Oh the joys of teething! Annabelle’s poor mouth is sore as all . . . well, you get the drift. And Annabelle’s poor mamma and daddy are tired as all . . . yeah.
Starting Sunday night, my dear little girl has been waking up and yelping from the pain of Mother Nature’s gift to all who must eat: teeth. Starting in December around the time of her first birthday, my little baby has cut 13 teeth! Yes, she’s a champion teether, and what that adds up to are a tired, cranky baby and 2 tired, cranky, and somewhat desperate parents. I keep telling myself, “And this too shall pass.” Physically, I’m about, how do you say, uh, dead tired?!?
But there’s always a few reasons to turn our heads up to the sky and shout, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Or at least, on days (and weeks, and yes, months too) like this, I tell myself that the universe is full of love and that all I need do is open my eyes to its abundance. Here are a few neat reasons that I’m feeling the love this week:
1. Miracles. All right, by now, anyone who regularly reads Green Mamma knows that I can be a bit of a drama queen, so when I say “miracles,” I could be referring to the fact that our local grocery store now carries my favorite brand of soy ice cream. But this week, I seriously mean that I am totally stoked with the universe and its miracle. What miracle have I witnessed? Click here to see a beautiful slide show about the ugliness of plastic bags. Now, you may wonder why this slide show is such a miracle. Well, once upon a time, when I was just a wee green baby, my own mom was living a crunchy lifestyle involving breastfeeding, co-sleeping, sewing, crafting, recycling, and wearing her hair long like a hippie. But then her circumstances changed and she slowly bid adieu to her crunchy green mamma lifestyle so that she could become a full time working mamma. Over time, her long flowing hair was replaced by a tight perm and shoulder pads, and living green became a remnant of the past. Decades passed. I grew up and turned out to be pretty crunchy, and well, a little different than my brother and sister. Meanwhile, I started suggesting that my relatives recycle, buy used goodies, and stay mindful of Mother Earth. On one visit with the fam, I stopped by the local recycling center in my mom’s town and picked up a nifty recycling bin for her (I reasoned that helping her make a small change would encourage her to think about other great ways she could pitch in and protect the environment). Begrudgingly, she recycled her bottles and newspapers, starting frequenting consignment shops for gifts for her grandkids, and now brings her own reusable cloth bags to the grocery store. I consider these changes no small miracle. My mom is a busy lady who is dedicated to her job, traveling to see her grandkids, and spending time with our family who live all over the world (from Timbuktu, PA to Switzerland). So I figure, if my mother can be “one of those people” who sends e-mails encouraging other folks to live green, then well, there really is hope for our planet’s health and vitality. Again, to view the awesome slide show she sent me, click here.
2. Corn on the Cob. If there ever were a way for parents to recognize the value and joy had in their children growing teeth, let it be corn on the cob! One of Annabelle’s favorite new eats is crunchy corn right off her very own cob. Just watching her take a bite into corn on the cob, pull away with a mouthful of kernels, and then leave a tiny mark on her cob that matches her small, toddler-sized mouth is enough to make this mamma happy to endure the trials of her toddler’s teething.
3. Meal Planning. The last time I considered meal planning was around the time that gasoline rose above $4 per gallon. I thought that one of the ways that our family might save a few bucks and help reduce our food cartin’ carbon footprint would be to plan out our meals and their ingredients, make one trip to the grocery store per week, and to buy appropriately — no more and no less than what we needed. I filed this idea away until I attended my daughter’s 18 month check up. There, we learned that Annabelle is a bit on the small size as far as weight is concerned (she’s in the 5th percentile) but is a little bit tall (in the 75 percentile for her height). My husband suggested we make a better effort to encourage her to eat meals since she tends to an excited toddler (gosh there’s a lot to see and learn!). So, starting 2 weeks ago, we sat down to map out a menu for our week. Alternating between vegetarian and veggie/omnivore compromises, we ate a meal together every night (more on our vegetarian/omnivore compromises to come later this week). On Sunday night we weighed her again and she was nearly 1.5 lbs. heavier! I wish I could tell you that her improved diet is helping her to sleep better, but well, I’ve already shared a bit about the story of sleep in our house this week . . .
