The Muffin Elf

Okay, I am catching up today, so two posts.

A confession: My mother is a Muffin Elf. She loves muffins. Cranberry-orange ones. She eats them...lots of them. Every day. About 4 of them, actually. In secret, most of the time, although we know she is doing it (we buy the muffins, after all). They just disappear from the box and she has no idea where they have gone. Ever. Sometimes, she shares with the wonderful woman who does respite care for us. Mostly, not.

Her other favorite food: Nutri-Grain bars. Several per day. A whole box, if she could.

Mind you, she is VERY thin. You would think that she would gain a lot, but she never does.

She still eats her dinner. For a while, she just pushed it around on her plate, but lately she is actually cleaning her plate.

We've noticed that she is is pretty indifferent to most foods, but loves things that are sweet. So, add a tiny touch of honey to her carrots and she eats them up; a dab of apricot jam on her ham sandwich and she will finish it, instead of eating two bites. Although the constant sweetening doesn't appeal to my husband or to me, she finds it irresistible and it helps her to get a better variety of foods down. She still hates vegetables, can't stand fruit (unless it is in jam) and is, at best, indifferent to most everything else. She only picks at meats, pasta is ignored. "I'm not hungry," she'll say, immediately followed with "Is there anything for dessert?"

Her doctor says it is probable that she can only taste sweet foods. And, if she eats at least something nutritious every day, that the muffins and bars are okay.

She admits only to eating a single muffin every day. But the muffins disappear. The bars disappear.

There must be an Elf.