Don't Get Frustrated, Get Creative!

It doesn't happen all that often, but my now three-year-old threw a fit this evening because he did not want to eat his dinner. Even though I have fixed taco salad many times before, and he has been more than happy to eat, this time he decided that he did not like the way it looked.

He thought he could get away with just hoarding some corn chips, but I quickly told him that he was not going to eat chips alone. The whining and crying was getting him nowhere, and I finally told him that if he was going to continue, he was not going to sit at the dinner table. The rest of us needed to eat in peace.

After I finished my dinner, I put my thinking cap on and tried something else: a deconstructed taco salad.

Do you want a little bit of cheese? Open up like a little birdy. Down went some cheese.

How about some lettuce? He thought eating big pieces of lettuce was really fun.

Now what about some hamburger? It was turkey burger with black beans, but he was happy with "hamburger." He ate several bites.

I rewarded him with an apple cut up in slices (he never refuses fruit). And then he asked for a couple chips with salsa.

So even though he did not eat taco salad, his belly had taco salad, the dinner that I made for everyone.

Yay, me! Good boy, Lane.