I must share with you the stubbornness of our daughter, L.A. Toddler. Yeah, I know. Everybody is stubborn these days. We’re all so self-centered and self-absorbed that we’re willing to fight to the death to get what we want. However, L.A. Daddy is infamous for his stubbornness and “God Knows” my mother-in-law passed that on to him, as well. His whole family wrote the book. So, fortunately, I get to blame his daughter’s stubborn ways on him. Natch

Back to last night. It shall be heretofore known as “The Peas Incident.” L.A. Daddy wanted her to eat her peas. She refused. Not because she doesn’t like peas, mind you. She just didn’t want to do what he wanted her to do (sometimes, I don’t blame her…)

L.A. Daddy: Eat your peas, please.

L.A. Toddler: No.

LAD: Yes.

LAT: No.

LAD: Emma… (voice rising at the end)

LAT: Da-deeeee (mocking voice rising at the end. Giggle.)

LAD: Eat your peas!

LAT: No!

Me: Do not say ‘no’ to your father (I warned. I’m good at that.)

LAT: NO!

L.A. Daddy tossed down his napkin (and I think… I saw a pea shoot out of nose.) His face turned bright red. He tells her that she’s going to have a “Time Out.” L.A. Toddler is not particularly fond of Time Outs, but this time…

LAT: Yea! Time Out!

She actually giggled, jumped up on her seat at the dining room table, and held out her arms, waiting for L.A. Daddy to come get her.

LAD: You want a time out?

LAT: Yes!

He sat her down on the kitchen floor, turned on the egg-timer for her two-minute time out. Then he bent down in front of her.

LAD: Why?

LAT: No peas in ‘time out’!

L.A. Daddy became a might perturbed. He sat back down and thought about it. His face was still red. Then, the stubbornness in her father came through. He wasn’t going to lose to no two-year old. No way.

Her egg timer DINGED. Her time out was up. She started to get up, a grin still plastered on her face. He hopped back up, grabbed her plate, handed it to her.

L.A. Toddler: My time out over, daddy!

L.A. Daddy: No, it’s not.

LAT: But… it ding! (she pointed to the egg timer)

LAD: It will be over when you eat your peas.

Now, we’ve vowed not to be the type of parents who make kids polish off all their food before they finish. We hate that - it happened to both of us and now we’ve both got the excessive bellies to prove that the eat-everything-on-your-plate theory doesn’t work so well…

But, this was a matter of principle for him, I think. She needed to eat something and, if she was, it should be something green, dammit.

L.A. Toddler looked at me for help. I shrugged. Her tears began immediately. Daddy went in the other room and turned on Dora. He was giving her a play-by-play of the show and she didn’t want to miss out. So, she set her stubborn ways aside and scarfed down her peas. They watched the rest of the show with her, on his lap, trying to explain who Boots was.

He’s sneaky, that L.A. Daddy. Very sneaky…