When I was a teacher I learned to master "The Look". Now, I didn't give the look often, nor can I produce it unprovoked, so don't ask. Now that I have children, The Look has taken on new meaning and importance. Unfortunately, I think the kids are too young to really get it (and be scared, intimidated, etc), but at times I do try to pull it out of my bag of tricks and see what happens.
So I tried it on Matthew last night. I mentioned that he has a habit of dropping his food on the floor. Ugh. Our floors are such a mess. I go through periods where I mop around the kids' chairs after every meal, then I'll go a week without mopping anywhere, preferring to do a touch up job with a wash cloth instead. Anyway, we were on to dessert last night. I made some blueberry cheesecake pie (with Sam's help...he put the blueberries in the pie) and gave Matthew some of it. First of all, he hates being fed too off of a spoon or fork. He tries to grab it and feed himself and if you don't let him grab it, he flails his arms around and if he's lucky he ends up knocking the spoon out of my hand and it goes onto the floor. Ugh again.
So he didn't want me to feed him so I put a few bits of cheesecake on his tray. He then started picking them up and dropping them on the floor. I sternly said, "Matthew don't" and gave him The Look. I was fully expecting that he'd start crying or something like that as I was quite stern. But he just stared me right back. We had a stare down. Eye to eye. We were both resolved not to give in. After a few seconds of a stare down a little smirk formed on Matthew's face, then a full out smile. Argh. It clearly didn't have its intended effect. But it did show me that Matthew is one tough kid. As if I didn't already know that. I can't imagine what his resolve and perseverance is going to be like in 10 or 15 years. Goodness.
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