorry Mommy), or beets. I'd be with him then. Beets...really, what's the point?

So I guess I had decided enough was enough, or something. I don't really know. But I pulled him aside and explained to him how it was HIS choice whether or not to eat his dinner. And it was also HIS choice whether to get a special treat after dinner. Simple...eat dinner -->> get treat. No dinner, no treat.

He looked at me with kinda a blank stare, just as he has in the past when I've had that discussion with him. So my hopes were not high that I had made a breakthrough.

We returned to the table. I proceeded to eat my dinner, and after some brief stall tactics...Brian actually ate some of the previously vile, nasty, undistinguishable-from-his-favorite-from-Moe's quesadilla!

Not only did he eat a bite, he ate the whole thing! Cleaned his plate. Asked (politely) for another one. Was this really the same kid from about 15 minutes ago? Amazing. He finished the second quesadilla, got his treat, then we went off to start the bedtime routine. I felt really good that we had potentially made a breakthrough, but tried not to get too ahead of myself. Let's see what happens tomorrow night.

Well tomorrow night is tonight. On my way home from work, I had a hankerin' for Moe's. "This will be easy," I thought. Brian will be the perfect straight man.

Shortly after arriving home, I put my plan into action.

"Hey Brian, what do you want for dinner?"

"Quesadilla from Moe's," I whispered into his ear.

"No Daddy," he said, "I want a quesadilla at home!"

Doh! Yeah! Small victories...

[Note: We did end up going to Moe's. Daddy is persistent!]