Seven is the best number.

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So lately, my dear sweet middle child hasn't been eating dinner (which isn't gross food, btw!) and while we usually don't force the kids to eat, I'm tired of hearing her cry of how hungry she is an hour later; so this is a sample of the conversations we've had recently at dinner:

Sweetpea: "Mom, can I be excused?"
Me: "You didn't eat any of your dinner. You will be hungry soon. And that's it for the night."
Sweetpea: "But it's _____ (insert: yucky, gross, cold, crunchy, any other bad adjective you can think of)"
Me: "Eat three bites and you can get down."
Sweetpea: in a whiny voice- "But it's ____!" (again, insert the yucky adjective)
Me: "Three bites won't kill you. Do it quickly!"
Sweetpea: "how about seven bites?"
Me: weary of what she's up to- "Um... okay. why not three bites?"
Sweetpea: "Seven is a better number." (in a very matter of fact voice)

and then... she quickly gobbles up SEVEN bites of the ___ food and she's done!

You Know, the show with the frozen baby with toilet paper in her head...

Conversation with 5 year old Sweetpea while in the car:

Sweetpea: "Hey Mom, guess what? Today-I-watched-a-really-cool-thing-on-TV-about-a-frozen-baby-and-they-had-to-take-toilet-paper-out-of-it's-head!"

Me: stops paying attention to road. Asks wearily- "I'm sorry... WHAT did you say?!"

Sweetpea: sigh. Repeats self, verbatim.

Me: "A frozen baby?"

SP: "Yeah, it was frozen!"

Me: "What channel were you watching at Grandma's house?"

SP: "I dunno. But they had to take toilet paper out of it's head."

Me: "Oh... interesting." Thinks to self- Better ask husband what she means.

* * *
An hour later... now the whole family is in the car, so perhaps I can get the story straight.

Me: "Sweetpea said she saw a show on TV with a frozen baby on it that had toilet paper in it's head."

Husband: "Are you talking about the elephant show honey?"

Sweetpea: "Well... not an elephant."

Husband: "How about a Wooly Mammoth?"

Sweetpea: "Yeah! That's it! It's a wuly mammomf. And it was frozen."

Husband: "They found a Wooly Mammoth and were taking tissue samples out to study. It was very interesting."

Me: "oh, thank goodness. I was rather worried."