lessons in parenthood

so VL tumbled out of the bed the other day. it wasn't a big deal. we have a low platform bed and a rug. i really gotta learn to heed my intuition though cuz the thought crossed my mind and i dismissed it. she cried for all of a minute and then it was back to lots and lots of active playing & smiling when she should have been sleepy. i gave her a dose of rescue remedy not that she needed it and took a big dose myself to calm me down. no scratches or bruises. so i took her to her chiropractor for an adjustment the next afternoon and other then her ribs being slightly subluxated (which is chiro for tweaked) she was fine. i figured weo, now she's learned about edges and that will be the only time, right? wrong. she's been going for the edge kamikaze and intent on going over. i even held onto one calf to see how far she would take it. she made it over our gramma-made bootleg co-sleeper barrier (clearly its not a barrier), get her hands on the bedframe but then her arms couldn't support her weight (22lbs!) and the laws of physics took over. and of course i had her dangling in the air by the calf like a snared rabbit. we thought maybe it was just imitation since she sees us going over the edge and she likes to do what we are doing in her own fashion, i drink tea|she gnaws on the mug rim, i read a magazine|she eats the magazine.

then the other day we were playing in the living room and she did a belly crawl to the edge of the blanket towards the potty which was in a different corner than usual. so i picked her up and put her on it (naked butt) and she went. hmm. then later that evening after playing contently on the bed, she gets agitated and starts making for the edge again only not in the middle where i get up, where the rug is but between the rug & the nightstand where the potty is. her little paws were outreaching toward the potty. hmm. so i picked our lil adventurer up and put her on the potty and she peed. ding! lightbulb! she's not trying to crack her head open, she is trying to get to the potty! clearly, we've been missing her attempts to communicate with us (since it primarily consists of her staring intently at me with little to no vocalization or secondarily of agitation when she really really is on the brink. and is the precise way she communicates hunger and sleepiness as well.) and she is asserting her will and mobility to do for herself. i told Dì Sáu this who smiled benevolently and said something or the other about the baby crawling. (sometimes i think she doesn't understand me and just nods along pacifyingly) then this morning, VL peed on the potty and Dì Sáu put her on the blanket afterwards and then went to go wet the flannel wipe with warm water to wipe her down. and when she came back, VL had belly-crawled off the blanket and peed some more. on the floor. next to the potty. so now we finally get it.
i am so amazed at babies' intelligence and will to communicate and how adults paternalistically underestimate them. and i'm even more amazed at VL's will to self-determination.

beepbeepbeep!

Get outta mah way! i got places to go, things to do, people to see. the world is mine!

dreaming of pork

what is it that Americans and approx 20% of the world have against pork?

T & i and others of our ilk been bemoaning the lack of high-quality, relatively inexpensive organic pork. at least with chicken we can go to a halal store and get humanely treated, non-drugged chicken for comparable prices to a regular grocery store. but no one does "halal" pork and it's considered an insult to even inquire. when we were in Viet Nam, the subtle flavor of the pork, just couldn't compare with anything we could get here at a typical grocery stores. and even when we go to that organic grocery store, all they have is pork chops. while delicious, you can't find the cuts--from the rooter to the tooter--used in vinamese cooking. what happens to all those organic pig trotters that could be the base for practically every vinamese noodle soup? (fyi non-vinamese people, pho is the only aberration. all vinamese noodle soups are made from pork bones even that wierdly named Bun Bo Hue|Hue-style beef noodles.)

T. dream-crushed my idea of raising our own vinamese pot-bellied pigs since he astutely surmised i would name the pigs, teach them tricks, and then recoil at butchering them. (rather, he has dream-crushed my idea of raising them to eat them; he hasn't dream-crushed my idea to raise them as pets cause the miniature donkeys would be lonely out back and what better company than pigs? smarter than dogs and can be potty-trained to boot.)

our friend Giang re-sparked my enthusiasm for acquiring a deep freezer. Giang & co. bought an organic 4H pig from the County Fair and it was delivered butchered into cuts, though unfortunately, american cuts. so no feet, head, ears or bones. darn!

i happened to find a source for organic, heritage pigs and practically every cut. heritage pigs are the breed of famed, succulent black pigs ghat are high in omega-3 fatty acids, that were all but bred out of existence by the commercial dry, anorexic pink pigs of factory farming.

better yet, you can get a whole pig (!) including shipping for about $300. and of course if you are a first time user you can 15% off. so for about $250 you can get a year's worth of pork! (or one fine pig roast. not that we ever finished installing the kalua pit in the backyard... there's always next year or la caja china.) pretty good price considering that non-organic, commercially produced heo quay|whole roast pig costs $150.

http://www.heritagefoodsusa.com/
*Ok and it cracks me up that part of their mission is the genetic preservation of endangered rare breeds, so their mantra is "If we want to save them, we must eat them! ." I can just see some chinese company breeding siberian tigers and sunbears to eat with exclusive Louise XIV VSOP cognac with that very mission in mind.