The Resolution of a Problem

Recently--and by recently I mean for about a year--we've been doing our best to deal with a problem.  It's not a great or tragic problem, more of an annoyance.  Though it could cause health problems in the future and illustrates a definite "I'm going to do what I want" kind of behavior.  The problem was with my dearest Lily.  And candy.  Or brownies.  Or chocolate chips.  Or whatever the treat of the week, she would eat it.

She's sneaky, unfortunately, she gets that from me.  I can remember being really good at being sneaky, doing naughty things that were obvious--like those my less sneaky sister would do--then letting my sister take the fall.  Lily hasn't done that yet, thank GOD, but she was waking up early, not waking me and getting into what ever sweet thing she could remember was in the house.  Nothing was beyond her reach.  Chairs, counters and books were her accomplices and her prize was the goodies.

Easter before last I came out to the dining room early in the morning to find Lily, chocolate on her face, buried in a pile of candy wrappers.  She looked up at me and with an appropriately timed burp, "Mommy, I don't feel good."

About a month ago I made a large batch of brownies.  We ate about five pieces from a 13x9 pan.  The next morning I again woke up to some small noises from the general direction of the kitchen.  When I came out I found she had devoured all but about 3 pieces from the rest of the pan!

We tried everything: time outs, spankings, taking privileges, everything we could think of and nothing worked. I was so frustrated! I even tried to not keep any sweets at all in the house but you can't stop Grammies and Papas and Grandmas from bringing treats.  So, our house remained sweet-ed, and the sweets continued to be eaten.

Then, a few weeks ago, I instituted a new rule; sweets and such had to be asked for and given permission for BUT she could get fruit when ever and however often she wanted.  And I would do my best to keep the house stocked with some kind of fruit at all times.  I figured that even if she was snacking on fruit before dinner or lunch at least it was really good for her and I was okay with her filling up on it since it was so nutritious.  I thought of this rule, not to stem off the sneaking of sweets, but simply so that I wouldn't have to constantly try to think of what to offer when the "mommy-I'm-hungries" struck again (she's been growing a lot this year!).  But, low and behold, it's the thing that has stopped the stealing of yums!

Lily, about 20 months old, thoroughly enjoying a McDonald's kid's cone.
 The beginning of the sweet-aholic!