Over a barrel...

is where Paco had me last weekend.

He was the ringbearer at his uncle's wedding and we had to convince him to keep his jacket and bowtie on for the duration.

I'm a big believer in incentives, but I turned to outright bribery to get it done.

And Paco knew he had me. As the negotiations wore on, he extracted more and more from me.
The cost?

An afternoon of:

• 2 popsicles
• 1 episode of Diego
• 1 episode of Dora the Explorer
• 1 episode of Little Einsteins

Usually, they get at most one episode per day, so it was a TV fest for him and he did live up to his bargain.

Then, I looked at Tonka.

The girl did everything she was asked, no bribery necessary.

I told her, "you shouldn't be penalized because you do what I ask," so not only did she watch everything with Erez, but she got 2 whole packs of gum (I usually give her one piece per day) as a bonus.