She's Brilliant

My littlest one has really grown up so much over the last several months. She’s begun talking and putting words together. Of course, her favorite word is NO, which she uses in response to almost everything. No musi (no music), no sing (no singing)…[apparently she doesn’t care for my voice at bedtime]. She can also be very determined and contrary. The sweetest thing is that she has begun to read some of her stories along with me. When I read “Goodnight Moon” she says, “Moo” and when I say “Goodnight Room”, she says, “Roo”. And she just smiles and smiles when we read this story [Goodnight Moon]. I think she’s just so proud of herself that she is able to mimick me and read the story along with me. She also used to say Poo-bee but can now say Pooh Bear, just two weeks later. She still says Seato for seat or chair and she often adds a ‘y’ to many words like sweaty for sweater. I find this last bit odd because most the adults around her do not use baby talk. She earnestly listens to every word used now and tries to repeat it. She has also mastered the shape sorter in only one week. She’s brilliant.

She and her sister have also begun playing together and really talking to one another without need of parental intervention. I just think it is the cutest thing and it also makes me proud. [of course there are the other moments but they are becoming fewer]

In amongst all the cuteness is the hardest part for Z guy and me. This child still does not sleep through the night. Every 6 days or so, she tricks us and does sleep for almost 7 hours, but practically every night, she wakes between 1 and 3am and then again between 4 and 5am. Her wakeup time should be around 6:30am but when she wakes up around 5am, we usually can not get her back to sleep. Most nights only require about 30-40 minutes to get her back to sleep but some nights are much worse and can last longer than two hours. I know that someday she’ll figure out this sleep thing but there are days where I am so exhausted. It’s a darn good thing that she’s 80% adorable most of the time. As much as I’ve expressed the wonders of being a parent, my complaints to my co-worker have convinced her that children are not for her.

An Experiment

Recently I bought a copy of Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice. She breaks the year down into 13 lunar months with each month being devoted to a specific food or food group. She describes how certain foods belong to certain times of the year, for example lean times in winter and times of plenty after the harvest. It is an thought-provoking book although sometimes she gets on her soapbox but after reading the section called Milk Moon I decided to try a little experiment. Jessica says that lactose intolerance may have something to do with pasteurization of milk since that process kills the enzyme naturally present in the milk which helps one digest lactose. The need for this process is due to the filthy & crowded conditions found in commercial production of milk in dairies (and according to Jessica the same is true for other commercial processes including eggs and meat) . If we would keep the production simple and natural as was done in the past, then the rampant disease issues would not be issues at all.
Anyhoo, to my experiment. Jessica mentions that raw milk should be digestible to many folks that are normally lactose intolerant. I cannot drink milk without have the most awful intestinal cramps, which feel very much link the early pains I felt with the birth of my first daughter. I decided to buy some raw milk and see what happens. I was scared of getting those cramps but they never came. It worked. I can drink raw milk with no problems. I have to admit that the milk tastes very green and different from the Lactaid that I’ve become accustomed to. The most wonderful part is the cream on the top. The best way to have cheerios is with cream on the top! Yum. I hope to write more about my little experiments as I finish reading this book. I’m in the process of searching for something, community or roots or something like that, and this book provides me several avenues to try and find what it is I’m looking for via food – my favorite pastime is eating.