A few days ago Mark suggested that the kids start drinking soy milk as he thought it would be better for them. We use soy milk ourselves, but the kids still drink cows milk. Actually, I don't consume much milk at all so I'm sure when I'm an old lady I will be hunched over and about a foot shorter. Now that would make me about 4 foot 4, but I guess I will be old and won't care. Although, I already have to get a step stool to reach the top cabinets, at that point I will have to get a lift. Maybe I should start drinking milk! Anyway, after Julia was born I read the Skinny Bitch book and they tell a story, quite graphically, about dairy farms and puss. That is all that I will tell you. Nasty! Makes my stomach turn a little just thinking about it. There is that, and the fact that cereal is a terribly boring breakfast so I don't drink milk then, I no longer eat Oreo cookies so I don't pour a big glass of milk for dipping purposes (my rear end thanks me), and well I don't know, I just don't drink milk.
I keep getting side tracked this morning. Back to the reason of switching for the kids.
As a parent, when you read various articles about children reaching puberty at younger ages and the correlation between that and various animal products that we consume it does make you stop and think about your own child reaching puberty at a young age. How terrifying! I look at young teenagers these days and am amazed at how grown up they look. I'm quite certain I didn't look like that when I was 14.
Mark discussed the possibility switching to chocolate soy milk with Jack, you know in order to prepare him. The kid is very particular about his morning sugar fix and let's just say if we happen to run out of chocolate syrup it isn't a good start to the day. So they have a conversation and Jack seems agreeable to trying soy milk, but he didn't ask why we were switching until this morning. I poured a small amount, not certain of whether or not he would like it (he doesn't like vanilla soy), but I tried it myself and it was delicious so I was optimistic. The kid loved it. This is the conversation that followed.
Jack - "You know Mommy, I think soy milk is more expensive and if we run out we will have to buy more and that will cost money."
Me - "Yes, this is true, but if we run out of chocolate syrup or cows milk we have to buy that too."
Jack - "Why do we have to drink soy milk?"
Me - (thinking...what is an appropriate amount of information for a 4 year old) "You know milk comes from cows right?"
Jack - "Yes."
Me - "Ok, well sometimes dairy farmers..."
Jack - "Wait. What is a dairy farmer?"
Me - "A dairy farmer has a lot of cows that produce milk and they bottle it up and sell it in the stores for people to buy."
Jack - "Ok."
Me - "So, sometimes the dairy farmers give the cows a medicine called steroids to help them produce more milk faster so that they will have more milk to sell in the stores. Buy doing so, the steroids are often passed into the milk and we all consume this when eating cereal or drinking chocolate milk."
Jack - "What do steroids do when you drink them?"
Me - "Well, they can make little boys and little girls grow up too quickly and mommies and daddies don't really like that."
Jack - "Why not? Does that mean I wouldn't be little anymore."
Me - "Yes, I guess you could say that."
Jack - "Don't you want me to get bigger?"
Me - "Yes, I do. I also want you to get bigger at the appropriate time and not before you should."
Jack - "Does that mean I would grow up fast and have to get a job?"
Now, I am thinking that would be really nice, you know the extra income and all. My gosh, farmers used to put their kids to work at a young age to help work on the farm. Maybe they had the right idea (kidding).
Me - "No, it doesn't mean that you would have to get a job, but it does mean that you might be taller than you should be."
I figured this was enough information. I wasn't prepared to discuss puberty with a four year old. Trust me, he would have asked me every question possible. He has already asked me how babies get in mommies tummies. In that instance I gave the standard, "well, that is where God put you until you are ready to be born."
Puberty and reproduction are a bit much at this age, but if kids continue to grow up so quickly I guess we will be giving them "the talk" at their fifth birthday party. It will be like, "surprise! let me explain over cake why you have hair armpits." Oh the travesty.
So for now, we will try soy milk as a starting point and we will see what else we have to eliminate. I would like to grow my own fruits and vegetables (pesticides and all), but for those of you that have been to the house know that my backyard might not accommodate that very well. Maybe I will add starting a community garden to my list (yeah right).
Happy Monday!
Amy
PS - the little lady just work up and when I waked into her room she said, "I not Derek." Umm, ok good to know.
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