Benton Earns Dessert?

We made a cake and have been whittling away at it the past week. During dinner, I did the typical mom thing and told the kids that if they ate all their dinner, they'd get to finish off the rest of the cake. Alea didn't miss a beat and her plate was completely wiped clean in minutes . . . Benton, not so much. He was too busy playing and still had a plate full. I thought it wise to explain to him why Alea was getting cake and he was not. I showed him the empty plate and said, "Alea ate everything on her plate, see, it's empty, now she's getting cake. You will not get cake until your plate looks like Alea's, OK?" He agreed and slowly walked back to their table. Out of the corner of our eyes and amidst muffled giggles we watched as Benton slowly, piece by piece removed his dinner from his plate. Oh, not into his mouth, onto the floor under their picnic table! What a sneaker! He, with a grin on his face, reproduced the empty plate to me, but still did not get dessert.