Is Sand a Simple or Complex Carbohydrate?

Who doesn’t like sand?  Soft and cool between your toes.  Dry and smooth falling through your fingers.  With a little water and talent, it can be sculpted into nearly anything.  It is summer’s super fun version of snow, and no tropical paradise is complete without it!

As a parent, though, sand isn’t always fun.  The kids track it into the house so much you swear you’ll have plenty to vacuum through Christmas.  It gets stuck in hair, noses, and ears.  Diapers and training pants become sand havens.  Bathtub drains get clogged with all the sand the kids wear after a day of play.

Worst of all, though, is when young children decide that sand looks appetizing and develop a fascination with eating sand!  My son took one taste of sand, shuddered, and never attempted to eat it again.  My daughter, on the other hand, thought it was hilarious to eat the gritty stuff and never failed to sneak a taste every time we were near the sandbox . . . that is until one fateful afternoon 3 years ago.

It was a sunny summer day.  My mom was babysitting my little ones.  While I was at work, my toddler daughter had full access to the sandbox since I forgot to warn my mother about her new snacking habit.  My little girl was sly, making sure she didn’t sneak a mouthful of sand unless my mom was distracted with my son.

Finally, my mom caught her, took her inside, and washed her off, keeping her away from the sandbox for the rest of the afternoon.  She must have eaten quite a bit of sand by that time, though, because that night my princess had quite a belly ache and eventually regurgitated sand all over me!  With the sand out of her belly, she felt much better, but she learned her lesson.  Thankfully, she has never once tried to eat sand again . . . but sadly, I haven’t been able to look at sand in quite the same way since that infamous day.