Eating a Pear

R is often very demanding at meal time, shouting out random requests when she feels dissatisfied with what is in front of her.

"I want CE-EAL!"

"I want CAN-TA-LOPE!"

"I want MILK!"

And so on. Often we tell her she can't have X because we don't have any. (This is usually, but not always, true). Sometimes we tell her she can't have X because it's "all gone." (This is often what we say about milk, since if she had her choice, she would drink a gallon of the stuff at every meal).

This morning we played a particularly competitive game of "I WANT!" and I finally got her to "WANT" some pears.

Then, J started eating his cereal, some frosted mini-wheats.

This prompted a new round, starting with "I want SOME OF DAT!"

"Some of what?"

"DAT!" (pointing in J's general direction)

"What is 'DAT'?"

"Ummmm... Daddy ce-eal"

"No, that's Daddy's cereal. R already had enough cereal for breakfast."

(incredibly loud whining and fussing commences)

"How about this piece of pear with your name written all over it?"

(whining immediately stops, and R looks interested in the pear.)

(S hands R the piece of pear.)

(R looks at pear and starts crying all over again.)

"I want NAME ON IT!"

(S and J laugh. A lot. Then S carves R's name into pear with paring knife and hands it back to R.)