Slightly cruel but highly effective

You won't find this in the How To Be An Excellent, Well-Respected Mother handbook anywhere but it may be somewhere deep in Mothering for Dummies. It is a constant inner battle I face everyday....when to get me and the wee-man out of the house during the weekdays. In Atlanta we lived by no schedule during the day and seemed to spend 8 of the 10 daylight hours in the car. Here, lets just face it, we don't have that many places to go! Nonetheless, I have to get out atleast once a day to keep from turning into a sesame Street character or something. Lately, I have loved meeting Brad for lunch at some neat lunch spot downtown. I am sure he has plenty of other lunch companion options but we don't and therefore crave lunch time with the Big-man. Anyway, the only downfall of this noon time outing is that Brooks is destined to get all cozy in the car on the way home after lunch and almost always falls merrily asleep. As I have mentioned before this means I have to sit in a lawn chair and watch him snooze in the car if I want him to get any decent nap and be somewhat of a decent baby the rest of the day. Unfortunately, the moment he is out of the car and not tranquilized by the hum of the car he is wide awake and ready to play and usually I am in dire need of a little shut eye too.

Solution. Spray your 7 month olds face with water the whole way home. Brad says I should just roll all the windows down but I figured water in the face and 32 degree winds whipping around ones face is just over the top. So today he was eating a teething cookie which basically means he was spreading the goo of the cookie all over himself and the car and the car seat and he started to get those usual droopy eyes and with squishy cookie in hand he began to doze off until I attacked him with his sippy cup of water! I should have taken a picture because it wasn't as harsh as it sounds, I promise.

If you have any other tricks of the trade please share. Otherwise, baby trying to nap in the car = 0, satisfied mom = 1.