Himself with the parenting win

I've got to give props to my hubby for the latest in successful application of reverse psychology to our children.

The girls have always been pretty good about eating, and we talk a lot about good food versus junk food, but as they get older, junk food becomes more and more tantalizing. We've been hearing a lot of demands for cookies or candy or cupcakes (why do those all start with C?). Dev, in particular, has been rushing through dinner in order to get dessert, and then compaining half an hour later that she's hungry. Our standard response to that is suck it up, cupcake*, but Himself has come up with a genius approach to solve the problem.

I was complaining a couple of months ago about how big the girls were getting, and it evolved into a joke about wanting to keep them as small as possible and not let them grow up. Boo would ask to be carried in our arms like a baby (i.e. squashed up as small as possible with her knees against her chin), and would then spontaneously stretch out, prompting cries of "Look at how big you're getting!" Himself took this joke and has brilliantly applied it to dinner:

"Girls, you don't want to eat that broccoli, it will make you grow too fast. Here, eat some more bread or some candy instead, so you stay nice and small." (of course not actually offering them candy)

Girls gleefully chow down on broccoli, with accompanying squeals of "Daddy! Look what I'm doing!" and "Daddy, I finished all my broccoli!" before piling more on to their plates and gobbling it up. This approach has now worked with rice, pea pods, carrots, chicken, pork, and just about everything else. Devil still isn't very interested in tomatoes, and Boo is still interested in anything that can't move off of her plate fast enough to escape her clutches, but we are getting a lot more of "Look how big I'm getting", and a lot less of "I want dessert!" So chalk up one serious victory to Daddy. I just hope they don't figure out the catch too soon!

* well, that's my standard response at least.