Dag BRAN It!

On the heels of a "sugar-high" post comes commentary on oatmeal and All-Bran. Talk about plunging from a mountain top to the depths of Hades.....

You see, sugar in this house is in short supply. I haven't purchased or made cookies in forever. Last time cake was in the house was in May, for Aaron's birthday. The only thing REMOTELY resembling a sugary-snack is organic, peanut butter, rice bars. UMMM, UMMM.

"Have you gone crazy?", you must be thinking, "Oh you who used to buy mega-boxes of gummy snacks and went through baking frenzies?"

Actually, I'm trying to keep my KIDS from going crazy. One guaranteed way to put them on the Crazy Train to Nowhere is to feed them sugar. So, we* refrain as best we can.

Which brings me to today. After arriving home at 1:30pm, my kids were hungry. They had already eaten breakfst, a mid-morning snack and lunch, but apparently humidity makes boys ravenous, so they were after me for snackage at what I considered a fairly early hour. Cripe, at this rate we'll be joining the blue hairs at the 4:30 dinner hour.

It's not that I'm unprepared for attacks of the snacking kind or opposed to earlier dinnertimes. I just wasn't ready for one of kids to request a BIG bowl of oatmeal and the other to find the All-Bran cereal and request about 1/2 cup of it. DRY.

Oatmeal used to be a staple around the Huber house. As a little one, Mom tells me I'd wake up screaming "Meals, Mommy, meals.**" This went on for a respectable period of time until, one day, I woke up and went all post-orphan on her and planted my heels on the whole mush issue, refusing to ever eat it again.

Today, at 43, the whole thought of the texture kind of makes me want to urp.

But, Mike and the kids eat it. And, as long as it doesn't come in contact with my mouth, I'm cool.

But, ALL-BRAN? DRY? What was the babe thinking?

Possible four-year-old thoughts:
a. This is the first box of cereal in our house since last September. Whatever Mommy bought MUST be good.

b. I burned my taste-buds this morning on the oatmeal***, so as long as this stuff is FILLING, I don't really care WHAT it tastes like.

c. A good poo makes life go round.

Regardless, I served him what he requested. With a spoon. And a smile.

He'd managed to polish off the whole bowl in a matter of 15 minutes. Returning to me, empty bowl in hand, he asked for MORE!

Maybe he produces more spit than the average four year old, which is the only explanation that satisfies the question, "How did he choke down the FIRST serving?"

But, coming back for more?

Of course, the real results of this fun little experiment will only be evident a couple of days from now. If I'm lucky, it will happen somewhere other than home.

WHAT have I DONE???????




*Most definitely the royal WE. If you think MOMMAJ is refraining from sugar, you've got another thing coming.

**Which, I think, in retrospect, she interpreted incorrectly as OATMEAL. What I was really emphasizing was the fact that, every day upon waking, I wanted to be sure she knew I was expecting mulitple MEALS, starting with breakfast.

***Darn, grilled, turkey dogs just didn't fill him up last night. Couldn't wait to try the tasty oatmeal and, against his Mommy's warning, heaped a mouthful of the lava-hot stuff into his mouth. OUCH.