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...and took his chocolate Easter bunny when we weren't looking, ate some of it, then hid it under his bed.

I have only myself to blame for my 4-year-old's sweet tooth. If I weren't trying so hard to lose all my pregnancy weight, I could eat chocolate and ice cream and pastries and cake and brownies and cookies all the livelong day. Despite this, I have tried to teach my son to make healthy choices for snacks and meals and desserts (while I pig out on sugary goodness after he goes to bed). But he's getting to the age when he can assert more independence, he's becoming more exposed to all the yummy delights out there, seeing the commercials for all the sweets marketed to kids, so of course he's gonna want the frosted chocolate chip cookie-peanutbuttercup cereal over the vitamin-fortified whole grain bran. But why has he become so deceptive?

One morning a few days after Easter, when Chris and I were still in bed and Hayden was supposed to be getting dressed, instead he was sneaking into the fridge, chowing down on chocolate bunny ears and stashing the rest under his bed. When we inspected the situation because it seemed like he was taking an awfully long time to get dressed, we found the refrigerator door open, the bunny missing, and the boy standing there looking quite guilty with chocolate on his fingers and mouth (all the while denying he had eaten any chocolate). I demanded he tell me where the bunny was. He pointed vaguely in the direction of his room, so we marched in there and I again demanded he show me the bunny. He hesitantly dragged it out from under the bed. The ears and hind quarters were bitten off, and the bunny had been crudely wrapped back up into the foil and shoved under the bed among the leggos and Hotwheels and Mr. Potato Heads. We threw the sad remains of the bunny in the trash, and we made Hayden throw out the rest of his Easter candy as well. I tried to explain to him that had he not made that bad choice, he would have gotten to enjoy his bunny and the other chocolate goodies for the next several days.

On another occasion, Hayden ate two of his four chicken nuggets for lunch and then said he wanted dessert (which was tapioca pudding). Chris told him he needed to eat the rest of his chicken before he could have pudding. Then Chris went to change the baby's diaper. When he returned, Hayden's plate was clean and he led his dad to believe he had finished his lunch. So Chris gave him the tapioca pudding cup, and when he went to throw away the foil pudding cup top, what do you think he found at the top of the trash can? Two uneaten chicken nuggets.

Then there was the time that Hayden literally climbed the walls looking for candy. We kept candy on top of the refrigerator (some of it was left over from Halloween). One day, when my husband wasn't looking, Hayden carried his little blue plastic chair over to the fridge and used it to climb up on the kitchen counter. From there, he scaled the refrigerator to get to the candy. We no longer keep goodies on top of the refrigerator.

Now, perhaps these behaviors are normal for kids this age, but in my mind I'm envisioning having to send him to fat camp when he's 10. Where did I go wrong? And how can I curb this insane appetite for everything sweet? Part of me wants to laugh, because, let's be honest, we all did things like this when we were kids, right? But I also don't want to completely lose control of my child just yet. I mean, he's only 4.