Suckers
The kids went trick-or-treating an eye-popping, tooth-decaying, frostbite inducing three times over the past few days. We took an early trip to the zoo to support a good cause. We went to the mall for the official trick-or-treat night. Last night the neighborhood threw an impromptu trick-or-treat. I think the purpose of last night’s session was for all the parents to unload the junk they’ve accumulated over the past few days, giving away more than they take in. I know that was our goal. Unfortunately the other parents thwarted us by insisting their child take one piece from our enormous treat bowl while handing out treats to our children in enormous goodie bags.
Through this ever-growing amalgam of candy, I’ve learned a lot about Abbie’s candy preferences. Specifically I’ve learned that she likes anything that comes from a crinkly wrapper. I’ve known for a while that she enjoys chocolate and marshmallows since I have to seize a bag of chocolate chips or marshmallows from her every other time I turn my back on her and return it to its place that I swear is beyond her reach. I now know that she also enjoys Tootsie Rolls, chocolate candy bars, and anything else I have to unwrap.
Her favorite candy so far seems to be suckers, though. This is an ironic name for her since the only “sucking” she does with them involves sucking down one after the other. “Biters” would be more appropriate, or possibly “chompers.” While we were trick-or-treating, I had to confiscate her suckers as soon they entered her treat bag. Otherwise she’d halt the entire trick-or-treat procession to dig the sucker from her bag, remove the wrapper ideally with her fingers although she would bite through it if necessary, and drool sucker juice on her fairy princess costume.
Abbie ate a couple suckers on Monday, which is plenty of sugar for a growing toddler who fights sleep with all her being. Yesterday she went overboard on the suckers, though. We may be in charge of her diet, but sometimes we have very little control.
Sucker #1 came shortly after breakfast as she swiped one of the counter from the stash that I could’ve swore was out of her reach. I pushed the stash farther back and continued cleaning after breakfast. Sucker #2 followed a couple minutes later as she again raided the sucker stash that still was within her reach.
Sucker #3 happened later in the morning in the doctor’s office. I was in for a flu shot, and as we waited in the back room, a nurse delivered a handful of suckers as a “treat” for the kids. I gave Abbie one, hoping it would entertain her until my shot. It wound up entertaining her for the five seconds it took her to bite the candy off the stick.
Sucker #4 arrived during speech therapy. Her speech therapist, possibly needing to exhaust her sucker stash, uses suckers to exercise the mouth muscles, working the tongue and lip rounding. Unfortunately Abbie only uses the jaw muscles with suckers, and quickly disposed of it. She tore through suckers #5 and #6 in the same way.
After a long sucker drought, Abbie picked up more during trick-or-treating last night. Ellie gave her sucker #7 hoping to keep her happy while they walked, but quickly learned how fast they disappear in her mouth.
We had a legitimate reason for giving her sucker #8. We wanted to take a picture of all three kids in costume, but no one would hold still. We knew that if we set the boys down, we could snap a picture before they could move in their cumbersome costumes, but Abbie was a free spirit. We gave her the sucker to keep her in place, and got our picture:
Ian is the pumpkin on the left, Tory is the lion on the right. Shortly after taking that picture, we started preparing the kids for bed. While we fed the boys their bedtime bottle, Abbie ran around the house. Literally, she ran around the house, mostly running circles around the plastic table seen in the background of the above picture. We believe she was running off the sugar from the day’s previous eight suckers. She’d just snitched sucker #9 while we were busy with the boys from the sucker stash that still wasn’t pushed back far enough, so I don’t think that had hit her yet.
Through this ever-growing amalgam of candy, I’ve learned a lot about Abbie’s candy preferences. Specifically I’ve learned that she likes anything that comes from a crinkly wrapper. I’ve known for a while that she enjoys chocolate and marshmallows since I have to seize a bag of chocolate chips or marshmallows from her every other time I turn my back on her and return it to its place that I swear is beyond her reach. I now know that she also enjoys Tootsie Rolls, chocolate candy bars, and anything else I have to unwrap.
Her favorite candy so far seems to be suckers, though. This is an ironic name for her since the only “sucking” she does with them involves sucking down one after the other. “Biters” would be more appropriate, or possibly “chompers.” While we were trick-or-treating, I had to confiscate her suckers as soon they entered her treat bag. Otherwise she’d halt the entire trick-or-treat procession to dig the sucker from her bag, remove the wrapper ideally with her fingers although she would bite through it if necessary, and drool sucker juice on her fairy princess costume.
Abbie ate a couple suckers on Monday, which is plenty of sugar for a growing toddler who fights sleep with all her being. Yesterday she went overboard on the suckers, though. We may be in charge of her diet, but sometimes we have very little control.
Sucker #1 came shortly after breakfast as she swiped one of the counter from the stash that I could’ve swore was out of her reach. I pushed the stash farther back and continued cleaning after breakfast. Sucker #2 followed a couple minutes later as she again raided the sucker stash that still was within her reach.
Sucker #3 happened later in the morning in the doctor’s office. I was in for a flu shot, and as we waited in the back room, a nurse delivered a handful of suckers as a “treat” for the kids. I gave Abbie one, hoping it would entertain her until my shot. It wound up entertaining her for the five seconds it took her to bite the candy off the stick.
Sucker #4 arrived during speech therapy. Her speech therapist, possibly needing to exhaust her sucker stash, uses suckers to exercise the mouth muscles, working the tongue and lip rounding. Unfortunately Abbie only uses the jaw muscles with suckers, and quickly disposed of it. She tore through suckers #5 and #6 in the same way.
After a long sucker drought, Abbie picked up more during trick-or-treating last night. Ellie gave her sucker #7 hoping to keep her happy while they walked, but quickly learned how fast they disappear in her mouth.
We had a legitimate reason for giving her sucker #8. We wanted to take a picture of all three kids in costume, but no one would hold still. We knew that if we set the boys down, we could snap a picture before they could move in their cumbersome costumes, but Abbie was a free spirit. We gave her the sucker to keep her in place, and got our picture:
Ian is the pumpkin on the left, Tory is the lion on the right. Shortly after taking that picture, we started preparing the kids for bed. While we fed the boys their bedtime bottle, Abbie ran around the house. Literally, she ran around the house, mostly running circles around the plastic table seen in the background of the above picture. We believe she was running off the sugar from the day’s previous eight suckers. She’d just snitched sucker #9 while we were busy with the boys from the sucker stash that still wasn’t pushed back far enough, so I don’t think that had hit her yet.
posted by Matt at
10:48 PM
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