Feeding Frenzy

At one point this morning, I actually had to do a mental check of my body to see if had any open wounds. Yes. I know. What an odd thing to say. Shall I explain? You see, after the big bad stomach bug from H-E-double hockey stick, Alex and Abby rejected their food for well over a week. Every meal began with the words, "I'm not hungry," and ended with them pushing their plates away. Alex lost almost five pounds in the process and I began to worry that I was dealing with something a little more serious. Okay, so Alex losing a few pounds wouldn't be the worst thing as he is well into the 95th percentile still for his age. But still, it was a bit strange as both my kids are generally hungry all of the time. I told myself that if they didn't eat by Tuesday I'd give the doc a call. I woke up this morning to a chorus of, "Mommy! I'm sooooo hungry!" At first I was just relieved to hear those words. By the third hour of my morning, I wanted to find a pair of ear plugs to drown out the constant begging for food. Some freakish sort of switch flipped in their little heads. It was apparent that they had a week of catching up to do. I'm not kidding or exaggerating when I say that they were hungry all day. I actually had to set a timer for them so they knew when it would be okay to have food again. The last thing I needed was for them to eat so much that it would end in another round of unneeded puking. At one point, Alex walked past me after eating a good chunk of food and I heard his stomach growling. Growling! He said, "But mama! I'm still hungry! My tummy really really needs food!" That's when I mentally checked myself for open wounds, afraid that they would give up on the food timer and choose to devour my arm at the first smell of blood. Ugh. This morning, there was food in my refrigerator. Tonight as I opened the fridge door for a well-deserved snack, I stared at the empty shelves and wondered how two small children could completely clean me out of food in the span of 12 hours. I was so busy feeding them all day that I forgot to make food for myself. Whoops. Needless to say, I'm starving right now and the best I could come up with was a pile of dry crackers. Yum. Looks like I'll be making an early grocery run this week. *sigh*