Negotiating with dinnertime terrorists

Power struggles can really suck the fun out of parenting. Having kids that won't eat, sleep, or potty train can be so aggravating. One of the hardest mommy lessons I've learned (so far) is: You can't make kids do anything they don't want to do. You can encourage and reward good habits. You can discourage and punish unwanted behavior. But that's about it.

Unfortunately for my kids, I'm strong willed too. Their health is very important to me and I firmly believe that the food they eat either helps, or harms them. Here are a few of the ways I force trick persuade my kids to eat something with nutritional value:

All natural and completely normal

I didn't know anything about organic eating or natural living until our second baby was born. When I first became interested, I thought the theories were simple and made sense. The only problem I had with the whole scene was the people. The weird, extreme, granola, crunchy people. I wanted to do the things they were doing, except I didn't want to be weird. I was going to be all natural, and completely normal. Fail.

Velveeta isn't cheese.

I ran in a grocery store this morning to pick up a few things. One of the things on my list was butter. Simple enough. Since this wasn't the store I typically use, I had to look for the things on my list and it took me a minute to find the butter. I had to take a picture of this, because there are over 20 varieties of margarine, Country crock, "I can't believe it's not butter", and Smart balance. None of those products are butter. When I finally found the actual butter there were 4 kinds to choose from: Name brand/Store brand and Salted/Un-salted.

Half Birthday!

Our happy, happy baby boy is 6 months old! He is so much fun to have in our home. Abby and Beckham both love him to pieces (which is funny, considering how much they dislike each other). He has been rolling for a few weeks now, and just in the last few days he has been sitting on his own. I wasn't emotionally prepared for how big he would look sitting by himself. 

Home Made Laundry Detergent

Supplies needed:

- 20 Mule Team Borax
- Arm & Hammer washing soda (NOT baking soda)
- Fels Naptha bar soap
- 5 Gallon Bucket
- Kettle or Large pot for boiling water