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Friday, August 17, 2007

Corn is not a vegetable

Andrew and I have this ongoing argument about whether corn is a vegetable or not. Oddly enough Wikipedia takes my side of the argument--I insist that corn is a grain. Therefore, I try to choose something green to go with our dinners, like peas. Peas are vegetables (although botanically fruits). Corn is a grain, good for making cereal with. You've heard of corn meal but I doubt you've heard of pea meal.

Well, Andrew got off work last night at 8:00, bringing him home around 8:30. Rachel and I had had a rough day, what with Rachel eating all day and then puking it up and then eating again and then...well, we were exhausted so when Andrew came home, Rachel and I were both just grumpy and there was no dinner for Andrew.

Being the wonderful husband that he is, he decided to make dinner for us. He put corn on the cob on to boil and started making some noodles. Then he thought he'd be a good boy and add some vegetables to our meal. He went into the freezer...pulled out the frozen corn (his favorite "vegetable") and then said...

"Oh, uhhh...I guess we'll be needing a different vegetable..."

Good idea. Corn and corn sounds a little boring to me, too. We ended up just having salad (with tomatoes) for our "vegetable."

By the time we finished dinner and I fed Rachel and she spat it up, it was 10:30. I had been trying to give her a soother (aka pacifier, aka "binky") throughout the day, but she hated it. That made me feel a lot better about her not taking me. Apparently she only likes breast shields and my index finger. I had talked to my mom earlier when I was going crazy and she said that Rachel might be teething already. David and I got teeth pretty early, so it is possible. And it would explain why she feels a constant need to gorge herself and then spit up so she can suck again.

In a desperate attempt to make a happy baby, we made a Wal-Mart run to get a different soother to try.

We grabbed some "Nuks" by Gerber and headed home to make some pacifier soup. We sterilized all the pacifiers and the breast shield in a frying pan because all of our pots were dirty.

No, we probably don't need this many pacifiers but they all come in two packs, so if you want to try a brand you end up with two...so now we have four.

She still doesn't like the soother, but she won't make a disgusted face and scream if you shove it in her mouth and hold it there (like she would for the soothie kind). I've been using it today to supplement her feedings (half an hour on each side every hour is a little excessive, don't you think?). She treats it kind of how children treat vegetables. She doesn't like it, but if I make her suck on it, she will.

Am I a nag or what? Andrew, eat your vegetables. Rachel, take your pacifier.

12 comments:

  1. My nutrition friend says that corn can be a vegetable. Nancy for people like me, you, and Susan, the nutritionist, who love vegetables corn is obviously a grain. For people like Andrew, Susan's hubby Bobby, and Ezra who despise all things green, spicy, chewy, whatever corn can be a vegetable because they need all the help they can get...although I'm sure even Susan would think corn and corn was excessive...good choice on the salad. Maybe Rachel has colic or acid reflux. Baby's can be a difficult beast to tame. Grace had/has a little lactose problem (I mean what do you expect with two lactose intollerant grandmas). She did so much better with her milk once she was eating cereal and vegetables...haha, I love the tie in...but I guess you are still a ways off from that. Good luck and keep up the good fight :)

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  2. Ah, but there IS such a thing as pea flour... (google it) Just as there is flour made of beans... which means that classifying something as a veg or grain based on whether you can make some kind of "meal" or "flour" out of it kinda falls apart. You can make meal (which is really just very coarse flour) or flour out of any seed that you can dry and grind into some degree of powder.

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  3. My favorite kind is salt flour, especially when it's mixed with that black pepper flour stuff.

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  4. Andrew I worry about your insides :)

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  5. Hahaha... note that I said seed... Does salt grow from a seed? I think not. Pepper, maybe. But we're talking about things classified as veg, grains, etc. Not spices. Keep trying, Andrew. At some point you'll catch up to my dizzying intellect. (Life. Don't talk to me about life. Brain the size of a universe.... ;) )

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  6. I like how Heidi took Andrew's side...and then he took mine. Awesome!

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  7. So I don't know why people always fuss over whether something is a vegetable or not... I mean, really, there is no such thing as a botanical class of "vegetables." There are fruits, legumes, grains, leaves, etc, etc, but there is no "vegetable" classification except what we throw into it.

    If you don't believe me, check wikipedia. :)

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  8. I am glad that my kids were not like that... I guess that is one good thing about formula fed babies... the blowouts are few and far between!

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  9. But at least breastfed baby poops smell better than formula-fed ones. :)

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  10. I don't know about you, but in Canada, we don't think Poop of any kind smells "better" . Especially when referring to one kind over another... weirdo!

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  11. Compared to solid-foods poop, breast milk poo virtually is scent-free. Ah, the good old days! I think the stench increases exponentially every month so that you'll be more inclined to potty train...seriously.

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  12. I still think all of it smells like crap so...

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