Let's Make A Deal
Mood:  sharp
Topic: Lauren
Lauren will make a great negotiator some day. She drives a hard bargain, that girl. Every day Lauren is working to hone this skill. She works at it in just about everything she does. Play, sleep, dress...you name it, she negotiates for it.

Her favorite time to put it to good use is during dinner. Once in a while we're successful in having her try something she doesn't want to eat, such as the time we wanted her to try a bite of onion. After much persuasion, she actually tried it; then promptly declared, "Just as I suspected - I don't like it." Ah well, she tried it anyway. The other night though her actions started me thinking that if we ever sell our house, she is definitely the one who will do the negotiating. She wanted dessert even though she had barely touched her delicious stir-fry dinner. We told her she needed to eat a bite of red pepper first.
She offered up "1 bite of tomato".
We countered with 1 tomato and 1 red pepper.
Her counter: 3 tomatoes.
Our counter: 2 tomatoes and a pepper and she could pick as to red, yellow, or orange.
Her counter: 3 tomatoes.
Our counter (just to test her resolve): 3 peppers - 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 orange.
She stuck to her guns: 3 tomatoes.

It went for 3 tomatoes.

But shhhhhhh, tricky parents that we are, we snuck in a red pepper ;-)