If You Tell Your Child It's A Cookie...He Will Eat It

I may be new at this motherhood thing, but I think I've picked up a few tricks already. In fact, I learned my first trick at the very beginning of this wonderful journey. In an effort to get several hours of sleep in a row, I put an extra ounce of formula in Austin's before-bedtime-bottle. My thinking was that a little extra formula would tide him over until at least 5:00. I was desperate, people. But more importantly, it worked. Remember that Nyquil commercial where the woman is in a luxurious bed with rose petals scattered all around and angels are singing the "Hallelujah Chorus?" That's exactly how that first night of glorious sleep went at the Keiffer house.

Next came the question "To Swaddle or Not To Swaddle?" It was a brutal transition, but we finally discovered that leaving one arm out and the other swaddled helped Austin get used to the feeling of freedom. Good thing we figured that out because it would've been REALLY embarrasing to have to teach his future wife how to swaddle him just right.

And these days the battle we face is a little thing we like to call picky eating. Somedays he likes chicken nuggets and somedays he'll only eat pizza. That is why I have resorted to renaming his food. Peas are now known as "little green balls." And cereal bars? Well, they are now cookies in this house. Before you know it, we'll be calling broccoli "little trees" and peanut butter sandwiches "cake."

This may have been my most amazing trick yet, because mealtimes are no longer the teeth-nashing and wailing sessions they used to be. Now they resemble the Ovaltine commercials. You know, the one where the kids keep saying,

More Ovaltine please!

Here's proof that our little man is enjoying mealtimes more...

So if you happen to visit us during Austin's breakfast, lunch or dinner, please MIND THE LITTLE EARS and call his food by the proper name.