Eating at the table for more then 8 seconds

Question: How can I get my child to sit still long enough to eat dinner?

Does anyone have this problem too??? I cannot get my 3.5 year old to sit down and eat more then about 4 bites. I have tried so many ways of trying to get her to stay put- I try to make the food look interesting- dinosaur shaped pancakes, patterns with vegetables or fruits, colorful pastas, alphabet pastas, christmas tree shaped pastas....She would rather run circles around the house and say "mommy?" 47 times in a row and have pretty much nothing to say EVERY time I respond. If she DOES sit at the table it is because she wants to sit on my lap and pick at MY food- which by the way is usually the same thing she is having, but for some reason is more appealing because it is mine.
Here is a blurb from Babycenter.com that may help you and hopefully me!

"Answer: A very young child has about a 15-minute attention span; a preschooler, a little longer. A meal that stretches any longer may leave your child bored and restless and wandering away from the table. So you've got a small window of time in which to feed him. Once that window closes, it may be difficult to get your child to focus on eating again, regardless of how hungry he is. When one family I know eats out at restaurants, they order their kids' meals as an appetizer so the children will be served first.

And since children this age are easily distracted, it's helpful to turn off the TV and stow the video games during meal times. It may be easier to get your child to stay at the table he can watch a video during the meal, but he'll be too distracted by the action to pay attention to his body signals and it will be harder for him to tell if he's full or still hungry.

If your child regularly claims that he's not hungry, make sure he isn't snacking too close to dinner. I suggest scheduling at least two hours between snacks and meals for younger children. If he snacks at 4 o'clock and you put dinner on the table at 5, there's a good chance your child will just pick at his meal. Try pushing his snack back to 3, or serve dinner at 6."

Another suggestion from mamasnap is limit the amount of liquids your child drinks before dinner. My daughter would only drink juice if I let her. She drinks it, gets full- or feels full anyway, and won't eat solids. I now let her have a glass of milk AFTER she eats. There is pretty much NO WAY she will sit at the table if she has had anything to drink before hand.
I have to admit that I occasionally let her eat breakfast in front of the TV- because she is distracted I am able to get more food into her. Zombie bites. Isn't that horrible?!!!!! But, hey, I have a 29 pound 3 1/2 year old ad I worry that she isn't eating enough. BUT this is another subject all together...

-SBH