You Can't Say I Didn't Try

So around lunch time today on this, Ben's third day in a row home with the stomach flu, I told him, "Just tell me what you want for lunch. Anything! We'll go get it. Whatever you feel like eating." Ben considered this for a while and then proclaimed that he wanted to go to Burger King.

Okay. So. We never go to Burger King. I had to use the GPS to locate the closest one (2.9 miles away). We arrived, and Ben marched up to the lady behind the counter and asked, "Do you have Spider Man Happy Meal toys?" "Why yes, we do," she said. Ben turned and beamed at me. So now I understood why the sudden interest in Burger King, he must have seen a commercial for the Spider Man toys. Fine, I figured... he'll eat his lunch, I'll be happy, he'll get a Spider Man toy, he'll be happy... Ben took one nibble of a chicken nugget and said, "It tastes funny. I don't like it."

"Do you not like it because you aren't really hungry or because you really don't like it but you are hungry?"

"It really tastes funny. I don't like it," he insisted.

"If I get you a cheeseburger instead, will you eat it?"

"Yes... A plain cheeseburger with no pickles and no onions. Just ketchup."

I got up and went to get the cheeseburger and put it in front of him. "Mmmmm," he said, taking a bite. Then he started picking at the sesame seeds on the bun. "I don't like the seeds."

"You can't even taste them. Just eat it!"

"I'm not hungry."

Fast forward a few hours to dinner... Joel was working late and having Ben home with me during a busy day of work meant I hadn't had any time to think about cooking something for dinner. So again: "Ben, what do you want to do for dinner?"

"I want to go to the Pancake House."

"If I take you to the Pancake House are you really going to eat your dinner? Because if you're just saying it and you're not really going to eat I'll just pick up some Chinese food for me and Rebecca."

"No! I am going to eat my dinner! I want to go to the Pancake House!" he insisted.

Off we headed for the Pancake House, after collecting Rebecca from preschool. Fighting rush-hour traffic, to get to the Pancake House. Sitting at the world's longest red light waiting in line for the world's shortest green arrow for a left hand turn, and in sight of the Pancake House (so close yet so far), Ben had the nerve to announce: "I don't want to go to the Pancake House."

"Ben," I said, "I am going to pretend I didn't hear you."

At the Pancake House, Rebecca plowed through her pancakes like a machine (ending up covered in syrup) and Ben ate less than 1/4 of his before announcing he was done. ("I'm not hungry anymore.")