Food Theft

(here is an old pic from the Living Desert... what a cutie!)

We have found ourselves in the midst of a food thief! It started a week ago with the theft of some left-over (she took all of it) chocolate cake I had made. We found the plastic container stashed in her toys and the remaining evidence all over her face.

In all honesty, it was HIL-A-RIOUS, but what we failed to realize is that Lacy was just getting started.

The next day I found a box of Cheese-Its carefully stashed along the side of the couch with tell-tale crumbs all over our white carpet! I lectured her on her behavior and put the box away. Later that day she retrieved the box and continued on with her Cheese-It spree till the box was empty.

A few days later I passed by our bowl of apples only to discover that SOMEBODY had grabbed an apple, eaten half of it, and returned it to the bowl of apples.

Yesterday, I found candy wrappers hidden among her Legos and the delicate aroma of peanut butter and chocolate on her breath (and smeared on her glasses). I didn't even know that we had peanut butter cups in the house... Randy had bought them to take to work that night...

We just didn't know what we were going to do about her behavior.

Until we had our moment of enlightenment....

I introduce you to The Contract:

We sat Lacy down and explained that she was NOT allowed to take anything she wanted to eat. However, she would be allowed free reign over a few foods that we would keep in the kitchen.

Lacy was asked to tell us what the contract said, and she explained the whole thing to us. She was asked to sign on the bottom line, and the contract was placed on our fridge.

So far so good.