Food for thought

My uncle came to visit Annie in the middle of my 2-week fast on milk products and eggs. He is lactose intolerant and said to me, "well I never could figure out why some doctor thought that giving cow's milk to baby humans was a good idea. Cow's milk is for baby cows!" It is a weird thing... people are the only mammals who continue to drink milk after they are weaned from their mothers. It is even weirder that we want some other creature's intended-for-baby-milk as adults. I mean, this other-animal's-baby-milk even gets its own food group! What is that?

Weird as it is, my taste buds LOVE me some cow's milk! As an avid cheese-chocolate-yogurt-ice cream fan, I am sorely missing my beloved moo moo. Especially now, when I feel as though I relate quite well with the animal. Last week I added back eggs to Annie's diet and quickly discovered a red rash on her face, diaper area, and had messy stools and screaming fits. So, went back to the no-eggs, no-milk diet until the rashes and messy diapers went away. Then, I drank a glass of organic skim milk (hoping secretly that it was something we add to the milk and not the milk itself). And welcome back rash, screaming fits, and bad diapers. So, it seems that until sometime next spring, I am off of milk and eggs. I have swapped out noodles for rice (not because the noodles themselves are bad but because I almost always add some kind of dairy to my noodles), and we eat a lot of chicken and ground turkey and do lots of grilling. Luckily, I can eat many veggies without bothering Annie's stomach. I have also tried chocolate soy-milk, chocolate almond-milk, and soy ice cream. So far the soy-milk is ok, but not delicious. The Almond milk tastes like dessert! MMM! The ice cream needs a little help in the form of peanut butter, and then it's ok too. I am trying to figure out if almond milk would make good ice cream! I have an ice cream maker and am considering giving it a whirl. Soy cheese is not so delicious. It is edible, but tastes a little like fat-free cheese (if you've ever tried melting that, it doesn't so much melt. Grossy.) So I am thinking that taking the cheese off the pizza might be my best bet there for a while. Today I tried goat cheese. Not the same. Tastes a lot like cream cheese.

All of this food experimentation has made me think a lot about food itself though. I think I like food like druggies like crack. Yeah, I think food was intended to be enjoyed to a point. However, I think I over-enjoy it; as evidenced by my over-missing it! I have plenty of options left in the remaining food groups to have all that I need to satisfy my nutritional requirements. And yet, it seems like ice cream should be a requirement for summer at least! Luckily, chocolate in small amounts doesn't seem to bother her, so at least there is that. I wonder if this break from foods I like will help teach me a lesson about over-indulgence. Although, I have a feeling my control with this drug-of-choice will fluctuate over my lifetime. Food means so much more than just food to so many of us. It shows up on a bad day, on an especially good day, at family reunions, gatherings with friends, colts games, and sometimes when we are just plain bored. Oddly enough, the people on commercials who tempt us with a big mac (which I think is disgusting by the way) and large fry are 95 pounds and 5 foot 8. And I bet they didn't swallow the french fry they were taped putting in their mouths, while laughing and looking super sexy. And you know you go to McD's in high heals with your hair all done up! I guess it wouldn't sell very many chicken nuggets though to see a 100 pound 5-year-old wearing dirty clothes with no shoes on.

In other news, my friend Cara donated her old over-the-door bouncy seat to us way back when Annie was a newborn. We whipped it out this week and WOW does she love it! Which leads us to another "trick" she performs a little more than I'd like: high pitched, earth shattering, ear-drum-exploding squeals "of delight". Annie, when she is bouncing or conversing with her stuffed animals or slapping around her rattle toys, loves to squint her eyes shut, brace her body, and throw out a long and tormenting squeal to express her happiness. So I wonder, does she think this is how Michael and I communicate since we take it up an octave when we talk to her? Is my singing really that bad? Will she grow out of this? Because believe me, church is out of the question right now. I'll be watching the sermon from the breast-feeding room until she outgrows this one for sure! I posted this short video of her trying to eat the toys attached to her bouncy seat.