The Peanut Gallery

Continuing on the food theme today, I found this fascinating article during my morning perusal of news websites.

In way of confession, I tend to be a laid-back sort of mother and I didn't obsess about the food I was eating while I was pregnant or nursing. I certainly enjoyed my Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and my trips to Five Guys (yum!). And I gave Michael peanut butter at 8 months or something like that (verdict: delicious!).

I used to nod my head and smile when my pediatrician would say, "no peanuts until he's two" (pretty much like I handle most trendy advice from my pediatrician) and then I would go home and have no guilty feelings whatsoever about feeding Michael a peanut butter sandwich for lunch.

So I'm happy to see some science backing me up. Of course I'm sure there will be some opposite study in the news next week, but for now I will revel in my scientific correctness. And while I'm at it, I think I'll have some peanut butter.

An Organic Experience

David and I went on a grocery store quest this weekend. While we have a store right across the street, it happens to be a Whole Foods (which I just can't visit without rolling my eyes... perhaps it's that crunchy granola feel underfoot). I mean, no regular cereals or fruit snacks or any other human food? How will I survive a year without junk? Scratch that. How will I survive a year without regular food?

You know why they put "organic" on food labels, don't you? It's so you will buy the product again, because frankly, no one in their right mind would buy the tasteless stuff again unless it was somehow "better". And what could be better and more virtuous than buying organic, saving the planet, stopping global warming, and going pesticide-free? I'll tell you what - buying food that is actually edible.

Putting aside the fact that scientific studies have yet to show any significant benefit resulting from the consumption of organic food, or to show any definite link between pesticide and fertilizer use and any detrimental effects on humans, (for an interesting article from Time Magazine click here) I just wouldn't want to eat most organic foods because they are yucky. Plain and simple. Call me a food snob if you will, but I want my food to taste good. And I don't want to pay a premium to know that my lettuce was grown on a cute little farm in upstate New York where the bugs are allowed to roam freely.

It seems going organic is the only remaining virtue these days. Well, I'm happy to miss that boat.

Now pass me those processed potato chips.

Look!

Michael is enjoying the view from the 19th floor at least as much as we are. We have windows on both sides of the apartment, and he will run from one side to the other and shout, "Look!" and climb up to the windowsill to survey the city. He is also thrilled with the constant flow of cars and trucks, and exclaims over each one he sees or hears. Several times a day we find him plastered to a window, observing the world below him.


What a fun place for a little boy.

A Room With A View

Well, we made it! That lovely edifice you see is the Empire State Building, and that spectacular view is right out of our kitchen window.

It's okay, you can feel jealous.

Are We There Yet?

You know how moving is so stressful that every time you do it you swear you will never do it again? I think I'm inches from full-blown hysteria. So I am doing the only sensible thing, of course. I'm procrastinating by blogging.

I've spent my day trying to handle Michael (who is in perpetual meltdown-mode owing to the time-change, a two-hours late bedtime last night, a ten minute nap yesterday, and the cold that has been plaguing him), and trying to sort through the remaining sneedlets that have accumulated gremlin-style in our house over the last 5 years.

I felt I was doing pretty well with the packing and cleaning (I think I'm about 80% there), but I was so looking forward to a little help from my husband this evening to tackle the multitude of remaining tasks. That would be the husband who came home from work, went straight to the bathroom, and stayed there for the next four hours while his system tried to eliminate everything he ever ate or ever thought about eating.

Let's just say that the sound of barfing does not help my stress level for many reasons, not the least of which is that I could be next. I can just see it - a scenic drive to NYC, pausing periodically to throw-up out the window or run desperately to a rest stop, or worse, to clean up a similarly-affected Michael (in a rental car, no less). The horror. Oh please let this plague pass by us. Either that or let us magically move forward to this same time next week, without having to experience any of the in-between time.

Why do these things always happen at the most horrifically inconvenient times? Not that digestive ailments are ever convenient, of course. But if this is some sort of cosmic joke, it's not funny.

It's A Bird, It's A Plane...

"Groundbreaking" Study

This just in: A new study has shown that there is a connection between teens watching sex-filled TV shows and ending up pregnant. In fact, teens who watched such shows were twice as likely to become pregnant as their peers who didn't watch them.

You mean the things we watch have an effect on our behavior? Pardon me for my cynicism, but "duh".

It seems obvious - if you spend your time watching shows that glamorize sex, portray it to be risk-free and emotionally inconsequential, and make it seem like only nerds aren't doing it, you will be influenced by that. Especially if you are a hormonal teenager who thinks their status in high school is the end-all-be-all of existence.

The only casual-sex consequence I've ever seen portrayed on TV is pregnancy, but that always turns into a glorification of unwed parenthood. The baby is a romanticized little cherub who will appear for the occasional laugh line, but otherwise won't interfere in any way with the life of his parents, and especially not with their dating/sex life.

Why don't researchers just ask me these questions before they spend millions of dollars on such studies? I could have saved them a lot of money.