Sugar, Sugar

Every family has a legacy.  Some are enterprising people that break barriers and create new things.  Some are remembered for being caring and nurturing, or funny, bringing laughter to those around them.

If you ask my dentist, he'd likely tell you that my family's legacy is a waist-high dental bill and a record number of cavities.

You see, I have a terrible sweet tooth, Joel has a terrible sweet tooth, and on the DNA roadmap where our genes intersect, there is a pie stand.  With real whipped cream.

I think it is a constant battle for most parents to get their kids to eat healthy foods.  But because because of my kids proclivity to eat nothing but cane sugar in all its forms, words like "asparagus" and "cauliflower" are whispered like profanity.  Sometimes with profanity.

In all honesty, I think we've done really well with teaching them to do was we say and not as we do about how to eat healthy, and they love fresh fruit and often make healthy choices.  But like all kids (and adults) they would take a cookie over an apple any day.  Ahem, every day.

With Cael, it started early. 

So we backed off of the doughnuts.  It's not like they were a healthy choice anyway.  Instead, we focused on other desserts, like cake and ice cream, because calcium is really important for growing bones.  But it didn't take long for Graham to catch on to the family legacy.

So much for cake.

As Adler's birth approached, we made a conscious effort to try to adopt the Paleo diet as much as possible without going crazy enough to bite the wall.  It was an easy transition for me, because the gestational diabetes diet of nothing good nothing but vegetables and meat didn't allow room for sweets, but the switch made Cael and Graham even more sugar-crazed than usual.  

They sneaked candy that I didn't know we had into their room and didn't even try to hide the wrapper evidence.  They begged me to cover everything in caramel sauce.  Even the dog.  Cael promised me he wasn't only drinking chocolate milk with his lunch, and I know he was telling me the truth.   

He was drinking chocolate milk with his lunch AND with his snack.

And just when they had begun to accept that sugar was no longer on the menu, an overabundance of cookies from an event we attended last week started the ball rolling again.  Jello replaced apples, gum replaced raisins, and I considered replacing the children with life-sized versions made from marshmallow cream and high fructose corn syrup.

The cookies are headed to the trash, and I know that we will be a healthier family for it.  And when our grandchildren and great-grandchildren remember Adler, I know that they will say--

--Oh, crap.