Lady of the Night

We’ve had an interesting couple of months at Casa de Johnston. Around the middle of May, Brynna decided that eating was overrated, so she stopped. Literally. Completely. She would go days without food, drinking only Lactaid milk and watered down apple juice. Yummy, right? I quickly assumed my mom duty and kicked into "fix it" mode. The only problem was...I couldn't fix it. I tried every trick in the book, including taking her multiple times to the pediatrician and consulting another. They monitored her declining weight, put her on medication and tested for a multitude of problems (all of which came back normal). 

 Last week, she was referred to a specialist and had to undergo an upper GI endoscopy. The GI doc instructed us to put Carnation Instant Breakfast in Brynna’s milk to ensure she gets nutrients, carbs and fat in her diet. He went on to tell us that a person (child or adult) could actually survive their whole life drinking only this powdered drink mix. Upon hearing this, we drove straight from the hospital to Tom Thumb and bought a whole box. Brynna drained the cup of milk chocolate goodness so quickly that we mixed her another cup before bed. She drank that one as well, so we put her to sleep that night finally excited she was getting the calories she hadn’t had for weeks.

Brynna had been asleep a few hours when my family arrived for the weekend. Around 11pm, my brother, sister and I were the only ones in the house still awake when we were joined by a very short, very blonde, very AWAKE person. We consoled her for almost an hour when the idea arose to drive around and try to lull her back to sleep. My brother and I loaded her into the car, turned on the FC worship album that always soothes her and off we went. Before we even pulled out of the neighborhood, I knew we were in trouble. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw Brynna bobbing her head and clapping to the music. We continued to drive, Brynna continued to dance, so we eventually gave up and went back home. The next 3 hours were spent watching The Show. Brynna ran laps around the kitchen and dining room, played hide-and-seek with her Uncle Bub and jumped on the sofa like it was her own personal trampoline. Around 4am, I finally made a pallet on the floor, where I had the pleasure of laying with the restless little monkey for the next 2 hours. Yep. She “slept” 2 hours and then woke just after 6:00 as smiley as before. A few short hours later, just as we arrived at the park to take family pictures, Brynna realized she was sleepy from her late night rave and wanted a nap. Maybe with the almighty powers of Photo Shop, we can manufacture one picture where she isn’t telling us all how upset she is.

So here is the moral of my story – there is a reason it’s called Carnation Instant BREAKFAST. Each packet contains 20g of sugar and 25% of the daily recommended amount of B12. Two packets of that would be energizing for a grown man. It is like speed to a 20lb little girl with an already-built-in tendency toward the hyperactive. So when you find yourself stranded on that desert island, yes, Carnation Instant can sustain your life…but don’t drink it before bed.