"You need to respect my freedom to snack."

Calder's insatiable hunger is one of the best and worst things about him.

Snacking is in his control

Calder loves his snacks. He will take every single opportunity he can to snatch some up. Let's say you leave the pantry door open and go to sit on the couch. Boom! He's already bolting across the room and lunging in. Or how about not locking the fridge when you're done grabbing what you want (yes I know it sounds crazy, but we do that)? Calder will pop up from nowhere and violently swing the doors open. Sometimes he will climb inside the refrigerator and snack in there. Other times he'll grab what he wants and snack while he wanders around. Now, this might seem all fine and dandy, but it gets frustrating when you have to deal with it constantly.

Say you want to relax. You go to the fridge and you grab a drink, some fruit - maybe even some chocolate. So you have your snacks, and now you want to put on a show to watch. So you scroll through and find the show you want to watch. So now you have your snack, your show and you're ready to sit back and relax. Woosh! You spin around. You pause your show. You put your food down. And what do you see? Calder. So now you're stressing out. You don't know what he grabbed. You don't even know if he can even eat what he grabbed. All you know is you have to jump up fast, race over to the kitchen, and grab something dangerous away from Calder, or wipe up the bottle of juice he spilled on the floor. Sometimes, it feels like we can't relax because we're always worried about the next mess.

Now I know that this might seem like me just ranting about how life with Calder can be stressful and I get annoyed, but part of Calderism is to show that the key is to always respect and understand Calder. He has impulse control issues, but I can't treat him like they define him or our relationship. After all, doesn't everyone like to indulge in some snacks every once in a while? Calder simply can't wait as long as everyone else. And although it is annoying, I do have to respect that eating is something Calder enjoys, that it's one of the ways he expresses his freedom.