Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Food, and knitting, and cats, and, you know, stuff.

When the Baby started up with her temper tantrums, several people e-mailed or left coments to warn me about food coloring and food additives (and I appreciated the heads-up on that stuff; my brother was affected by food coloring when we were kids). I took a look at her diet, and was delighted to realize that almost nothing she eats has any kind of food additive in it, and her diet's particularly low in food coloring. There was never any great drive to rid her diet of chemicals, but I knew from nutrition classes in college that in general, the more processed a food is, the less nutritious it is. So I'd been trying to avoid processed foods. I hadn't gone totally crazy about it - she still eats goldfish crackers and tater-tots and things like that - but it seems that almost by accident (okay, and a decent bit of general knowledge of food), I'd avoided all the really yucky kid's foods.

The REAL advantage to all this is, of course, that WE have also started avoiding processed foods. And last night we went to the grocery store and bought two weeks' worth of food for $150. That includes baby cookies and pork chops and bananas and store-made bread.

I suspect that after the Baby is older, and getting into goodness knows what horrifying foods at school, we'll continue this processed-food ban, because it saves so much MONEY. (And nobody NEEDS potato chips, now, do we? Get away from that cake.)

-... -

I'm up to round 39.

It should be on the circular needle by the end of the day (if I keep knitting at this rate), and after that things will speed up again. I hate 'turning corners' (changing doublepoints) when working lace.

As always, I've started dithering about what to knit for the State Fair. The scarf I mentioned Monday, or a doily with a knit-on edging. The doily would likely be faster, and of more use, after.

Still can't decide, but I've got abotu fifty more rows of THIS doily, to make up my mind.

-... -

The idea of leaving a book on my chair, to keep the cat off it, still isn't working.


-... -

I'm seriously considering pre-ordering a copy of Deathly Hallows (the last Harry Potter book, for those of you stranded on desert islands). So far I've resisted doing it, but I just got done re-reading Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince (I ripped through Half-Blood Prince in two days), and I've pieced together some really interesting clues and damn it, I want to know what happens. (Plus I still think Neville has something to do with whacking Voldemort.)

Didn't know I was a Harry Potter fan, did you? I can't resist a well-told story. Regardless.

-... -

After decades of complaining about people underestimating their kids, I fear I've fallen into that category myself. There was an incident Saturday, when I was SURE we were going to have a tantrum and I explained to The Baby what was happening, and she behaved herself. Because the little shit doesn't speak more than ten words and phrases (often useless things like 'wow' and 'I dunno' and 'cool'), I, like a dumbass, assumed she didn't understand. Which is really stupid on my part.

So, after several rounds of explanations and statements of cause and effect ('If you throw that at me, I'll take it away.'), the Baby has been behaving much better. We've still had a few tantrums and whine-fests, but they've been here at home, where we can handle them or ignore them.


Now I'm gonna go knit. Again.

12 comments:

sienna said...

I was at a magazine store the other day and I thought of you. The UK mag "Knitting" July issue has a bright, fun, sexy, crochet pattern featured on its cover. I seem to recall you venting about crochet patterns in knitting mags in general at one point (or seven) but here it's actually on the cover. I don't get it.

(here's the link if you want to see for yourself: http://www.thegmcgroup.com/item--Knitting-Magazine-Issue-039-Jul07--KM-039-077.html )

Crazy.

debsnm said...

Cats on chairs - good luck with that! About the best you'll do is put a towel down for her to lay on, and move it (and her) when you're ready to sit.

Anonymous said...

the meijer stores in our area will be selling the book for $12.99 with purchase of $30 in other stuff from 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. saturday.

unfortunately, i think it's too late to cancel my $17.99 preorder, and i need 3 copies anyway -- self (63), daut (24) and son (22). we've all read them all.

as for cats and chairs, anything obnoxious enough that a cat wouldn't lie on it wouldn't be good to put on a chair in case you forgot it was there and sat on it yourself.

scruffy, sekhmet's evil twin, likes to lie on the rubbermaid mesh mat between the monitor and the keyboard. hey -- i can still see the top half of the screen . . . how much can a mere human expect, anyway?

ellen in indy

Alwen said...

One of the 952 baby books I read when I was expecting or when the child was little said that speech comprehension runs about six weeks ahead of expression.

Bells said...

I think there should be more education about the expense of processed foods over fresh foods. It's amazing the difference. Whenever I see people with a trolley full of packets, I just wonder if they know they're spending a fortune on, apart from anything else, packaging.

We shop at markets as much as possible, rather than supermarkets. I'm sure that's what helps keep our bills down a bit. And we eat well too! Just too much of it, is all.

Can't wait til the Baby starts really talking to you. That's gonna be hilarious.

Amy Lane said...

Good for you and the processed food ban...I'm going to go hide in a corner now for shame...(One of the things that I've noticed is that my kids eat SO much better during most summers--the ones where I'm not staying up til one in the morning doing school work, mostly--than they do when I work. If I had any sort of track record for organization when I'm not at work, I'd make that a good case for stayinghome. (I'm shameless--I'm getting my copy delivered on the day of release.)

Louiz said...

Yep, since we got broke, we haven't bought any processed foods (except rice cake biscuits for Kathryn) and it *is* so much cheaper... and nicer, and healthier!

And re HP - I live up two flights of stairs. My postman would not forgive me if I ordered it from amazon. and I am with you re Neville too. I shall be picking up my copy Saturday morning from my local independent book shop.

Denise said...

I reckon that baby tantrums are baby tantrums, more related to getting older and developing their nasty old will-power than any food intakes... sounds like the Baby is definitely understanding what you're saying, and keeping you off balance - she has an Evil Baby Plan!! :)

I've just written a huge Harry Potter word search puzzle for a big metropolitan paper in Australia (was a rush job too) - so have been immersed in Potter's world for the past 24 hours!

NSuttor said...

My mother told me that when my sister and I were little (we're twins) there was only one big tanty. My sister threw a screaming fit in the supermarket, and Mum was so horrified, she grabbed me and ran into the next aisle. Sis then realised that she had no idea where we went, and that ended the tanty. Neither of us tried for a second attempt.

Sarah O G said...

I just have to say that it is absolutely freakish, what they understand before they can even speak one word. Oye. Watch out she looks like a smart but coy one, wily, I say definitely wily.

Cat: tried water i'm guessing in a spray bottle already, just checking

Damn jealous on how far you are on the lace, I need to stop playing with ravelry and knit. I just got signed up yesterday, it will go by faster than you think, of course unless you sit there and push refresh every 5 seconds like I did for 3 days.

Yea HP, I have one reserved just in case Wally World runs out or my reserved is cheaper than WW. There really aren't any local bookstores to support at that time of night in our area and I would like to get it at midnight Friday. I'm sick, I know.

RobynR said...

You *could* try strips of packing tape laid out sticky side up rather than sacrificing the latest JD Robb/Nora Roberts book.
The only problem with that is if Sekhmet decides that she enjoys plastic she'll chew the tape. Ask me how I know.

Dana said...

I might be the only freak out there who spent a lot more when we went "no processed." Is it owed to organic costs? The NUMBER of ingredients required to create dinner? Maybe I need a basic cooking lesson. When my sons first came home, processed food literally made them gag. The taste must have been horrible to them.
I use my gym bag on the chair. Takes up the whole thing.