We went on a little vacation to one of our favorite places in the world, Santa Fe, NM. This is a place we still consider moving to and a place that I thought I was originally going to move to when I relocated from NYC. I got “sidetracked” in Colorado and 14 years later, I’m still here.
Whenever we go there, we try to do some new things that we haven’t done before and to also visit with some friends and family that live in northern New Mexico. It is very, very similar in lifestyle and consciousness and attitude (mostly) to where we live now (which I do love where we live). There is just an “extra something special” there with the architecture and art and the energy of the land itself for me. This city has also been there for the past 400 years. I’m drawn to it and recharged by it every time I can spend at least a few days there and we were there a week and it still felt like it was not enough time.
We stayed in a 1 bedroom condo for the week and traveling with a young child, this is the BEST way to travel and have little stress. Since my son is a major picky eater, eating in restaurants is really no fun for us with him so we did take out at night a lot and he got to eat his favorite foods right in the condo and be his loud little self and pretty happy. The wireless for the rooms was down and only accessible in the lobby bldg. so we were internet free for the week. I think I had a harder time with it initially than my software engineer husband did. I tried one night early on to check email in that bldg. with our laptop but it was noisy and annoying and not worth it. We both really enjoyed the relaxing evenings of getting to spend some real quality time together and I think it was great that we couldn’t use the computer in our condo!
This was my very first trip as a raw vegan and I was worried that I would not have much to eat so I prepared different foods before we left and brought it with us which worked out great for me since we had a kitchen. I knew I would go crazy on the guacamole and pico de gallo found everywhere so I made raw corn chips and crackers for that but funny enough, I now prefer to dip into those yummy foods using veggies instead of my chips or crackers. I did eat some green chile (which is cooked but I love it) on my salads and other foods and can now tolerate more heat and spice than ever before since going raw.
I made this new recipe of raw granola I found and my (omnivore) husband loved it and said it was the best granola he’s eaten – and that is saying a lot! I also made raw nori rolls, sun garden burgers with raw ketchup, and a raw bread. I brought my “magic bullet” chopper/blender in case I wanted to make some smoothies. I was pretty well stocked for the week and only needed to get fresh veggies and fruit. I saved a lot of money doing this and didn’t feel deprived at all (I love all of these recipes) and wound up bringing a lot back home, too.
I found the one restaurant in town that served raw entrees and desserts which is inside this cool place called “Body” that is a natural home store, yoga/pilates workout studio that also offers healing services (yes, it was huge). My kind of place! I had a raw pizza and salad to go and it was excellent and now I am on a quest to figure out how to re-make their recipe this week.
So, I managed to stay totally raw for at least 98% of my trip and looking at my husband eating the traditional NM food smothered in cheese didn’t even tempt me – which is very weird for me bec. I love the food there and had the vacation mindset going on. I even lost weight from all the walking and hiking we did. Woo hoo! And, I had lots of energy – even at night. I am loving living raw!!
We took a tour one afternoon of a new community being built that has everything we like – photovoltaic and passive solar design, wind power, reclaimed water for landscaping, geo-thermal, eco-friendly building materials and insulation from top to bottom, beautiful architecture, lots of open space and trails surrounding it, community garden plots, commercial sized greenhouses going in for food sold to the community at a discount first, farmer’s market second, lots of fruit trees planted on the property for the community, parks and playgrounds, only environmentally friendly landscape maintenance used, etc. Basically our dream community. We just need work to support us down there and we are not moving in a bad real estate market for at least a few years. Good thing they will have a few phases being built so we have time to re-consider in the future.
