I am not a fan of mountains of candy for holidays. Especially the religious holidays whose significance gets overshadowed by commercialism and CANDY. The funny thing is, I really like candy. I have a very insistent sweet tooth that hounds me until I satisfy it. I'm just anti-candy for my energetic kids. They have plenty of hyperactivity stored up in them without all that sugar. Having said this, here are our Easter 2009 Candy Experiences:
S is the first to wake up and hunts down and eats all the jelly beans randomly placed in his bedroom and the hallway before J and I are even coherent.
When all the monkeys are awake, we go downstairs to hunt jelly beans. Trying to keep it fair, we tell them to put all of their finds in a pile and then we will divide them up. I go into the kitchen to make Swedish Pancakes and J follows the boys around in their hunting pursuits. A few minutes later, he comes into the kitchen and asks where the pile of jelly beans went. Had I moved them? No, I had not. We look down at H, who has meandered into the kitchen -- mouth bulging, sugary juice dribbling out of the corners of his mouth. Mystery solved.
Somehow manage to put a little nutrition into their bellies. Church goes well. H can't sit still during Sacrament Meeting. He is two, after all. And full of jelly beans.
After church we come home and the steady working through of the Easter baskets continues. Dinner, then to Grandma's. She goes all out and the egg hunt is a hit. S & O retire downstairs with some cousins to count their eggs. S knows how many eggs each person has. He may grow up to be an accountant. H settles in at the table to work on his eggs. I manage to sneak out the hard candies and the Now and Laters. 15 minutes later, he is done with all of his candy. O plays happily and well until he decides to poke his cousin with a stick and throw sand on her. Our cue to go home.
In the car, S buckles in, H is buckled, O droops over his seat, complaining of a belly ache. We gently suggest that excessive candy is not really a good idea. He falls asleep on the way home. Hooray! We think that bedtime will be a snap. Then S says that his belly hurts. O goes from car to bed. He wakes up enough for two songs and to tell me his game plan for the next day:"We'll put the candy away tonight, because my belly hurts. Then in the morning, I'll have some more. My belly will hurt, so we'll put it away tomorrow night. The next morning, I'll wake up and have some more. Then my belly will hurt. That night, we won't put the candy away, because it will be all gone!" S climbs into bed docily enough and drops off to sleep ok. H takes a little while to calm down, and then he drifts off to sleep too. Whew! J and I spend some time talking then head upstairs to bed. It is 10 o'clock. (Can you hear the ominous music?)
Just before we open our door, J hears O stirring. I hear him ask,"O, are you ok? Oh, are you sick?" Then he comes running out of the room. I dash in there and am abruptly stopped short by the smell. Now, I generally don't get sick from the puke smell, but this was bad. All the Easter candy O had consumed was in a puddle on his bed, blanket, and pillow -- and the puddle was getting bigger. I waited for the heaving to subside, then hustled O to the bathroom, where J sat by him, while I cleaned up the mess. It was bad. I had to keep leaving the room for fresh air until the task was complete. 15 minutes later, O is asleep on a towel on the bathroom floor. Sheets are in the washer, blankets outside, fresh sheets on the bed, Scentsy plugged in in the boys' room. He goes back to bed and sleeps well throughout the night. This morning, the first thing he asks for? His Easter candy.
We've decided that next year we will hide the jelly beans around the house (J likes to watch them run around looking them), and then do all non-food items in their baskets -- chalk, bubbles, cheapie toys, etc. Then we'll ration the Grandma candy.
H intent on the hunt
O on a mission
S & O scoping out the egg scene
