A small problem with a yellow pill...

Today is one of those Saturday's where we need to do a massive grocery shopping trip. The kind of shopping trip where first you clean out the refrigerator and cabinets, and THEN you make the list. Spring is always a challenging time for us and this year is going to be no different with Dane in track, Grant in baseball, and Tiersten in t-ball. On top of that, the girls and Mike all have birthdays in April. In order to not constantly eat at McDonald's, its time to get organized! So......the renegade-box-of-brown-sugar-that-escaped-to-the-back-of-the-cabinet-and-is-now-hard-enough-to-cut-glass is in the garbage, all wilted and bruised produce is in the garbage, the list is made........and I'll head to the grocery store shortly.

But first, a Jennica story:
On Thursday, we headed back to the naturopath in Olympia. We reported that things were going well (right up until we temporarily let her have milk products last weekend) and that the dietary changes seem to have really helped her moods and general health. We can just tell she feels better, in every way!! So.......as expected, the doctor told us to continue the current diet. Duh. She also gave us a new multi-vitamin for her, and a Vitamin B6 capsule to go with it. No biggie, right?

When we opened the bottle of B6, we discovered capsules full of bright yellow powder. We're supposed to sprinkle the powder onto some food, and she's supposed to munch it right down. At this point, I'm still not seeing a problem.....

So Friday morning, I put a little applesauce in a bowl for her, dump in this yellow powder, and mix it all up. The applesauce is now bright yellow, but I'm still naively convinced that this won't bother Jennica. I approach her at the breakfast table, where she is munching down rice krispies, and hand her a spoon of applesauce. Big brown eyes solemnly look at the spoon, look at me, look at the spoon, and look back at me, "It's yellow."

I decide to play dumb, "Yes.....applesauce is yellow."

She's not convinced, "Not THAT yellow." She's still very solemn, and I'm somewhat impressed that she's not whining yet.

"Yeah, not usually." I throw in a little honesty here. "But this applesauce is yellow because it has extra vitamins in it."

She's happy with that explanation, and opens her mouth and takes the teensy-weensiest of bites. Instantly, the jaw clamps shut, she hops off the chair with her hand over her mouth, and runs over to the family room and buries her head in the couch. Brilliant parent that I am, I follow her.

"Jennica, you need to eat this." All I see is the back of her head shaking no, while her face is still buried in the couch.

"JENNICA!" My voice is rising. The fun is beginning to diminish, as I have a million things to do today, and a million places to be. They need to finish breakfast so I can run them to the Day Care. "Lift up your head and have a bite of this."

She sits back and looks me straight in the eye, and very calmly says, "I'm.........not.......eating........that."

All-righty then. My brain is registering that there is NO whining here, no screaming, no yelling, no temper tantrum. She is just very emphatically stating her stance. This is a new behavior for her, so I have to ask myself, could it really taste THAT bad? So I take a bite, and watch her grin from ear-to-ear as I make every effort not to grimace and spit it out! I honestly would rather drink a bottle drano than ever eat that stuff again!! The look on her face was absolutely priceless, as she knew that she had won this battle. It took me half of the day to get the taste of chemicals out of my mouth.

So last night, Mike concealed a capsule-ful of B6 in a glass of chocolate soy milk, and unbeknownst to her, she guzzled it right down. But its fascinating to see the changes occurring in her, right before our eyes. The ability and willingness to communicate at a much higher level went right through the roof. And all because we removed milk from her diet? Who ever would have "thunk" it???!!!???