Dessert in the Desert

                                      Hmmm. Looks like he takes after his mother.

I have a problem. I had dessert after every meal today. Breakfast dessert was the last leftover chocolate cupcake that I needed to "get rid of." Lunch dessert was angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. That was intended for family night treat, but we forgot about it on Monday, and could I really refuse when Matt got it out of the fridge at the BEGINNING of lunch and it was sitting there being tantalizing through the whole meal? My dessert tonight was an oatmeal raisin cookie, because Matt really needed some cookies to take to his LAST study session for med school final exams and I really needed to sample one. I have to note it was reduced in fat and sugar. Still, it was my third dessert of the day.

This isn't really the norm, but it is symptomatic of a problem I have of often reaching for sweets when I get hungry between meals (and I always get hungry between meals). I think the problem is I don't really want to avoid sweets. I observed Lent this year by going without chocolate, and by the end of the 40 days, I was doing great. I was eating less of other sugary foods too, and I found that I had less tolerance for sweets when I started eating them again. Unfortunately, I seem to be fully desensitized again. The thing is I think dessert is an important part of life. I really do! I don't want to eliminate it from my life, and I don't think I want to do the one-day-a-week sweets thing. Is it possible to train myself to be more moderate?

Maybe my salvation will be the scorching summer months that are due any day here. I seem to be less interested in food in general when it's hot.

Oh, and here's my lower-fat, lower-sugar, still-yummy oatmeal cookie recipe, if anyone's interested:
Mix
3/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
In another bowl, combine
1/4 cup softened butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Mix wet and dry ingredients. Add pecans and whatever else you like (Matt always chooses raisins; I go for milk chocolate chips). Use a tablespoon to measure the dough--this always results in 24 cookies with an allowance for dough sampling. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

About Harrison

My son is pretty much the greatest kid in the world. I'm a lucky mom. I'll just point out some of the outstanding evidence.

He has 12 teeth (kind of a lot for a 13-month-old, I think), and he uses them very responsibly. He doesn't bite people, though he did go through a short phase when he wanted to bite during moments of frustration. When he couldn't get a hold of Mom or Dad, he'd bite himself. He'd yell and then chomp. He went through a brief period of biting the floor when he was frustrated as well. My sister Carolyn loved that stage.

He squints his eyes a lot. It's just really cute. I worried at first that there might be a problem with his vision, but I'm convinced now he's mimicking me. (I don't wear my glasses very often.)

He can stack blocks! This is a pretty recent development; before he was more interested in demolition (knocking down the towers Matt or I built as soon as he saw them). Now he can make a two-story block tower like a pro.

He can play the kazoo. It still delights him that he's finally figured out how to get the buzz to work. It distracts him from his playing though. It usually sounds like this when he's got the kazoo: Bvvt. "Heh." Bvvt. "Heh." I'll have to try to catch it on film.

He's got some cool dance moves. Mostly, he marches or does something that would probably be called "the sprinkler" at a Jr. High dance, if you can imagine what that would look like. It makes people smile, when they're fortunate enough to see it.

He waves to nearly everyone. This makes people smile, too.

And my favorite: He folds his arms and bows his head for prayer. It's so darn sweet! He has kept this posture for the whole prayer a couple of times, and he occasionally says "Maymen" afterwards.

Seriously, I've really lucked out with this one. He's an angel when we're out shopping, and he loves tickling and snuggling. About the worst his behavior get is dropping food on the floor when he doesn't feel like eating it and doing things he knows he's not supposed to do while shaking his head and saying "no no no." I love this boy!