Olivia's Favorite Ticklie Water

Children sometimes like something new.  They'll try it without a second thought like splashing into the pool deeper than they can swim or eating something spicy, even when you warn them in advance.  Other times, you can't get them to try it no matter how appealing you make it sound.

"The slide is fun, you'll love it," may be met with a resounding "no" that the child won't budge from the entire afternoon.  My son told me today that they had popcorn for snack at school.  I asked him what kind of popcorn he had and he told me, "red and blue popcorn".  Later in the day for their afternoon snack I put a few pieces of caramel corn on their plates.  Both of my children refused to even touch it.  My daughter looked at it and told me it was, "yucky".  Saying it was "candy popcorn" helped not one bit. 

One way we've found to get them to try or keep trying something they may not like initially is to tell them it's someone's favorite.  Tonight at dinner we got them Sprite instead of lemonade.  It's pretty much the same: sugar, water and flavoring, with one having carbonation and the other having coloring.  I wondered what they'd think of it.

My children have had carbonated beverages on rare occasions in the past.  My son dubbed them, "ticklie water" because of how it makes his mouth feel.  Tonight, after they took their first sips and made strange faces, I jumped in and said, "you have Sprite tonight.  Sprite is your cousin Olivia's favorite ticklie water." 

It worked, they kept drinking after hearing that.

The Big Boy Update:  My son went to the bedroom in the afternoon and came back with his arm over his mouth, just like he was preparing to cough into his elbow.  What had he done?  He had decided he could sneak his pacifier out of his room and keep playing if we didn't see the pacifier in his mouth.   After Mimi and I got done giggling, we told him he had to take it back to his bed.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter, after seeing her brother do the sneaky pacifier trick, ran off to the bedroom and came back mere seconds later with her pacifier in her mouth and her arm hiding the evidence.  Quick learner.  It's a pity their ploy didn't work.