Addict

Claire is really jonesing these days. Our post-Halloween ritual has been set in stone from day one, modeled after my childhood memories of post-Halloween candy consumption.

This means that we celebrate All Saints' Day by gorging on candy from morning until night. After that, however, we have a strict 2-peices-of-candy-a-day rule, once after lunch and once after dinner (if they eat dinner.)

Claire just can't seem to get it this year, though. We did not have this problem last year, but now this little one wakes up with an intense craving for candy that lasts until we get a small respite when she goes back to sleep. Despite the fact that I have NEVER ONCE given in and let the girls eat candy before breakfast, Claire asks me for some every single morning. And she seems to believe that continued nagging might be effective in this situation, even though it never has to date.

Yesterday, I realized that we were dealing with something very serious. She asked for candy before breakfast: denied. She asked for candy during breakfast: denied. She asked for candy after breakfast: denied, and threatened with a time-out if she asked again.

Then I ran into the bathroom for a quick shower, feeling fairly confident that the issue had been handled, at least until lunchtime. As the water ran, though, I heard a tiny voice outside the door to the bathroom.

"What?" I yelled out the door. A mumbly voice answered something like "whiny whiny whiny MOMMY, whiny whiny whiny."

So I hopped out of the shower, unlocked the door, and then hopped back in. I then told whoever it was to open the door so that I could hear her, assuming that Abbie had stolen a toy, or someone wasn't playing with someone else....the usual stuff that suddenly becomes urgent when I want ten minutes to take a shower.

The door opened, and a spray of unruly brown hair peeped around the doorknob. A tiny voice asked, "Can I have some candy now?"

Does Hershey sponser some kind of rehab? At least we are now down to the yickiest leftovers, and hopefully once Claire gets past the shakes things will calm down.