The non-reaction

I was talking to my brother the other day and telling him what drives me crazy about Blythe. Anytime you try to get a reaction out of her, she won't give you one. My example was when we try to get her to eat her dinner. We of course do the standard negotiating, but I'll set limits and finally say, "if you don't eat this and this, you have to go straight to bed. No playing, no bedtime stories, no nothing. Straight to bed". Then she'll look at you with the food she's had in her mouth for a good 10 minutes and say, "Okay". So of course, we're convinced she doesn't quite understand, so we repeat the consequences, and get the same "okay". So goes straight to bed and then we ask her again, "do you know why you're going straight to bed?" And she'll say, "because I didn't eat my dinner". Ugh! It's so frustrating. We've tried other ultimatums, we've tried begging. Nothing works. So Doug - this next example is for you.

We went to Wal-mart the other day to get a few groceries and Braden wanted to get a new watch. Yes, his $7.00 "S-shock" watch finally bit the dust. As he was looking at watches, Blythe was hanging as far out of the cart as she could to swipe earrings and bracelets of the racks and ask me if she could have them. I had noticed off the other side of the cart there were Disney princess and Dora watches, so I was glad she hadn't noticed those. Was only a matter of time though. As soon as she saw the Disney princess watch with interchangeable watch faces of Cinderella, Belle, and Beauty, she just had to have it. So we told her she could have it for her birthday (which is tomorrow). Here's a visual:

She was so excited about her new watch. As soon as we got home, she wanted Daddy to open it, but it was time to eat first. So I told her if she ate all her dinner, she could have the new watch. But if she didn't eat, she couldn't get it and would have to wait until tomorrow after dinner. She of course wouldn't eat because the pasta had tiny pieces of green things on them. And of course, we got no argument. No reaction, other than "okay".

The next morning she asked me if she could have her watch. I told her only if she ate her dinner that night. Later in the day she asked Daddy if she could have her watch. He told her only if she ate her dinner that night. So dinner comes around and we have fruit, pasta (with no green things), and salad. I tell her she needs to eat all of her fruit, all of her pasta, and at least try the salad. She eats the fruit right away. Then she takes a bite of the pasta and tells me she likes it. Then she takes a bite of the salad and tells me she likes it. She eats no more salad and maybe another bite or two of pasta. So the negotiating begins:

Daddy: eat all of your pasta or you don't get your watch

Blythe: I don't want my watch

Daddy: Okay, then I'll give it to someone else

Blythe: Okay. Maybe you can give it to Ashley

Daddy: No, I'll take it to work and give it to Sarah.

Blythe: Okay.

Daddy: Please eat your pasta

Mommy: If you don't eat your pasta, Mommy won't make cupcakes for your birthday

Blythe: Okay. Can I have more juice?

Mommy (renegotiating): You can have milk. If you drink all of your milk, then you only have to have 2 more bites of pasta.

So after 10-15 minutes of munching on the 2 more bites of pasta. She finally does it. And all the while Ethan is wailing in his highchair as we're ignoring him. So now all she has to do is drink her milk. She drinks all but about 1/5 of the cup. Then she won't drink the rest. So it's starts right back up.

Daddy: If you don't drink your milk, Daddy's going back to the beach. Forever.

Blythe: Okay. (then offers to give him a kiss and hug good bye).

Mommy: Really Blythe - he'll leave and go back to the beach

Blythe: Okay

Mommy: Okay then, we're all going upstairs and you stay down here by yourself.

Blythe: Okay

Daddy: BLYTHE! If you just drink that milk, you can have your watch, you can have a birthday, Daddy won't go the beach forever, and you can go up with us.

Blythe: I don't want to drink it

So we all start to go upstairs. Braden goes back in there and tells Blythe that if she drinks her milk it will make Daddy very happy. And so she does.

Oh, and also while we were at Wal-mart, I had to get cake mix and icing to make cupcakes for Blythe's class on her birthday. Since her favorite color is yellow, I got yellow cake mix and then found they now sell "cupcake icing" in all different colors. More expensive, but easier than making yellow icing, so I bought that. When we got home Braden unloaded the groceries and I found we had 2 cake mixes. One for yellow cake and one for strawberry cake. I asked Braden if he had gotten that and he said No. Blythe then chimed in that she had gotten that because Ashley wanted pink cake. So neither Braden or I noticed that she reached out of the cart and got a box of cake mix. Nor did we notice when we went to pay for everything. Lesson learned - pay closer attention at the grocery store (or any store) when shopping with Blythe.