Tasty Babies

So, like nearly every mother in America, I attempt to get my kids to eat healthy foods. My oldest two are pretty good at trying and liking a variety, including the green stuff, and the third is coming along nicely in their footsteps.

But Z? Haha. At 19 months old he has PREFERENCES. He will not touch a stalk of broccoli, but he will eat a suspiciously grey piece of lint he got off of the floor. Why are kids so weird?

Anyway, I've resorted to dark measures to get veggies in that kid. Before I had children, I vowed to never be a slave to characters or marketing. My children would be immune to the sly ways of advertisers! They would make choices based on carefully weighing the pure, naked facts! Stick it to the man!

Now? Now I'd gladly pay for a stalk of broccoli if Elmo's face could be superimposed.

I learned recently that Z, despite being fairly new to the world, had definite preferences to what he wanted and didn't want to eat. I also learned that he was an early slave to packaging. So, I used that to my advantage.

I found that he enjoyed eating those fruit pouches, (ah, food pouches... Another post in and of themselves. Amaranth? I think I was 29 before I even had heard about that grain. Anyway...) And I found that he was far, far more excited about the once that had a happy, smiling fruit like the one on the right in the bottom photo.

"Hey Z! Want the happy fruit pouch? Look! He's smiling at you! Happy tasty fruit!" Inevitably, this question was met with a grin and a nod. Win!

But I ran out of those pouches. I had plain ones and this one with a... Baby on it. Z was flatly uninterested in the plain one and in desperation, I pulled out the one with a baby on it. "Look Z! A baby! Want to eat the one with the baby? Mmmmmmm, tasty babies!"

Somehow the translation from a tasty, happy apple to a tasty, happy baby didn't quite work. I'm apologizing in advance to the mothers I meet who will inevitably raise their eyebrows when Z toddles over and asks, "Eat? Eat tasty babies?"

Oh motherhood, you win.