The one new hike we did was at a place called Tent Rocks. It is just south of Santa Fe and a totally awesome place. These other-worldly looking rock formations formed millions of years ago from a volcanic eruption and it’s a soft sand and gravel type of rock pillar with the top part being a harder granite rock which kept it in place all this time. It has very narrow channels to walk through as you ascend to the top which my 4 year old loved doing as well as climbing on all the rocks (although for the other half of hiking he wanted to be in the backpack). It even had a cave that the two of them climbed up into and my son thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to sleep in it. I guess spelunking will be something we can do with him when he is older. He even pointed out a few formations that he thought were spaceships so even a 4 year old thought it looked alien like.
We took a train ride one day on the Santa Fe Southern Railway in an old 1920’s passenger car out to a train depot in a town called Lamy, had lunch and then rode the train back to the Santa Fe station. My son loved it since he loves trains so much. There was an outside platform to stand on, too which was fun.
There is so much more but this is a little recap of some of the fun and interesting things we did. I’m so glad that even though I don’t get to live there right now, we are only a (several hours long) car ride away from such a special place.
“KFC suppliers cram birds into huge waste-filled factories, breed and drug them to grow so large that they can’t even walk, and often break their wings and legs. At slaughter, the birds’ throats are slit and they are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water—often while they are still conscious. It would be illegal for KFC to abuse dogs, cats, pigs, or cows in these ways.
KFC’s own animal welfare advisors have asked the company to take steps to eliminate these abuses, but KFC refuses to do so. Many advisors have now resigned in frustration.
Please join Pamela Anderson, Sir Paul McCartney, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Rev. Al Sharpton, and countless other kind people worldwide by not eating at KFC.”
Remember people, “You Are What You Eat”. I’m not against eating animals but I am against inhumane treatment and execution of ANY animal. You know energetically you will absorb the pain, suffering, sadness and anger through your food if you eat this kind of factory farmed food. It’s not worth it and it should be outlawed. Think about this the next time you want fast food. Almost all fast food restaurants buy from cruel, inhumane factory farms. It’s bad for your body and mind and it’s really very inhumane to treat any animal to this kind of life.
Since my newly re-designed blog is now up and running, I signed up to participate in a few challenges I’ve been following. Two are garden related growing challenges which I love and try to do anyway. I joined so I can write about it every week and hopefully spread some awareness to others who may not garden or know anything about eating locally or organic, etc.
One challenge is called the “Growing Challenge” and you are to grow at least one additional new veggie or fruit this year that you didn’t last year and to write about gardening each week. We actually just bought 2 different kinds of grape vines to grow as well as a raspberry bush and a boysenberry bush.
I am also growing several different herbs and for my 4 year old, Leif, we are growing little yellow pear tomatoes in a planter for him. I got him a beautiful book last year called ‘Little Yellow Pear Tomatoes” by Demian Elaine Yumei. It has beautiful illustrations and is a story of why this little girl loves her little yellow pear tomatoes and what’s really in them so he was very excited to grow these. He also has a book called “Planting a Rainbow” by Lois Ehlert that he really likes and wants to grow blue cornflowers that he likes from the book this year, too. It’s very cute, I love to watch little kids interact with the plants. You should see him go crazy in the strawberry patch. He can’t pull them off fast enough to eat them right there.
The other challenge I signed up for is the “Victory Garden 100 Foot Diet Challenge”. The rules are: Beginning as soon as you can, prepare a meal at least once a week with only homegrown vegetables, fruit, herbs, eggs, dairy products or meat, using as few store bought ingredients as possible.
I’ve already been kind of doing this by growing and eating different types of sprouts in my kitchen for the past few months. We used to grow and eat sprouts all the time then stopped around when Leif was born. Since I’ve gone raw, this challenge is even more important to me because eating locally as much as possible is something I believe in so this year, we eliminated growing certain veggies we eat cooked and are growing more greens and veggies that are more prolific and that I like eating raw (or heated to less than 118 degrees in recipes). And we added much more fruit.
I love edible landscaping. Last year we put in a trough in front of our fence filled with jerusalem artichokes which grow very tall to create a screen from our neighbors for more privacy in the summer. I may tweak that this year to have year round privacy. We are discussing that one.
