Cracker

Every morning, Eva runs to the pantry and says "Cracker! Cookie! Cracker!" Some times she gets more specific and says "fish," but most of the time, it's just the generic cry for processed goodies.

It's super cute to watch, but it's a tad disturbing to me. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if she and Josh ate normal whole foods, but since we have any number of "bad" foods lying around, that's all they want. And trying to explain to a 2- and 4-year old that, no, they can't have the entire box of Teddy Grahms is like telling them that eternity is one long time out.

So, I came to a decision last Saturday. It all had to go.

Jeremy protested. Mostly because of how expensive Cheez-its are. He didn't want me to throw it all away, and as we sat there eating as many cookies as we could before we got rid of them, I agreed. Although, in my mind, nobody should be eating this junk.

So, I cleaned everything out of our pantry, put it in a grocery bag, and put it on top of the fridge. When Eva woke up from her nap and ran to the pantry asking for cookies/crackers I said, honestly (because they weren't "ours" anymore), "We don't have any!"

She was perturbed for a minute, and then consented to some cereal--whole wheat squares. Oh yeah, baby! (On Sunday, instead of the fishy crackers we usually give her, we filled the container with Cinnamon Harvest and Honey Sunshine from Kashi. As Eva and Joshua munched the stuff and sprayed shredded wheat particles all over the pew, I leaned over to Jeremy and said "The best part is that they think they are having a treat! HA HA HA!")

Saturday night, after putting the kids in bed, I toted my bag of baddies to the car and drove to Mom and Dad's house. I quietly opened the door, snuck into the kitchen, and stuffed the entire contents of the bag into their cupboard. Ha ha ha! The only thing that didn't fit were the cookies, and I kept those on the counter as a "treat" I brought. Sneaky, huh?