Need a napkin?

We've been quite domestic round these parts lately! We made these wonderful cookies. They are an oatmeal chocolate cookie you wouldn't be able to resist eating if I placed it in front of you. They're oh-so-soft and chocolatey. What I wouldn't be able to resist telling you (after you've eaten several of course) is that they're specifically designed to aid in lactation. So, you'll want a napkin, not only to wipe up the mess you made salivating, but also mop up your shirt after you start leaking.

Okay, not really. It only aids in lactation if you're already doing so. If no one has had their lips wrapped around your nip for the past few hours, you're safe. If however, you want to boost your milk supply, these lovely babies will help do so. They're chock full of galactogogues-foods that aid in the production of milk. Our ancient forebearers understood about these foods much better than we did. There is a reason all those fertility goddesses were surrounded by bushels of grains. Whole grains like oats, flax and wheats are perfect boosters, as are yeasts. I think they should be mandatory food for all new mothers! I love it that the original recipe says that a serving size is one dozen-cause a dozen is about how many you want to eat in one sitting-trust me!

Here's my adapted recipe for Noel Trullio's Lactation Cookies and a link to the original:

Ingredients
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 bag chocolate chips
2-4 tablespoons brewer's yeast

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs and mix well. Add vanilla. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter mix. Stir in oats and chips. Scoop onto baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Let set for a couple minutes then remove from tray. Makes appox 2 dozen large cookies.

The only "odd" item in the mix here is the brewer's yeast. You can find this at your local health food store. If you aren't lactating, I wouldn't spend loads of time finding this. It is an excellent natural source of a number of important minerals, though, and can help you justify eating "just one more" to get your daily dose of vitamins and minerals in a form much more easily metabolized than those smelly little pills we all swallow.

see more politics and fun!

Breastfeeding moms... Bush looks like he could have an interesting latch there... doesn't he?

Flooding!

I loves me a good flood! I know I know-it makes me one sick puppy. I'm sure if I ever had a house in harm's way I'd change my tune in a hurry. But they're so... dramatic! Exciting! It's so beautiful to see Mother nature's power!

Spearfish Creek is in full display. I never thought I'd ever get the chance to see it over it's banks. But it's over them now! We snapped a few photos this a.m. You can see everything I shot here.

Jackson ST Bridge

Jackson-note the water you can just see coming down the hill. This is backing up before it can get to the drainage area and there is a considerable pool built up.

Nash St Bridge

Looking south from the Nash Bridge-upstream.

Udderly ridiculous

...an' how 'bout...

Saturday I planted in my little garden area beside our walk. While I did so, I listened in on the conversation/imaginative play of my daughter and a neighbor girl. They were really getting some great riffs going-creating this complex imaginative world around themselves... building off of each other as they went. It sounded a little like this...

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L: "an' how 'bout we were princesses and this was our castle.."

H: "an' how 'bout we were three an' our mommy said it was supper time"

L: "an' how 'bout we went to bed an' these are our bunkbeds:

Insert three miliseconds of fake snoring....

H: "an' how 'bout we woke up and we turned into sixteen"

L: "Oh! We're sixteen now!"

*fake laughter and squeals*

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Please note that the whole exchange occurs in 30 seconds or less when they're really in the zone. It's like this rapid fire blast of chatter back and forth as they play. "an' how 'bout" is the magic phrase that conjures up amazing images and worlds.

It was enlightening to hear this exchange, because when the rare moment occurs that I am roped into this sort of play, I find it incredibly annoying that she keeps throwing these parameters on me right and left before I even have much of a chance to assimilate and begin imagining the LAST "rule" she threw at me. I end up annoyed that she's being such a little dictator and forcing me in one direction or another with the play.

The difference of course, is age. I view these statements as "rules" that must be followed, and I require time to begin imagining and then existing in the world that has been created with each statement. Lizzie, on the other hand, sees them as simple guideposts for story creation. She expects that I will take a more proactive role in creating alongside her as we play, and when I don't, she steps up to fill the gap. Each time she states something.. the world has been fleshed out a bit more.

My poor feeble brain just doesn't imagine as quickly as hers does. I must be SO boring! ...but I remember when I used to utter the magic phrase "an' how 'bout" too.

Thar She Blows!

Katie finally Pooped! Why, might you ask, am I rejoicing over a bowel movement?!?

Because it's been NINE days... NINE! since I've seen one!

Apparently, it's not uncommon for breastfed babies can go a week or two without pooping by six weeks of age... but it sure is disconcerting. Yesterday I even took her in to a pediatrician yesterday to see if I should be worried. We palpated her tummy-but there were no hard masses.. and she wasn't uncomfortable. So we just decided to give it a bit longer.

I'm glad we did. She went today, in her own good time. It was pretty much like a bomb went off in that diaper though. OMFG people! Buy stock in Swaddlebees cloth diapers! It was totally coated in a thick layer from the front lining all the way to the back, but never leaked once. I wasn't aware a five week old child had that kind of storage capacity. It's like she has a rectum of holding or something (D&D reference for you non-nerds.) Usually you can resell cloth diapers once you are done.

But NO ONE will EVER buy that diaper from me!

EVER.

Usually the very best stain remover is the sun.... but I doubt this will EVER sun out! Ah! Adventures in parenting! If this story isn't birth control.. I dunno what is!

Life is SHORT!

Tonight over the dinner table, Lizzie and I had a profound discussion about life and death and how long we have left on this earth.

Okay. So, the kid is five.

She asked how old people are before they die-I've assured her that we can live to be 100. Therefore, in the mind of a five year old-100 is the cutoff. You croak when you get to be 100. Just how long is that, though, really?

I'm thirty-one. Lets make life simple and assume it's my birthday today. If I will cack on my birthday, August 8th, 2076 then I have:

69 years left or
828 months left or
3,588 weeks left or
25,185 days left or
604,440 hours left.

That seems a disturbingly short period of time, especially considering that it isn't exactly common to make it to be that old. A little over 600,000 hours? I've never really thought about it in those terms. I just always envisioned having oodles of time. Damn! I'd better get crackin!