"Ice, Ice Baby"

How embarrassing it is for me to admit that I remember this song from my post title. In my defense I was teaching in a high school back then (um, early 90's and I was very young!), so I was exposed not only to the song on a daily basis, but to an abundance of Vanilla Ice-wanna-be-rapper-students who inhabited my classrooms.

But I digress.

The true reason for this post has nothing to do with annoying trips down pop culture memory lane, but rather about the product pictured: ice...not just any 'ole ice, but Sonic nugget-like pebble ice that is yummy to crunch and easy on the teeth.

With this pregnancy I am eating two ten lb. bags of Sonic ice a week. I don't use the ice in my drinks to make them colder, as all other rational humans do. Nope. I have to eat the ice...huge glasses full of ice that I down in minutes.

I've been told by my doctor that my infatuation could be in response to low iron (mine is not super low, just borderline), but more likely I am experiencing Pica, a strange, non-food craving associated with my pregnancy.

I eat ice in the car as I'm driving, all throughout the day as I go about my business and in the middle of the night while I don't sleep. I am a woman possessed, begging my husband to get me more on his trips out and even taking all the children with me to get it when dear husband is AWOL. We buy multiple bags at a time and I feel a little shaky when I realize I am getting dangerously close to a no-ice-state.

I've had this ice infatuation before with two previous pregnancies and each time my need for ice subsides as soon as the baby arrives, so I guess there is hope for my poor family who has patiently listened to me chomp and crunch for months.

As I type this, I am being forced to share my ice with Landon. I'm generous to a fault with my children with just about everything I own. I will give up anything I have so they can have more. However, this sharing of my precious ice is proving very difficult for me as he hoards my cup and covets my frozen treasure.

I'll let him have a few more hands-full then I'm moving in. Surely, he would rather have a stick of gum, a lollipop, a candy bar, or a big piece of chocolate cake. As a mother I know he doesn't really need any of those foods this time of morning, but my pica is in control; the ice beckons, and my parental common sense is quickly faltering.

Yes, I am a pregnant woman possessed. My drug of choice is ice and a 12-step program is probably needed. But for now those 12 steps are my own two feet taking me straight to the freezer for more ice as Landon has decided my cup is his and my ice his own.

He's really pushing it with me today.