One of Those Moms

Some moms carefully control everything about their infant's environment. They sterilize everything baby touches. They use chemical free detergents and organic, all natural baby shampoos. Once it is time to start solids, they make their own organic food from vegetables they have lovingly selected at the local farmer's market. Those kind of moms probably would look at me with a combination of disgust and pity.

Sarah plays with toys that have fallen on the ground and puts them all in her mouth. I use the same detergent for her as I use for the rest of the family. And we use good old Johnson's and Johnson's for her personal care needs. When it comes to solid foods, I follow the guidelines to test for allergies and I wait until after a year to let my babies anywhere near honey or peanut butter. But when the situation warrants it, I do things that many mothers might be quite shocked by.

A few weeks ago we started Sarah on solid food. She loves her oatmeal, and attacks the spoon with gusto. I feed her some cereal every night after we eat dinner. One night last week, we went to Burger Joe's for dinner. I neglected to feed her before we left and didn't think to bring any food with us. Sarah made sure we knew that this was unacceptable. So we improvised. The fries there are pretty tasty and they're potatoes, so why not? Sarah loved them. I put one in her hand and she gleefully gummed the thing to death. Then since I'm sure she was quite thirsty, I gave her a little bit of soda. She loved it!

And then last night, to cement my place as a truly horrible mother, we introduced her to another of the world's most delicious, yet unhealthy foods. Last night, because of baseball we had to divide and conquer. Robert was off with Matthew, and I was at home with the rest of the kids. We got Little Ceasar's for dinner. Poor Sarah was hungry, but I was serving everyone else. What to do? Hmm - that crazy bread looks pretty good. And it was. Sarah gummed her breadstick happily while I took care of the other kids and had some dinner myself.

As a Griffith, I think she will be doomed/blessed to experience a wide range of foods, both healthy and not so healthy. I guess we're just starting her off a little early.