Found via Not Martha

How about this for the most unoriginal post topic ever: Once you have a kid, everyone thinks it's their job to keep you from screwing up childrearing. I've found the best way to deal with this is to have science on my side. This weekend, in the grocery checkout line, the woman waiting in line behind me commented on what an adorable baby I had (duh!) and lamented the fact that she had only one grandchild. I smiled sympathetically, who doesn't want lotsa babies! Then she said that her daughter stopped with one child because she was only able to take enough time off of work to take care of one child, and she didn't want her babies to be raised by (sneer) daycare (/sneer). You know, sometimes you can accidentally insult someone. Like when you introduce yourself to a new knitting buddy and say "oh, don't you HATE Red Heart yarn?" and they pull a big ol' Red Heart Super Saver log out of their knitting bag and you're like, whoops. So I said, "Well, my baby goes to daycare and she loves it!" As such, I gave the nice lady a way to backpedal and not be all judgmental of a stranger. But she couldn't take a hint. "Oh, but it's so much better if they don't have to go the daycare." Ugh, is she really going to make me be the mean epidemiologist? I guess I have to... "You know, it's so interesting, they've actually found that children who go to daycare have a reduced risk of leukemia compared to kids who just stay at home, and kids in daycare do better on achievement tests when they're older. Amazing, huh? There are pros and cons to all our choices!" She looked really disturbed, and I felt kind of bad. The risk of leukemia is so small that daycare really isn't going to make a difference for most babies. And parents who choose to care for their children at home can do a fantastic job of giving their babies all the stimulation they need to be the next Nobel Laureate. I would like nothing better than to win the lottery, buy a foreclosed megamansion and take care of the tadpole myself until the Rapture. Unfortunately, I think making grandmas feel bad in the checkout line is sufficient grounds to be Left Below. Gah, do I really look like I'm doing that bad of a job?

Over the past few weeks, I often sometimes find myself looking down at the tadpole and thinking, "what the heck is the world going to be like when she's all grown up?" Man, things have gotten messy in the world recently. I'm optimistic that things will get better, and I'm so curious and nervous about our upcoming presidential election. I'm totally planning to Barack the Vote, but whooee it's going to be a close one. I just found this site via Strollerderby - Yes We Can (Hold Babies). Lots of great pictures of babies and Barack Obama, with lolcats-esque captions. Oh yeah, and there's also a photo of McCain and a baby, which is just funny as heck. A few months ago I would have written "funny as hell", but this is a family blog now.

Damnit! Something I actually ate recently, White Rabbit Candy, has been recalled due to melamine contamination! Actually, I bought a bag of this last year because I remember it being so very tasty when I had it as a child. I was rather turned off by its plasticy taste and only ate a few pieces - I figured that my childlike tastebuds just had no taste. For those of you who are wondering why melamine ends up in so many foods, there's a great Scientific American article here. As it turns out, melamine is a great protein mimic because it's rich in nitrogen (as is protein). Some simple tests that measure protein levels are based on breaking the protein down, releasing the nitrogen, and measuring it to estimate the protein concentration. Melamine breaks down and releases nitrogen in much the same way, and is quite good at impersonating protein. I hope melamine doesn't get a bad name from this, I rather like these (harmless) melamine bowls.

Before I had a baby, it seemed like all the parents I knew only talked about the great parts of parenting. As if they were trying to reel me in, or something. Oh, having kids is so much FUN! You'll never regret it! It's truly the best thing that ever happened to me! Baby poos are really adorable, when you think of it. And now that I've got my tadpole, the parents have switched tactics. I've joined the cult, and now reality sets in. Yeah, you'll never sleep again until she turns 18. You're using cloth diapers? Yeah right, we'll see how long that lasts. You're putting her in daycare? What, don't you love your baby? Your car will soon be full of Cheerios, too. Well, the tadpole sleeps through the night like a champ, cloth diapers are a breeze, the wee one adores daycare, but the Cheerios thing has me terrified. We've thought about imposing a Cheerios ban, but then what about the goldfish crackers, marshmallows, and caviar? (Maybe I should read that "Feeding your baby" manual again) There appears to be a solution, the Munchie Mug. It's well-reviewed at Z recommends, so maybe we'll give it a try. It's like a one-way valve for dry munchies, which apparently keeps all messiness at bay. There doesn't appear to be a solution for babies removing snacks from the mug and hurling them across the room, but I could always get one of these.