And my final challenge is a “Buy Nothing Challenge” I joined in to buy nothing in the month of April. No non-essentials. I generally learned to live like this since my husband basically lost his software career after 9/11 and we had to live on savings while living in our yurt in the mountains and I was livin’ on the compact for a full year.
Since I worked for myself out of my home, I realized the only times I went to town was to shop or go out socially. All required money for that so that was over. I learned how to become very creative with doing fun, free things (which I found out there are a lot of listings for this) as well as go to thrift stores, use freecycle, closeout stores, bulk buying at Costco or bulk bins at the health food store, etc.
Things have been fine and dandy for sev’l years now financially for us (and my husband’s career is better than ever) but I learned a lot about myself and my spending habits and there was a lot of non-essential spending going on so all in all it was a good lesson. I am doing the challenge again for one month just to bring that level of awareness about money back into my life again even though I’m pretty well trained at this point. Just maybe slacking a little.
So, if your up for it, why don’t you join in on one of these (or many other) challenges that are out there in the blogosphere? It’s fun and you learn new things about yourself.
I forgot to mention in my API post that when you look at the site, the photos on the homepage are of our friends! You can see Leif’s buddies Ryan and Ava. Ryan is kissing his mama Heather’s pregnant belly and Ava is holding her Dad’s hand. The pix were taken by Amy, Ava’s mom.
The whole website was built by our other friend, Julie, mama of Gabriel and Lily, Leif’s other friends who are not pictured.
The new logo was designed by another member of our local chapter of API. What a talented bunch of friends we have! Nice job, you guys!
Well, he actually turned 4 on the 24th of February, aka Oscars Sunday. We started off the birthday extravaganza with a party at school on the 21st. He goes to a Waldorf preschool and the teacher does a special birthday celebration for each child where they eat little star bday cakes and then have a ceremony and the birthday child dresses up in a cape, a crown and holds a star wand. She lights candles for how old they are and reads the story of how they chose to be born into their chosen family (and the stork drops them off at our house). Leif was way more into the cape and the wand than he was in listening to the story but it was sweet. She made him a wool felt doll and he calls it the “Prince Leif” doll.
We had a fun party for him and all of his friends on Saturday the 23rd and when I asked him if he liked his party and had fun he said, “yes I did!”.
It was a “transportation” themed party but with a major focus on trains since he’s still obsessed with them and now fire trucks and helicopters, too. When we all sang happy birthday and everyone said his name he pointed to himself and said, “that’s me!” so I feel like he really got the meaning of a birthday party and in feeling special and loved by everyone and in honoring yourself for a day. I love birthday celebrations so I’m really happy that he “got it” this year. Here are some pix from the party with some of his friends:
When we got home from the party and opened all of his gifts, it was still sunny out so we gave him one of our presents, a new bike. He was sooo stoked on this bike, I tell ya! He just loves riding it.
The next morning, his actual birthday, he crawls over to me in bed and kisses my cheek and says, “I love you so much”. Aww. That just melted my heart. I feel like that was his way of thanking me for the party. He was just so happy the whole weekend with the party and then on his actual bday on Sunday we went to the zoo.
The weather was nice the whole weekend and the zoo was crazy! It was so packed we had to park about a half mile away. We discovered an enormous castle like playground that he wanted to play in and I kept saying, let’s play here instead of the zoo and the birthday boy said let’s play here and go to the zoo, too! He won out, of course since it was his day and he loves the zoo but it was really crowded and I will never go on a nice weekend again. Only weekdays. Or maybe never at all. I actually hate zoos. I think it’s so cruel to the animals to be in such small areas with tons of humans gawking at them all day. They seem depressed to me and some seem to have gone insane, too. I find it heartbreaking to watch. I have a really hard time being at the zoo and reading the energy of the animals. Sorry, I digress.
