Battle of Wills

I think we are hitting the terrible two's now. Micah has always been a pretty easy kid to manage, but he is now trying his hardest to assert his independence and as his parents, Chad and I are a little frustrated. We still need to give him rules and boundaries, but I also want to keep in mind that I need to pick my battles. Here is what I am talking about. The other night, I made dinner (chicken, broccoli, potatoes and pineapple) and gave Micah a little bit of each. I know Micah is not a good eater, so I didn't expect him to eat much, but I was pretty miffed when he touched nothing at all. He then starts chanting that he is done and and I told him that I wouldn't let him out until he had a piece of pineapple and a piece of chicken. He ate the piece of pineapple, but then the stand off began. We put a piece of chicken on his fork that was the size of a pencil eraser and he refused to eat it. We literally sat there at the table for two hours telling him that if he ate it, he could get out and have milk and play the car game, etc. Finally, I just put the piece in his mouth and covered his mouth so he couldn't spit it out (don't worry, I didn't cover his nose or anything, he was just fine). So what does he do at this point? He gags and heaves! At my wits end I throw away the chicken obviously and strip him down for a shower while lecturing him on how he needs to eat good food and he won't get any other food tonight unless he eats a piece of chicken. We got him dressed and ready for bed and he generally just whined at us. Chad had put another piece of chicken on a fork and had it sitting nearby us as we all vegged on the couch. Finally, Micah started to fall asleep on his dad. Chad is such a softy for his little boy and quickly jumped up to get him a sippy cup of milk so he wouldn't sleep on an empty stomach. Micah wakes right up and finished the milk, then he says "OK, I eat da chicken now." He walked over and grabbed the fork and ate the chicken without any issues. I was floored. What the heck? What was the two hour stand off for? Did I mention that he is also running away, unbuckling himself from his car seat and having meltdowns in stores? I feel like the sweet little boy that loves to give kisses and hugs is gone and in his place is a little monster! Anyways, the next morning he woke up as happy as could be and said he wanted breakfast. "What do you want to eat?" "Chicken." Uhg! Luckily, I was able to distract him with peanut butter toast. He loves that stuff and will scrape it off the toast to eat it. What a strange kid I have!