He's Lucky He's So Cute

The last few nights have been absolute wars with Reeves. He has practically refused any and all food that has been put before him at supper. He has refused to do anything I have asked him to during those awful late afternoon, early evening hours. We had a 30 minute standoff with him on Monday night. It all began, of course, with his supper and quickly escalated. After repeatedly saying "NO!" to his dinner, I told him that that was fine, but he wasn't getting down until he did eat. Then, oops, he spilled his peas. I told him to pick them up and put them back on his plate. Well, I can't really remember, it was either that or please cut off your right hand. Whichever it was, his level of horrified reaction was the same. So, here we go with the power struggle. "Pick them up, please." "NO!" "Pick them up, please." "NO!" You get the picture. So I left him there, mostly for my own sanity, and sat in the den to feed Bennett. This is when Reeves decides to pick up a pea. "I won," I thought. Nope. The pea was instantly deposited on the floor. So I put Bennett down, and now, for my sanity and now for his well being, I picked Reeves up and put him in his room. Eventually he was allowed to come out. The pea finally gets picked up. I feel good about my parenting because, although it has taken forever, he has learned his lesson. Then his father called. For some reason, the last thing he wanted was for me to be on the phone, despite the fact that I was nursing Bennett and wasn't able to play with him anyway. As soon as I got off the phone and put it on the arm of the chair, he picked it up and through it on the floor. I can't remember, but I might have screamed at this point. There was definitely some praying going on. So, back to his room he went. He's lucky I've even let him out by now. I was so mad at him. To make matters worse, it didn't get any better when Bryant got home, and I really hate this because some days, this is all Bryant gets to see of Reeves. Although I know he knows that Reeves isn't always like this, I wish he could have some good quality time with him, but there is no sweetness when he's acting like a turd.
For some reason, dinners have recently been like this. He doesn't want to eat, so we have this power struggle. Why doesn't he realize he won't ever win. I don't have the patience of Job, but I do have the time to wait for him to eventually give in. Maybe one day he'll figure this out. Rather than go into more boring detail, suffice it to say that Tuesday night was not any better.