I can’t believe what a little person he’s turned into in such a short amount of time. His inquisitiveness, his amazing memory for everything! His wanting to always engage in conversation and watching his mind process words and formulate the next sentence when we are having a conversation is pretty interesting for me to watch. He’s got a funny sense of humor and really enjoys a good laugh. He’s also very compassionate to his fellow human being and (usually) all animals, too. He still is very cuddly and loves to be held or touched, even just holding hands. I can’t wait to see him blossom and grow more as this year unfolds.
I think this is a fun age, they are like mini people but still with cherubic faces and extreme innocence and are just so adorable but can really interact with you so much now. It’s definitely been a rewarding 4 years with my little guy who I love more than anything!
Well, I’ve got lots to say today! I’ve been really researching a new topic for myself any spare moment I can since early January. The topic is “Living Foods”.
I have a hormonal disorder that many more women are finding out they have, too. It does have a genetic component and, therefore gets passed on in families. I’m pretty sure mine is from my dad’s side of the family. Part of the problem is insulin resistance but that’s not all of it. So, my metabolism and my body’s ability to process certain types of food has been changing and actually getting much worse the older I get.
So, for the past few years since becoming a mom, I’ve not focused that much on my special needs and more on how to live a balanced life in society and eat like a “normal” person can. Clearly it’s not working for me and this past holiday season really hammered it home to me. I cannot tolerate dairy and refined carbohydrates pretty much at all anymore (although I love them!). Even complex carbs are becoming a problem for me, too. It’s depressing, actually because there goes my attempt at being “normal” and fitting in with everything in society.
An old friend of mine gave me a book for my birthday a few years ago written by one of our herb school teachers. It’s all about raw and living foods and how it heals myriads of diseases in the human body and gives long life and vitality, etc. I even went to see a live debate betw. this author and another famous herbalist about the benefits of the raw diet vs. a cooked food diet when my son was 4 months old. So, this has been a topic of great interest to me for several years now but has been pushed to the back burner for many different reasons.
My dear friend started on this path at that time, gradually at first and has since gotten really into it and has become “all raw” and it really changed her. She seems more grounded, happy, glowing, mentally clear and generally happy and full of light. I was so impressed and very happy for her but still I was not ready to commit. I thought it would be too much work and my son is the pickiest eater in the world and I would still have to make him separate foods although he does love fruit and different raw veggies.
Well, since I turned 40 a few months ago, it’s like a light bulb has gone off in my head and I am obsessively studying older adults as if to catch a glimpse of what is in store for me as I get older. I have to say, I don’t like what I see!! In fact, I’m kind of grossed out. I see death and decay and lots of sadness everywhere. I don’t think this is normal or the way we were meant to age. It has just become the way we are from the foods and substances and the accompanying chemicals and preservatives that go into our bodies on a daily basis.
When I look at the people who are older and living their lives by consuming the living foods, they look good and vibrant and at least 20 years younger than what they actually are. They are pain free, happy with lots of energy and very clear spiritually.
I’ve decided I want this bec. I’m disgusted with the alternative. Also, because I don’t want to die a painful death in my 50’s like my dad and 2 of his female cousins did from pancreatic cancer. Now that I have the answers, it’s an unnecessary and completely avoidable path. And, if I did develop it, it would be completely my own lazy ass fault because obviously, my family has a hard time digesting cooked grains and simple sugars and it basically wears out the pancreas to the point that they develop type 2 diabetes and then cancer.
I’ve purchased a new juicer that also does “homogenizing” so it can make nut butters, frozen desserts, baby food, etc and a new dehydrator which is like my oven now, because I can make many, many dishes but the foods are not heated over 118 degrees so all of the enzymes are still viable and available for easy digestion. I have a vita mix blender for many years (I used it mostly for making my herbal products) and I also had a food processor for many years and that is basically all the necessary tools for this way of eating. One other fun tool I got is called a saladacco which makes angel hair type of “pasta” from zucchini and squashes and also can make chips and ravioli shells from vegetables.
