Candy, Candy Everywhere

I can remember Easter mornings when my brother and I were little; we'd wake up and start the search.  Eggs we had dyed the night before were hidden on the piano, in the plants, on the counter next to the wall phone...eggs for days.  But the baskets were the highlight.  Colorful woven rattan baskets filled with green plastic Easter grass, jelly beans, and huge chocolate bunnies.  Just to be sure we weren't too traditional, mom would throw in a gummy rat or two.  Then, in my memory, we would sit and eat everything - all at once - go into a sugar coma, put on some frilly clothes, and go to church.

Halloween was much the same, minus the church part.  There are pictures of my brother and me sitting on the brown linoleum floor, still in clown or hobo or gypsy costume, legs spread out guarding our candy hoards.

My children are blessed with two sets of grandparents who are not only close by, but who they see all the time.  This past Easter weekend, A and C got a TON of candy:  entire packs of Hershey's bunnies, candy butterflies, huge suckers embellished with frosting, chocolate bunnies, turtles, and chicks...our candy jar runneth over.  So, here's the thing.  Baby girl cannot eat candy in between meals without getting an extra shot.  She will never get to just gorge herself on candy on an Easter or a Halloween at, say, 3 o'clock in the afternoon unless she gives herself more insulin.  By proxy, neither can Cyrus snack on his Easter candy just whenever.  That would not be fair.

I suppose that this is healthier for all of us.  Since A's diagnosis, I rarely snack.  She and I might have something carb free every once in a while when she gets home from school - pickles, pepperoni, cheese - but we never have cookies and milk.  We never go out for ice cream.  We never go out for a Starbucks Frappaccino.

This does not make me sad, but it does, sometimes, make me angry.  Every little kid should be allowed to eat all the Easter candy she wants every once in a while.  And, I guess we could allow her to do that, but it would break the routine that we've established. Routine is EXTREMELY important to regulating a Type 1 diabetic's blood sugars.  There are a lot of "we coulds" and "yeah buts" going on in my head about our massive Easter candy pile.

Last night, for her after dinner treat, A had a whole, individually wrapped Hershey's bunny. C had a Lindt hazelnut turtle.  They'll have these treats until July.  When my brother and I were kids, all we had left by the Monday after Easter was plastic Easter grass and the sweet memory of chocolate.