Negotiating for Babies

My friend Karen taught me this trick when Will says he's too full for dinner, but has plenty of room for dessert.

"How old are you?" I ask.

"I'm four."

"OK then, four more bites."

I thought it was brilliant and have been using it for a good year now. Will has recently upped his defenses, however.

"Four more bites," I say.

"How about two?" he answers back.

"Nope, four."

"How about three?"

And so it goes until one of us starts to weep. (Yes, it's usually me.)

Tonight, Will wanted to take some of his Hot Wheel cars into the bathtub. He's got roughly three trillion, so I told him he could take just three into the tub.

"How about four?"

"Three or none, Will," I said, trying to get tough and end the negotiations early.

"What about two? Or one?"

"Huh?" that threw me for a loop.

"I could take none, or one, or two, or three."

Damn my "three-or-none" ultimatum.

I decided to make lemonade. "That's true. Good counting."

"Three is the most I can take in the tub," he said. "That's my ob-so-va-shon."

I'm pretty sure that last word was "observation." But that would be scary if he knows that word.

That's my observation.