Whiplash

The thing is, you THINK he's a normal little boy.  That's part of the Genius at work.  As long as things are going along in a manner that HE's happy with, things are fine.  It's when he doesn't agree with the proceedings that there's a problem.  It could be something big like a bedtime, or a trip to the doctor, but most times it's something little - like the time he freaked out that I'd ordered a six piece McNugget happy meal instead of four.  Matt had for some reason not been able to take the kids up to The Studio himself, so I took them up that afternoon.  Part of the routine is that the kids get dinner at either the McDonald's or the Wendy's right there before the drive home, since they don't get home until seven o'clock at the earliest, and it's a school night.

 Oh my god he was SO angry.  "MO-OM I ONLY WANTED FO-UR!!  I DON'T WANT SI-IX!!  THAT'S TOO MAA-NNY!" I told him that he didn't have to eat all six if he didn't want to.  No dice, still wailing and kicking the back of my seat.  CW informed me that, "The last time, he'd only wanted a four piece meal."  Why did no one tell me this?  Because it didn't seem like it would be a problem - why would it?  Nor was it a pattern - this was apparently only the second time in recent history he'd wanted four McNuggets.

So, after several minutes of Banshee Boy in the back, we finally get up to the second window and the employee hands out the food.  I, being the flexible mom that I am  (and remembering the time that he expressed displeasure in the car over his Burger King Nuggets when he was three - he threw them at me one at a time), reach into the happy meal, snatch out two  McNuggets, close everything back up and hand it off.  The howls in the back of the car subside to a mere grumpy growl while he inspects his food.  I'm stuffing the contraband  McNuggets in my mouth and I hear, "OH!  They only gave me FOUR!  SEE mom, I got FOUR, not SIX.  I didn't WANT SIX  I wanted four.  And they gave me FOUR!!"

"Mmhm!  *chew chew swallow* How about THAT!  It's like they knew!"  I didn't DARE tell him that I'd taken the  McNuggets.  God knows what THAT would have stirred up.  And now we ask him how many he wants us to order.