We try

So this is how our Thursday evening began.  A seemingly perfect evening, ie. I was cooking, dad was grilling and beau was playing golf in the backyard while dad grilled.  Then I plated the meal below, and we sat down to enjoy.  Of course, beau's meal was different, he had some form of protein & veggie that he found acceptable, as the list of tolerated foods by beau is very, very short.  More on that another time. 

Then it started.  I'm tired.  (this is beau's new euphemism for "I don't want to").  Which means, he didn't want to make the effort to eat.  This has been going on for some time now, maybe a few months.  He just decides he can't be bothered.  It's driving us nuts.  So then I either try to feed him, or coax him into eating on his own.  In this case, neither tactic worked and we went from a pleasant dinner and happy people, to a full blown argument, time out for beau and mom and dad eating dinner separately.  I get dinner on the table almost every night, and usually it looks like what you see here, sometimes it's pizza, and sometimes it's take out, but it is so important to me that we sit down to a nice meal together.  Yet, my child has derailed this experience about 60% of the time with his antics.  I'm told these are 3 year old standard operating procedures, but I can't be sure.  I do know that once it's over, I forget about it pretty quickly, because I'm just glad it's over.  I get discouraged.  I wonder silently if this will ever end and if I'll still care about putting a nice meal on the table once it does. 

**fast forward to the next day.  I get a call from the school - beau has thrown up and I need to come get him.  SO.....apparently he felt like crap the night before.  Glad I picked up on that.  ugh.  Someone please tell me I'll get better at this.