Froot is Spelled F-R-U-I-T

I’m one of those weirdoes who really enjoys going to the grocery store. It’s kind of my haven. I go during the day most times. If I don’t have time during the day but really need to get stuff on a weekday, I’ll go after Ed gets home. My favorite time of all is early on a weekend morning when I can really take my time, buy a cup of coffee, read labels, browse options, search for new products, try the samples, ask questions. The point is, I enjoy going to the food store ALONE (sans children, husband, etc.).

This week, I had a tight schedule so I ended up having to go to the food store after I picked Isabelle up from school. I bribed her with a “fancy juice” when we got there and told her she could pick out a “special treat”. The special treat is ANYTHING she wants from the Produce section (as long as it doesn’t come in a package, like the chocolate dip for strawberries or the caramel dip for apples). She was having such a hard time deciding that I let her get 4 things – strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, and oranges. Nice choices, kid!

Then we had to meander into the scary inner aisles of the store for a few items. Cereal was one of them. Since I normally don’t have the 4-year-old with me at the grocery store, I was completely unprepared to navigate the cereal aisle with her. It was never so apparent; the lethal tricks the big Marketing companies play on our unsuspecting children.

The colors! The cartoon characters! The rivers of chocolate gooiness!

She looked like a gambling addict thrown onto the Vegas strip. Eyes wide. Pupils dilated. Fingers pointing at the end of shaky hands. I was appalled and frankly, scared for our kids who are victims to that nonsense. We left with a box of Cheerios and some shredded wheat. I wish I could get all cereal out of my house for good. But for now, at least I can still convince her to make semi-healthy choices compared to most of the sugary, salty, fatty junk in that aisle.

I’m looking forward to showing Isabelle my Vegas next weekend when the Farmer’s Market opens near our house.

The colors! The farm characters! The rivers of local honey!

Our Little Addict

Isabelle had surgery on Tuesday and it was a doozie. Very long story short, we always knew she would need to have her tonsils removed one day. The ENT told us in November that it was happening now. That was scheduled for March of this year so we could get through the holidays.

Fast forward to February when Isabelle had her regular dental check-up only to find out she had 4 cavities. We went to a pediatric dentist (thanks Erin for the referral!) who took x-rays and did more exploring, only to find out that Isabelle got hosed with Ed's dental heredity. Her teeth are like swiss cheese, they have deep grooves, air pockets, poor enamel, and something called ghost lesions. Basically she needed major dental surgery to protect her little baby teeth so they didn't fall out of her mouth and rot the roots before her adult teeth decided to show up.

So we told the Dentist about her ENT surgery and we found out they could do everything at once and it would actually make the dental portion easier. Otherwise, they would have had to do the work over 4 separate visits. Yowza!

So the 2 doctors coordinated schedules and we had the double surgery at the main hospital. It was scheduled at FIVE hours which had me freaked but it only took about 3 hours. Big happy surprise for us.

They sent us home with pain killers and an anti-nausea medicine to counteract the pain meds. The pain med was hydrocodone-acetaminophen. It has an addiction possibility. Of course, that's for long term usage. Not for our little girl who would only be on a short term dose.

Today is Friday, just 3 days after surgery. She has not been complaining of any pain so when she woke up this morning, I thought I'd wait to see how long she could go before she needed some pain meds. She had her breakfast and was totally fine. And then, in one moment of complete insanity, she turned into something of another world. She had a complete meltdown, crying about a broken toy we had to throw out a few weeks ago, about how much she missed her Daddy (who was just home with her for 2 days prior but had gone to work this day), how much she missed her (insert FAMILY-MEMBER here), how she had to take a nap because she couldn't stand up anymore.

I started to get a little scared because she was acting completely manic. She was lying down in her bedroom, still nursing the post-crying heavy-breathing phenomenon that little kids get. I quickly googled the drug name and found that if if quit too suddenly, it can absolutely cause withdrawal symptoms. Yet, it had only been THREE DAYS?!?! The w/d stuff was for the long-term users. But everything in my child this morning was complete withdrawal and it was scary.

I hate giving my kid drugs, I don't even like taking them myself. And now seeing THIS I really hated this stupid medication. But, I also was not going to risk her going crazy and getting hurt (she's still only 3-days post tonsillectomy and you cannot let the kids get too rambunctious b/c you don't want them to blow a scab and bleed, etc.). So for now, we're going to wean her off slowly. She was on a 1-teaspoon dose every 4 hours. Now she's getting 3/4 tsp every 12 hours. On Monday we'll go back to 1/2 teaspoon for a few days. And then hopefully we'll have our sweet little girl back.

Maybe we got a sneak peek at the teenage years. Not sure, but if they are anything like this morning, I don't think I'll survive them.