I think I’m able to do this program now because there are hundreds of recipes to make everything I love but the “raw” version like lasagna, mexican food, cheese (made from diff. nuts and veggies, seasonings, etc that are pureed and dehydrated), ice cream, nut burgers, bread!! from sprouted grain seeds then pureed and dehydrated. Like essene bread or Ezekial bread but living, not baked, just dehydrated at 105 degrees.
And the best one, raw chocolate!! I love good chocolate and this is raw cacao, processed from the tree at low temps so all the vitamins, enzymes and super antioxidants are all still intact which makes it a superfood, not junk food! Truly a food of the gods! There are tons of recipes and you sweeten it with raw, unfiltered honey or raw agave nectar. Divine! Believe me, I’ve tried several recipes already!
So, the foods are basically any vegetable, fruit, nut, seed, sprouts, grains (sprouted only) and superfoods (which are actually either a fruit or veg. really).
The only problem I have with eating this way is that alot of the specialty ingredients I buy right now are not local and sustainable to where I live and I really believe in eating a sustainable diet. It would be no problem if I lived in California!
As I have found out, alot of these recipes and bulkier foods like nuts, avocados, etc I eat more now as transitioning into this way of life and to feel full like you do from cooked foods goes away as you cleanse your body from stored toxins and you will crave more of the lighter foods like veggies and fruits.
So far, I’ve been doing more of a hunter-gatherer type of diet which is this raw foods diet mostly with about 10% of cooked food daily coming from either organic eggs or free-range poultry or wild caught fish. Haven’t had any beef since xmas and the beef we eat is grass fed. This is the diet recommended to me to heal my hormonal disorder but I’ve been thinking of taking it one step further to try to be completely raw for a month and see how it goes. It surely is doable and very enjoyable from the many recipes I’ve been making everyday (different salads, fruits, raw almond butter, almond milk, raw granola, raw jam from dried and fresh fruit, blueberry scones, fudge balls, smoothies, green juices, chocolate coconut shake – amazing!, etc).
Today, I am making a raw lasagna. There are lots of steps involved bec. of the many layers so I saved it for the weekend. My wheat berries have also sprouted for a few days now so I am making my first round of bread today, too.
But, I’ve noticed that if I drink a juice of fresh greens and an apple or a fruit smoothie or some coconut drink, I’m not hungry for a long time and I realize that I’m not eating that much bec. I’m just not hungry! My body is getting all the nutrients it needs from the raw foods and I don’t crave any cooked foods. How cool! And, all of my bloat is gone (I get swollen from eating the foods I’m sensitive to like dairy and cooked grains) and now I’m just left with some saggy skin that I need to work out a bit more to get rid of. I am detoxing the stored junk in my body from living on cooked, dead food my whole life and this part isn’t so fun.
I see how once you get going with the right tools and ingredients from the store (or my garden in a few months!) it’s really easy and only takes a few minutes of prep work for a recipe. I’ve been trying to soak a new batch of seeds or grain for sprouting every night or soaking some different raw nuts for different recipes so you do need to think a few days in advance of what you want to eat and when since some recipes have to be dehydrated which can take a long time depending on the recipes.
And yes, my husband is totally into it, too. He says he craves the green drinks and loves the coconut drinks and while he’s fine with eating cooked grains, etc he doesn’t seem to want to eat much of that and really is into the raw recipes we make. Leif, however, is slow to come around and I have to bribe him to take a sip of the green juices (which taste really good!). He likes it but is not ready to willingly drink it without some form of bribery. I’m going to make up a batch of raw cookies and see if he will eat them bec. he loves cookies. He wouldn’t even try any of the chocolate stuff I made and he loves chocolate. I couldn’t figure that one out!
It’s funny, even the desserts and treats are all healthy and nutritionally good for you so I could technically eat a whole dessert (maybe a raw pecan pie) as a meal if I wanted and it would be just fine!
