"Stop Talking and Eat!"

Yes, I did just say this to my four-year old at dinner tonight. His brains can be a blessing and a curse, a blessing mostly. At dinner time, however, it's become a bit of a curse. We have one rule: at least one bite of everything. But, this clever boy makes up more excuses for not trying something he doesn't want to try than I thought could ever be made. It only makes things worse to try and reason with him, because it guarantees that dinner will consist of split hairs--he already knows how to argue around everything. I've only been out of law school one year, so I am not willing to take the blame for that. Needless to say, dinner took so long tonight that we decided to postpone the fun plans we had until another night. I hope this will help him decide to approach dinner differently tomorrow night.