he said, she said.

So we have a bird living in our mailbox on the front of the house again.  I have been keeping an eye on the box, awaiting eggs.  They are here!!

Dave and I were talking about it when he said that he got a look of the bird living in there.  This started a search for the book that my mom gave him about birds of the eastern U.S.  I was looking around the living room when Nico handed me a dvd case and asked if it as the book.  But his face was hilarious!  He had a look on his face that was him trying not to smile.  He knew it was a joke, to hand me something that was clearly not a book and ask if it was the book.  So he knew what he was doing.  But he also knew that as it was a joke he was trying to pull, he couldn't smile about it... he needed to be serious.  That was REALLY funny.

Even funnier is that when we were at dinner last night, Nico wanted to pour some splenda on his little plate of antipasta salad and bread.  Of course, he doesn't "get it" that splenda would ruin it.  So I offer to let him have a packet of sugar to put on his bread (which already had butter on it).  Now, let me be clear:  I ate this as a child.  When we were little-little, sometimes my mom would make us white sandwich bread with butter on it with just a little sprinkling of sugar.  As I have grown older, I have made up the reasoning and rationale for this... The romantic story goes: that her parents (who lived through the great depression) prolly gave it to mom and her brothers thinking it was a treat, as sugar would likely have been rationed and the bread not the soft white "store" bread.  Even though my mom and her brothers grew up in the fifties, there are are some habits that just die hard for their parents- you can't survive the depression without any lasting effects on your eating preferences.

I bring this up because Dave thought it was the worst idea to let Nico have a packet of sugar sprinkled on some bread with butter.  He thought that if Nico had to have anything sprinkled on bread and butter that it should be splenda, not sugar.  Obviously, the preference would be to distract Nico and not even let him sprinkle anything on his food.  But that is not the point.  Which brings me to the question... if you are going to let your kid sprinkle sweetener on his food which is better: splenda (the yellow packet), Sweet n Low (the pink) or plain old sugar (the white packet)?

Here are my thoughts:  I would rather let Nico have a packet of sugar-sugar than splenda or sweet n low because it is more natural.  No chemicals, preservatives, etc.  Given that Nico is normal weight and gets enough exercise everyday, we dont let him have unlimited candy, chips, soda, etc.  I dont think we need to cut the 20 calories out of his diet.  Not if it means letting him have splenda (which is frankly, kinda scary, I think- at one time it was linked to bladder cancer in lab animals).  Now, if we were trying to regulate his weight or his diabetes or something, yeah, maybe go for the yellow packet and not the white. What do you all think?