Jello buzz

Jupiter is in to sweet things. Pure sugar, candy, chocolate, you name it. Last Sunday I came out of the shower and found the ice cream scoop in the sink. So I ask "What did you eat with the ice cream scoop?"

"Nada," she says. She likes to think if she uses another language, she won't be in trouble.

"Yes, you did. What did you eat?"

"Yogurt."

"You ate yogurt with the ice cream scoop?" Never mind the fact that the ice cream scoop will not even fit into the yogurt container. So I open the fridge and count the yogurts. Fortunately I had one for breakfast, so I know how many there were before I got in the shower.

"You didn't eat any yogurt, because there aren't any missing from the fridge." Try again. "What did you eat?"

"Brown sugar." Now this, I believe. And sure enough, when I get the gladware container out, there's a big ice cream scoop shaped hole. And since I did not specifically tell her NOT to eat the brown sugar while I was in the shower, I can't do anything about it, other than to tell her not to eat the brown sugar. With anything. At any time. Unless I give it to her while we are baking. Which I did a couple weeks ago, and now see the error in that.

I don't know why she craves sugar so much. I don't worry about her weight so much at this point. She's strong and not what you would call dainty, but her BMI is fine. But it's like she HAS to have her sugar. She fixates on it if she knows its there, but she can't eat it right away. When she first came home, it was bananas. I used to have to hide them in a bag out of her sight, because if there were five on the counter, she would insist on eating all five of them. I read in one of the parenting books geared to adoptive families that sugar is instinctually very comforting, so maybe it's something to do with how her brain is hard wired after early deprivation. Maybe she just likes sugar a lot.

Today while I was at work I got this email from my sister, who was at the house with my parents and Jupiter. It says "Your daughter is hilarious. She keeps us on our toes." end of email. What can it possibly be? So I ask.

While Mimi was in the shower Jupiter helped herself to one of the jello boxes in the cupboard, opened it, and poured the jello powder into one of the wooden boxes she plays with. She hid the empty jello box and the wrapper behind the couch. She then took the jello powder upstairs to her room and put it in her bed. Then she told Mimi she was going to take a nap. (This is always a sign. Anytime she volunteers to take a nap, she's probably got something in her bed she's not supposed to have.) Then awhile later, she went to find B. She's all red. She tells B that its the leftover hair color from her hair. (try again.) Finally she admits to the jello theft. "But I wanted to make jello," she tells B. "I used slobber, because I knew I needed water."

the jello (or as someone from work called it, a giant box of fun dip) came off her skin and out of the sheets. I admire Jupiter's creativity, iniative, and resolve, all of which I am sure will serve her greatly in whatever career path she chooses. As I like to say, I don't know what she's going to do when she grows up, but she's going to be in charge of it. But it worries me a little that she's willing to go to such lengths just for a sugar fix. I spent some time at work googling (it amazes me they haven't taken away that function on my computer. Sometimes I run out of stuff to google.) healthy protein snacks which do not have peanuts or any kind of nuts. I will enlist the doctor to support me in my endeavour to reduce Jupiter's sugar intake. Of course, Halloween is coming up. She also loves Halloween. It's her favorite holiday. She gets to go around the neighborhood and people give her candy for being cute. She might like it even better than Christmas, though that could be a toss up.

On the bright side, Jupiter's sugar intake doesn't seem to be rotting her teeth. We went to the dental clinic at UNE this afternoon for a cleaning and flouride. There's a big hole in our dental benefits at work, we can either cover ourselves for $11 a pay period, or a family (of 2 or 14) for $26 a pay period. I decided it was cheaper just to pay the dentist for Jupiter out of pocket, since she wasn't likely to need multiple fillings or a root canal for awhile. So we hit the dental clinic today, which charged a very reasonable $17 for a cleaning and flouride treatment. The student hygenist said that Jupiter's teeth all look very healthy and not decayed. Then the instructor even looked at her teeth after. Jupiter got to bring home a new toothbrush, which made her happy. Once I bought her a new toothbrush at walmart, and she sat in the cart and announced very loudly "Thank you Mom for the new toothbrush!!!" I was afraid all the people around us thought that I never buy the child anything...though I'm glad she likes toothbrushes. They even gave me a new toothbrush.

There were a lot of families making use of the dental clinic today. One family drove two hours from NH to bring themselves and their children. There was another family of five, and one other really big group. What a wonderful resource for the community, and one I was grateful to have. If people drove two hours from another state to come, I can only imagine the number of people who need that particular resource and have no way to get there. Affordable dental care is hard to come by. And don't even get me started on medical. I'll just say I don't believe insurance companies should be making the decisions about what medical procedures I may or may not need. That's what doctors are for. The end.