Meanwhile, sitting down for a shared meal is giving my husband and me more quality time to talk about our days, is reducing our grocery bill (it also helps that I am shopping less at Whole Paycheck, or um Whole Foods), and I’ve been told that sharing a mealtime may help encourage a healthy body image among girls. Click here to read more about the benefits of sharing meals and encouraging a healthy body image.
4. Ideal Bite. Ideal Bite and Treehugger.com are two of my favorite resources for researching green topics. This week I wanted to find out more about eco-conscious beautification, or green personal care, so I stopped in at Ideal Bite and got the details I neede. For example, from the Chicago Ideal Bite, I learned that greening my nail polish helps keep some 10,000 chemicals out of the waste stream! 10,000! Wow! I love that Ideal Bite highlights the amazing green outcomes had by making small, eco-friendly changes to our lifestyles. Ideal Bite rocks.
5. Innovative Breastfeeding Advocates. This week I learned that Nicola Hart, age 22, created a breastfeeding chair to assist and encourage breastfeeding mothers to nurse their babies in public. According to the BBC, Hart designed her breastfeeding chair to provide support and good posture for nursing mothers, as well as privacy wings, which are shields on the chair that allow nursing mothers to be discreet when breastfeeding their children in public (and to cope with onlooker’s negative attitudes). While I am a breastfeeding advocate who believes in exposing the public to the idea of feeding our children wholesome natural foods (like breast milk), I also understand the feeling of nursing my child in the midst of disapproving stares. However, when given the chance, I am happy to breastfeed my daughter and talk openly with others about what a beautiful and healthy experience nursing has been for me and my child.
And so, I open my eyes and pay attention to what is good in life, and I am free to see the universe and its bounty of love and hope. These are my reasons for saying thank you this week. What are yours?
Have a wonderful week. Hugs from Green Mamma.
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July 15th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
If you like corn on the cob, you’re in luck! It’s “Corn Week” at Farmer’s Daughter!
July 16th, 2008 at 4:38 am
Woo hoo! Now I can actually tell my husband that I am “learning” a thing or two about cooking. Right now, I simply refer to myself as a “preparer of food.” =)
July 16th, 2008 at 6:40 am
i’m really enjoying reading your blog. it’s really informative.
i have two young boys (5 and 2 1/2). they are constantly on the go and actually don’t sit down during meals. they walk around the room and stop and take a bite from their plates when they feel the need. it doesn’t bother me because i understand completely why they are doing it. my husband on the other hand has a hard time with it and it creates a bit of tension sometimes. anyway, to make things easier on them and us what i do during the day is keep a platter of finger foods out on the table and when they are hungry they get what they want. i put things like apple and avocado chunks, nuts, popcorn, raisins, ww bread slices w/vegemite (huz is aussie)…both my kids have food sensitivities so i’m careful about what i put out. anyway, that is working great and i’ve found that since they don’t have to sit at the table for lunch or breakfast, sitting down for dinner is much easier.
July 16th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Thanks Cyndi. I like your idea of keeping healthy food/snacks available to them at all times. I should start making fruit and veggies accessible to Annabelle at all times; for now I have a designated snack shelf on the lowest shelf of our pantry so that she can grab what she wants and bring it to me. We’ll slowly work on getting her to place her snack onto a plate, etc.
She has her own table where I serve lunch and snacks, although we’ve discovered that she prefers to eat breakfast and lunch at our adult table, so she sits in her booster seat, which is good and bad (she is able to eat and see us but when she is done and is frustrated that her mom and dad don’t remove her quickly enough, food ends up on the floor).
Anyway, thanks for checking out my blog.