I will post some updates periodically and hopefully some pictures one day!
I just came across this video about the rehabilitation of Michael Vick’s dogs. The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah really deserves major kudos for taking the time to work individually with each animal that would have normally been put down.
I really believe for every bad person out there doing harm to the innocent ones, there are at least 2 good people who will help to make a difference in some lives and bring more light onto the planet from their actions.
Leif and I were at the local humane society last week renewing our yearly pet licenses and whenever we go there (usually to drop off donations of food and stuff for them – they always need various items) we check out all the animals. It’s all I can do to not take several dogs home with me, you can just hear them begging to please take me home! We saw several smaller dogs this time that were less than a year old and just so adorable and Leif wanted them, of course. I did see several pit bulls or pit bull mixes in there, too.
One little girl pit bull was hiding under the ledge in the pen and shaking so much and growling from fear. I felt so bad for her that I did reiki on her thru the gate and she definitely felt it and I tried to mentally talk to her thru the energy work and she totally calmed down, stopped shaking and put her head down and let out a big sigh. She was so afraid being there and had major energy blocks in her heart. I think I may go back and try to volunteer to do energy work on the various animals that need it. I feel so bad for the animals that are given away. At least the humane society where I live does not destroy them, if they are not adopted in a certain amount of time then they get to go out to “the ranch” as it’s called so they don’t have to live in the little prison like cells for so long (they do get one walk a day). That can warp their brains (as I’ve been told).
So, for all of you who choose to save a life from the humane society, thank you. There are so many amazing little beings just looking to give their love to someone and to be loved in return. The people who work at the humane society really do a good job in assessing what type of family is best for each animal. There are also breed specific animal rescues if you have your heart set on a pure breed of some kind. But, in my opinion, a mixed breed animal is the best kind and usually are very smart. I love my 3 humane society adopted animals and am happy I got to save some lives in the process.
Well, this month really has been an odd one for my poor son. He started off the new year (Jan. 2nd) by falling and slamming his ear so hard on the edge of a toy that is like furniture that he needed 4 stitches in his earlobe which he managed to slice in half. It healed pretty well and the stitches came out 5 days later. The night of the stitch removal, he starts puking and that lasted 12 hours and then ends but he has a fever for a few days and feels like crap. Once that was over, he starts complaining that his other ear hurts and we go back to the doctor once again and he assures me that there is no infection but he has these huge swollen glands not only in front of his neck but the entire one side of his neck from ear to base of neck. The only things he wants is the hot water bottle to lay on and advil and to watch movies while I hold him the whole time (aka “the human couch”). He also will only eat some snacks, not much food at all and, of course, loses weight no matter what I try to give him. I gave him lots of juice and water which he would drink.
Sev’l days go by and then he wants to finally eat more food and after breakfast one morning he says, hey mom, there is goo in my ear! I look and sure enough, there is a pool of water coming out. I think oh no, he ruptured his ear drum, all that pressure (with no infection) pressing on the inner ear all week causing pain finally is coming out. Sure enough, we go back to the doc and he has a ruptured ear drum and continued to leak yellow stuff out of his ear (which started irritating the outer ear so we had to try to keep it dry and treat that, too) and that finally ended this past Monday. No more advil or hot water bottle (he didn’t want the heating pad, just the water bottle – so picky!). The doc did put him on a 5 day antibiotic because when the ear drum ruptured he could see both ears started to turn red so an infection was starting to brew so we agreed to just kill off anything in there.
So this past Sunday night I finally got to do a long, deep energy work session on him bec. when I’ve tried (everyday) since the accident, he would let me do like 5 minutes and then tell me to stop. For some reason, when he was going to sleep on Sunday, he let me work on him (I think he is sick of a wet ear and pain) so I got to really do a thorough job on him and basically clean out, re-balance his head and whole system and sew up the hole in the eardrum with some angelic helpers and the next day he was fine and back to himself again. I love that. I asked how his ear was and he said all better, it’s not wet anymore.
