You might remember that over the holidays I let K-Pants eat cookies until he threw up. I was having a natural consequences moment. But after 17 cookies he was still going strong with no symptoms of tummy ache and he was looking with hungry eyes at the next dozen.
Well it’s been a slow detox since December, but we’re down to one treat per day: the After Nap Treat. The Pants lives for the After Nap Treat.
It’s generally his choice what to pick. He really enjoys those disgusting, chalky Valentine’s hearts. And cookies. But his personal favorites are things that come wrapped in foil. I try to hide them, but sometimes in the morning just after he wakes up, he’ll glimpse a treat’s shiny corner in the kitchen and demand to have a nap right then.
“Pees, Mama. Nap now?”
He figures if he wakes up from nap around mid-morning then the rest of the day will rain sugar.
I will tell you that the After Nap Treat has helped solidify nap time atop its proper pedestal in the toddler household. We’re really lucky that K-Pants is a sleeper, but why not ice that cake with a little cocoa and sugar and butter wrapped in gold foil?
The nap-now-please thing came to a head this week after I made a batch of peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies. Possibly the best I’ve made. The house still smelled like them in the morning and K-Pants, well, he was in love.
I was up changing Baby Woww out of pajamas, and The Pants headed downstairs alone. Apparently he pushed his toddler chair up to the counter and snatched a cookie. I know this because instead of downing that sweet thing right there in the kitchen, he carried it gently back upstairs for some negotiations.
- “Pees, Mama. I want cookie NOW.”
- “No, sorry. After nap.”
- “Nap now Mama?”
- “Put the cookie down please.”
K-Pants raised the cookie gently to his soft lips, brushing a few crumbs across them, and then set the cookie down. “Smell good, Mama.”
I caught him lifting the cookie up and pressing it gently to his lips a couple more times, sating himself with some cookie dust.
It kind of warmed my heart, and reminded me that although The Pants looks exactly like my husband’s baby pictures, there’s a lot of me inside.
