Dayjamas

Kid quote of the day

"Yes, I'm warm enough.  See, I'm wearing my life jacket."

-Kiku, pointing to her quilted vest

"Thirst Quencher"

One of the more ridiculous labels I've seen lately. 

J'aime le chocolat

This morning in the shower I was thinking about a bakery I used to frequent several times a week when I was in high school.  I believe it was called Au Cocolat and they produced the most wonderful chocolate croissants.  Those were the days when I could eat anything I wanted without a care in the world, like an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia in one sitting.  I miss those days.  Senior year I would take the bus to school and grab a chocolate pastry and large mocha at one of the kiosks downtown before cruising into English class five minutes late.  Every day.  I would sit at my desk with sleep in my eyes, munching on the chocolate goodness and sipping coffee.  My teacher never commented on my tardiness so I never tried very hard to be on time.  This was the same teacher who gave me A's on my papers but rarely left comments in the margins. I always wondered whether he actually read any of them. 

These days I've had to curb my chocolate intake because I've become very sensitive to sugar.  I often get spacey and headachey after eating something sweet, and sometimes I'll even experience cold symptoms a few hours later.  I've read that sugar lowers the immune system and it certainly feels true for me.  Add Kiku to that list.  The few times we've allowed her to devour an entire ice cream cone her eyes got all glassy and she turned into Godzilla.  Sugar is definitely not her friend but she begs for it several times a day.  She will even refuse to eat breakfast right before a birthday party because she knows cake and ice cream are party staples and she wants to make sure there's room in her stomach. 

Even though we do our best to limit her sugar intake, it's a tough job navigating through the Licorice Forest.  Donuts, candy, ice cream, and cookies abound, and can be seen in the hands of young children everywhere.  Why would Kiku want to eat a piece of fruit if the kids at the next table are snacking on cupcakes?  In her eyes, it just isn't fair, and she's not taking it sitting down. 

I've spent a lot of time reading labels in the grocery store since becoming aware of Kiku's sugar sensitivity and I'm amazed at the staggering amounts of sugar that food companies load into their products.  Even many of the "healthy" products found at natural food stores (i.e. Whole Foods) are teeming with the stuff.  Cereal, yogurt, bread, the list goes on.  What grosses me out the most is the unnecessary amount of sugar found in products marketed to toddlers.  Don't even get me started on so-called "energy" bars. 

I'm thankful that more and more companies are using healthier alternatives like evaporated cane juice in their products, but the end result is usually the same in Kiku's case.  It doesn't matter if a cookie is loaded with cane juice or refined white sugar - Dr. Jekyll still turns into Mr. Hyde. 

At this point we're taking the "everything in moderation" route and have designated two nights a week as dessert night.  I've been baking a lot of healthy treats with the help of cookbooks like Deceptively Delicious, so Kiku's been ingesting a lot of pureed veggies unbeknownst to her.  Kiku still begs for sweets every day and it's usually a battle, but I'm hoping that one day she'll just stop craving it.  If it happened with TV ("I don't like watching videos anymore"), maybe it can happen with sugar! 

Here comes the sun

The spring bloom has begun.  Thank god.