We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
2006-04-11 - 16:36
And life goes on...
As I might have predicted when Jack got so burly, he has followed up with a big growth spurt just in time for a spring wardrobe change. We haven't measured him again, but last I knew he was at 35 inches -- then he started to get too tall for all of his trousers. Mind you, 35 inches put him under the 5th percentile for his age, so I'm very glad of the growth.
It's not that I worry about his being short, per se. Jack is likely to be the shortest of our boys, because neither Rod nor I is a cm above average height. But I do get worried when he "loses ground" for too long.
We have also started back to doing school -- much to Jack's excitement! Since he had taught himself to read while we were on hiatus for the move, we're revisiting the old lessons and updating them.
Jack is as far behind on writing/drawing/manual dexterity as he is ahead with reading, so we're working with him on "pre-writing" exercises. Nothing dramatic, really. Tracing shapes, numbers, and letters on sandpaper, in rice, or in paint. Tracing lines from one picture to another on worksheets using crayons. Lots more practice "colouring in". We're trying to provide him with opportunities to practice, rather than pressing the issue. He's not too far behind, it's just the place he could use the practice.
It seems like Jack is growing up noticeably every time I look away for a moment. Somehow, over the last few weeks, he has turned from a two-year old, with the remnants of toddler still visible, to very much a three year old -- all pre-schooler and business. He speaks clearly enough for most people to follow, these days. He answers questions clearly and uses full sentences. He seems to understand things more deeply, as reflected in far more sophisticated questions...
Last night we went to the hardware store to pick up some shovels, paint, and oddments we need for projects. It was very hot in the store, and we'd been there long enough for Jack to get restless. Frankly, he was being pretty bratty.
We got in line to check out, and it was clear from the expression on his face that the cashier was not a big fan of kids to begin with, and he wasn't looking forward to dealing with us.
Rod lightened the situation by joking with the guy, while I sat on Jack. Jack isn't used to encountering people who don't like him, so he was intrigued and quickly settled down and tuned into the conversation. I wasn't aware of it at the time, though. I thought he was settling down because we were checking out and he was relieved.
No one actually said anything about the guy not liking kids -- but as I buckled Jack into the car, he asked me "Do you like children?"
Oh my.
I said "I like you, Jack. Even when I don't like how you're behaving for a little while, I think you're a lovely boy."
He asked me, "Does Dad like children?"
"Yes, Jack. Dad likes children. And he loves you."
That seemed to be the end of it. But I was deeply effected by his realization that there will people who don't like him because of who he is or what he represents to them. He seemed genuinely concerned.
Is there any way to prepare kids for that? I've never found one.
On vitamins
An acquaintance recently expressed surprise that Jack takes vitamins.
In her mind, I guess, taking vitamins is something you do to make up for a bad diet. She knows that we eat mostly whole, fresh, unprocessed foods, and I guess she figured that would cover all of Jack's nutritional needs.
I've heard the argument that a balanced diet will provide all the nutrients we need, but my research suggests otherwise.
The human body is immensely adaptable, and it will make the best of what's available. It will even appear to be doing fine on remarkably little nutrition. But the cost of running on nutritional fumes eventually catches up with us in the form of degenerative disease. Evolutionarily, that wasn't a problem, because it allowed us to bear and raise our young to reproductive age. After that, we become evolutionarily superfluous. If we proceeded to die of heart disease or diabetes, it mattered little, from that perspective.
These days, though, our foods are so processed that a "normal" diet is pretty bleak, nutritionally.
To make matters worse, even people on a whole foods diet with lots of variety are largely eating foods grown in soils depleted by hundreds or thousands of years of (over)farming, and "renewed" not with wholesome and varied compost, but with chemicals that, while they force a great yield, don't renew all of the nutrients the land once provided.
Even composting doesn't always provide all the micronutrients it once did, since a depleted source remains depleted. If the carrot grew in soil that was selenium depleted, then composting the carrot tops doesn't help much to add selenium to the soil!
Add to that the fact that the human body evolved for a far more active lifestyle (hunting, gathering, and fleeing predators) than the average western family can emulate, and you realize that the number of nutrients that our bodies need was originally accompanied by a lot more calories than we can afford with our far more sedentary lifestyles.
To me, this adds up to a need for more nutrients for optimal nutrition than a reasonable diet can provide. Granted, a multivitamin can't provide the breadth of nutrients good food can, nor will it contain the trace nutrients we need for good health. It can't balance the nutrients better than nature can, either. A good diet isn't optional -- but I think added vitamins helps to make up some of the difference between OK health and really radiant good health. It seems to have worked for me, anyway. I am healthier and more energetic now than I was in my 20s...
Ahh, well. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Jack and I just have really expensive urine. But it's not hurting anything - and the insurance makes me feel better.
