Just Desserts

Dear Jack,

Everyone says that younger children get to do things sooner than their older siblings.

I use as an example, gummy bears (called "sunnies" by your sister). Sydney has always had a snack from the bulk food isle at the grocery store. For the longest time, it was graham crackers. Then it was star shaped cookies. Now, it's sunnies. She didn't get to move beyond graham crackers until she was well over two and the sunnies didn't start until she was three. They may be made from raw cane sugar and better than most sugary snacks, but they are still a sugary snack and nutritional content aside, with their gummy texture, they are not the best choice for a baby.

So, when you go to the grocery store, you get graham crackers and your sister feeds you graham crackers in between feeding herself sunnies. You eye the sunnies and sometimes whine for them, but your dad is firm.

No sunnies for Jack.

We were not going to fall into the younger child trap of allowing you to do something just because your sister is doing it. She's older and has teeth.

What we did not count on was the confluence of events brought to you by a combination of ingenuity, persistence, availability and a toddler who puts up her own snacks on the lower shelf of the pantry.

Happily for you, in this house, we reward character traits like ingenuity and persistence and you got to not only have the two in your hand, but the one half chewed one I found on the ground when I was cleaning up.

And your sister has been taught to put things on the higher shelf.

I said reward, not fall victim to.

And I still don't understand how you eat gummy bears with only three teeth.

Love,
Mom