Finally our boy is back to normal. He did go back to school last week bec. he was hopped up on advil and an antihistamine (to help dry out the sinuses which is part of the ear leak) and at nap time the teacher gave him a hot water bottle to rest on. One day he couldn’t sleep and she rocked him the whole time in the rocking chair. How nice is that?! I said if he’s not feeling well to call me to get him, anytime but he’s such a social kid that I think he was truly happy to be back with his friends even when the meds started to wear off.
He was back to his normal eating this week but today, he really must be feeling fine because he inhaled so much food, I couldn’t believe it! Between coming home from school until getting ready for bed he kept eating (lots of healthy stuff) especially fruit and protein. I guess he knows what his body needs and is making up for lost time. I was more than happy to keep plying him with food but kept wondering if he is going to be like this as a teenager (supposedly his dad ate a huge amount as a teen).
I am hoping we will be done with trauma for the rest of the year now! Only good things and blessings for my little boy.
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted and now it’s a new year so it’s time for me to catch up. We had a very fun and busy holiday season and Leif had a great time with his Grandpa visiting for Christmas. We made lots of yummy food and sweets (including awesome homemade fudge) and did some fun stuff with Grandpa. I’ve got some good pix of Michael, his Dad and Leif all jamming on instruments together (dad on saxophone, Michael on guitar and Leif on everything else) and Leif and Grandpa played with all his new toys and puzzles alot, too.
Michael made Leif a beautiful wooden kitchen for Hannukah and he just loves it and plays with it alot. He unfortunately fell onto the kitchen edge after slamming the door to his playroom (which we always tell him not to do) and landed just so that his ear got bruised and his ear lobe where there is no cartilage actually split in half. It happened a few days ago when Michael came home from work for lunch. We rushed him to the urgent care center right by our house and he had to get 4 stitches. It was awful but is healing well and we go tomorrow to have the stitches removed. I really don’t know how it could have happened bec. the kitchen is very child safe with rounded edges and corners. Michael has since gone over the corner again with more sanding just to be sure because our kid is such a klutz. I think he hurts himself at least once a day, this one just happened to be in a soft spot with alot of force onto basically a piece of furniture at kid height. Michael was calling it the “perfect storm” of accidents for Leif. I hope we don’t ever have to deal with this again.
Other than that weirdness, we have been doing some more projects to make our space function better since we know we will be here for a few more years until we find the piece of land or new community with a house we can design and have built for our forever home. I’m still holding out for moving to the Santa Fe area, a place I have always felt I belong but Michael’s job is here so here it is we stay – for now at least. Good thing he also really likes Santa Fe but not as much as I do so it’s still on the table as a future option.
He’s busily building new shelves for Leif’s toys in the play room. It’s part of my xmas present, actually. I only really wanted house organizational stuff done. He’s using the same wood as the kitchen so he’s really super aware of any possible edges on those rounded corners, too. This is going to make so much more room in the play room and better organized, too. I can’t wait. Then he told me today he will install new carpet in that room, too since it’s the only other room we have actual wall to wall carpet in (besides the basement) and it’s never been replaced since we moved in so I’m totally stoked on that.
I hope everyone had a good holiday and new year’s and that you all have a great year ahead of you!
When we were on vacation a few months ago, I saw an article in the local paper about how genetics are to blame for picky eaters. This problem is called Neophobia and is considered a normal stage of human development. It was originally an evolutionary mechanism designed to protect children from accidentally eating dangerous things like poisonous berries or mushrooms. It kicks in around age 2 or 3 when kids are mobile and most children outgrow it by age 5 but not all of them do.
