dinner time blues

So after last week's dinner out at a restaurant, which we spent mostly mortified by our toddler's out of control behavior, I did a little research, polled some moms with kids Wyatt's age and figured out a plan of action for his terrible dinner time behavior. Now we mastered sleep training when he was a baby, so you would think we'd have the eating thing down right? apparently not.. :(

It all started a few months back when he started refusing his high chair (would scream/tantrum etc). We had already bought a booster seat so I let him start using it. In the beginning we strapped him him but he started 'arguing' so we got lax and stopped buckling him in. Then about a month or so ago, he started fighting the booster seat, wanting "the big seat," so I stacked and tied a couple chair pads on the adult size chairs and that's where he's been eating since. Concurrently, Will and I noticed one night how much more peaceful it was when we set Wyatt's food in front of him and let him leave the table whenever he pleased. He would go play and then come back and pick at his food- over and over, but we would eat in peace (no power struggles over food, sitting in the chair etc). It was a pleasant month... until we go out to eat. So after last week's dinner out, we decided something had to change.

So on Sunday night we started 'dinner boot camp.' We sat Wy's food in front of him and I explained to him that he could choose to sit in the baby seat and eat or the big chair and eat, but that he could not get down until we were all done eating. Surprise surprise, he never screamed or had a fit, although I did have to remind him throughout the meal of his 'choices.' All week I would remind him at mealtime something to the effect of "if you get down you will sit on a time out' and this reminder kept him motivated to stay seated at the table.

So fast forward to tonight.. Friday night. I had no motivation to cook dinner so we decided to go try out a BBQ place a friend had recommended saying it was "kid friendly." We held our breath and hoped for the best... but our little guy was AMAZING!! He did not scream, did not get down and run around and actually ATE some food!! We both felt relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed our food. Afterward we even felt like going to Target. It was a great Friday night... whew!