Call it what you will.

Jordan is a squirrel, a hoarder.

A few months ago I heard Jordan sneaking downstairs after bedtime to get something to eat. The next day I found TWO apple cores in his bed.

We talked about no food in his bedroom and no sneaking downstairs after bedtime.

It kept happening. Bread, cheese sticks, apples, breakfast bars, etc.

One day I was helping him clean his room and found SIX cheese stick wrappers under his bed. I enforced the rule I grew up with that food stays in the kitchen. He can eat at the kitchen table or in the backyard.

Every now and again I find some kind of wrapper in his room but for the most part he's doing pretty good.

For Mother's Day he made me a coupon at preschool for breakfast in bed. He was SO excited to make breakfast for both Luke and I, that he started the night before. He put wheat bread, cheese sticks, and blueberry breakfast bars on two plates and hid them in his room...the night before. The next morning he brought us breakfast in bed. The cheese sticks were warm, the bread was stale, and there was only one blueberry bar--b/c he got hungry and ate the other.

Fast forward to this morning and I am helping him clean his room. I ask him to hand me this little tin spider man lunch box which we put toys in and I instantly knew by the look on his face that this was not going to be good. He begrudgingly brought me the toy box which upon opening I discovered--an apple, two hot dog buns, two cheesesticks, and two pieces of squished wheat bread--that were surprisingly still soft and not stale. Seeing that we ran out of hot dog buns last week, this little lunchbox has been packed for a few days.

I am at loss for how to handle this. My mother suggested putting a little trash can in his room so that instead of sleeping with the apple cores he could throw them away. That shocked me! The same woman who STILL to this day does not allow food out of the kitchen suggested I put a trash can in his room.

So, anybody else have any ideas?