We have always had a struggle with with our son Leif’s eating. He is extremely picky and that makes what we prepare for him really limiting. Since I’ve read this article, I’ve looked back at what I can remember of myself and realized that he probably gets this awful trait from me. I also think I must of had reflux like he did because I avoided tomato products for many years as a child, it was too acidic for me and I had stomach problems from other foods, too. Needless to say, I was a big time picky pick eater and very skinny just like him.
I saw my mother-in-law on that trip and got to ask her if my husband was a picky eater as a little kid and she said no. Not even sort of, a little bit – just no. I really don’t think I had it this bad, I wonder if it gets progressively worse each generation or something.
They say it will take lots of persistence with neophobic kids and to keep offering foods to them, most people eventually come around. His preschool teacher requires him to have a “fairy bite” of any snack that she serves to the class (which is usually a cooked grain). Since he responds to his teacher differently than he does to us, we have incorporated that term at home when offering a new food and it really has made a difference in how he responds.
Being an attachment parenting family, we believe that being gentle and explaining what the food is, how yummy it tastes, asking him nicely to take one “fairy bite” and he doesn’t have to eat any more of it, is more helpful than by physically forcing him to eat something. No one, especially a child with a strong apprehension of new food likes to be forced to do anything let alone eat something they view as scary and possibly dangerous. While the gentle way may take more time and patience, we have found that it really has been paying off well for us in the long run.
My son’s problem is not most vegetables or fruits – surprisingly he likes a lot of them but only raw. His problem is mostly “combo” multi-ingredient foods like lasagna, soup, chili, or anything creamy like dip, dressing, oatmeal or nut butters, jam and even any type of sandwich. He likes mac and cheese and pizza for some reason and those are the only combo foods he will eat and we recently found out that he has a sensitivity to cow’s milk so he no longer can eat that! This really challenges me to be more creative in getting good, whole foods in him in ways he will accept.
I do give him the best, most absorbable, bioavailable nutritional supplements I could find from my research to be sure to cover my bases with him everyday. This has made a huge difference in him, he became happier and started to gain weight well just a couple of weeks after I introduced it to him at 18 mos. old. He never eats dirt or other strange things kids like to eat because his body is not craving missing nutrients anymore which he was not getting enough of from his diet. We also found out soon after starting the supplements that he was not really assimilating what he was eating very well since he had a big jump in weight gain with not much change in his limited food choices.
It’s nice to know that there is a name for why he acts this way towards food and that it’s instinctual in every human but only some exhibit the traits. We can see the fruits of our efforts paying off little by little by his willingness to sample more new foods at home and he is also making progress with eating at school. His palate is definitely geared more towards simple, whole foods which I couldn’t be happier about.
I’m glad that we follow our instincts in being gentle towards his eating sensitivity and we are patient when working with him at his own speed with such an important aspect of his life. I am very hopeful that as he gets older, he will outgrow this neophobia and will not have any eating issues because we gently worked with him with expanding his food choices.
We went on a little vacation to one of our favorite places in the world, Santa Fe, NM. This is a place we still consider moving to and a place that I thought I was originally going to move to when I relocated from NYC. I got “sidetracked” in Colorado and 14 years later, I’m still here.
The one new hike we did was at a place called Tent Rocks. It is just south of Santa Fe and a totally awesome place. These other-worldly looking rock formations formed millions of years ago from a volcanic eruption and it’s a soft sand and gravel type of rock pillar with the top part being a harder granite rock which kept it in place all this time. It has very narrow channels to walk through as you ascend to the top which my 4 year old loved doing as well as climbing on all the rocks (although for the other half of hiking he wanted to be in the backpack). It even had a cave that the two of them
climbed up into and my son thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to sleep in it. I guess spelunking will be something we can do with him when he is older. He even pointed out a few formations that he thought were spaceships so even a 4 year old thought it looked alien like.
There is so much more but this is a little recap of some of the fun and interesting things we did. I’m so glad that even though I don’t get to live there right now, we are only a (several hours long) car ride away from such a special place.
