My play-by-play of accomplishing this task was well thought out, I must admit. It began with steamed broccoli, a dash of salt and a little pepper, and some melted American cheese, his favorite.
We placed the plate in front of him, including brown rice, grilled chicken, and the Mejatabools. "But I don't like broccoli!" he exclaims upon first glance of his dinner. "Too bad," I said. (Nicely, I swear.)
As Manny prods him to eat what he likes first, I begin an apt dinner conversation. Laughing, I begin by sharing (nonchalantly) with Manny how "Aunt Kelli used to hate eating her vegetables. So you know what Memee did? You know, since Memee is Aunt Kelli's mom, Memee used to get very, very mad. And when Aunt Kelli wouldn't eat her vegetables, Memee would put a timer on the microwave and tell her, 'You have 5 minutes to eat your vegetables or something very bad is going to happen.'"
Pause.
"Memee really said that, Mom?" Gabe asks.
I shake my head yes. "But you know what? Memee used to tell Mommy and Uncle Shaun the same thing, but we didn't want to get in trouble. So whether we liked our vegetables or not, we ate them so that nothing bad happened."
Pause.
"Do you want me to eat my mejatabools, Mom?"
"I think it'd be very, very smart for you to eat your vegetables."
Pause.
The plan was executed perfectly, and GABRIEL ATE ALL OF HIS VEGETABLES!!!! EVERY PIECE OF BROCCOLI WAS EATEN!!!!!! He even told us "I didn't like all of it, but I liked a little bit of it, so I ate it."
This of course called for the perfect celebration we in the G-fam like to call: DANCE PARTY!
Our jingle of the night went something like this:
"Gabe - ate - broc - o - li! Gabe - ate - broc - o - li! Gabe - ate - broc - o - li! Hurray - for - Gabe!!"
Thanks, Mom, for putting the fear of the Almighty into us as kids!
Look how great I turned out!!
1 comment:
Love using mean grandparent approach. That is hilarious.
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