Kids are like sponge

If you have kids or nieces/nephews and have Disney Playhouse at home, I'm sure you are familiar of Captain Carlos, the adventures in nutrition. This show has Carlos trying to decide what meal to eat, added with his sister's persuasion to eat colorful junk food.
One time, there was an episode where Carlos tried to decide between a snack and raisin. Then it showed how brain is like a tall building and when one eat junk food, the lights in the building go intermittent or worse black-out. On the other hand, choosing a healthy food leads to super-bright building.

So, I've been using this story to make my 3 years old niece avoid all the candies/chocolate/snack and eat healthy ones.

Me: Makan ni, nanti ada lampu tu kepala ayu...
--->while showing a fruit or vegetable
Me: Kalau ayu makan keropok/candies/soda, nanti gelap kepala ayu....
----> Showing serious face okay..

Then my niece ate her apple, and went to me asking if her head was bright. I pretended that I can look inside her head, and said "Wah, terangnya kepala ayu!! "

Now she has in her mind what are the bright food and dark food. Example of bright food are rice, bread, fruits, nuts and vege while dark food includes keropok(chips), candies and soda. Sometimes, she asked her mom whether a certain food is bright or dark even at the supermarket when picking out groceries. Of courselah this auntie tried to be as specific as possible, for example fruit is bright food because it contains vitamins which will help her body recover when she's sick. It's funny also at one time when she picked up milk and said, "mmmmm, sedap.... ada vitamin... " Mmmmm, kids can taste vitamins??? Do you think that's too much for a 3 years old?

Yesterday, her mom told me the maid tried to offer her candy. She went, "Auntie Mary, kenapa bagi ayu gula-gula? Nanti gelap kepala ayu." Wah... now, whenever I brought her to supermarket, she skipped the fancy and colorful candies section and she went straight to vege+fruits section. Hahaha.. I still think occasional junk food is ok.

Note to self: uji, coffee is dark beverage, cut it down...