Category: The Life of Lara

It’s all here. Adventures in extreme knitting, the house of poop, and suburban permaculture. You may also find rants about politics, ecology, humanitarianism, responsible living, toe floss, and other topics not covered here. Expect profanity and irreverence. You have been warned.

A new way to get the kid to giggle

The Theme to the “Muddy Mudskipper Show” from Ren & Stimpy.

Who’s the greatest mudskipper of them all?
Who can skip thru the mud with the greatest of ease?
What kind of wonderful guy?
Who can crawl like a dog without scraping his knees?
Who’s got seg-ment-ed eyes?
It’s Muddy Mud-Skipper!
It’s Muddy!
Mud-Skipper
It’s the Muddy!
Mm-ud Ski-pper show!!

So far, his favourite songs are “The Philosopher’s Song“, “Galumph Went the Little Green Frog”, and “Happy Together”. Happy Together was the song that Mark sang to me as I walked up the steps of the Rotunda at Observatory Hill to get married, so it’s special to both of us. The Philosopher’s Song has always been a great favourite of mine. It may not be orthodox to introduce the kid to a drinking song at such a tender age, but it should do wonders for his curiosity about the history of philosophy when he is of an age.

And we’ve been able to calm him when he is having a fit of pique since he was about six weeks old by singing a rousing chorus or two, so I think a little philosophy won’t do any harm.

2.3kg

That’s how much less fat I had on this saturday than I had last saturday!

And I was feeling really good about that until my friend and WW support buddy told me that she had lost 4.3kg.  She is clearly a legend,but I am still impressed with myself.

And while we’re on the subject of weight, the kid is 9.7kg as of last Thursday.  And the head is back above the 97th percentile.

Stupidity

The Australian reports that being vegetarian is cheaper and greener, but “dieticians urge caution with the study, produced by the manufacturer Sanitarium, which is owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, saying going meat-free is not necessarily better“.

The CSIRO Total Wellbeing diet was funded by the meat industry, so I suppose they have to attack vegetarian diets just to be balanced 😉 

In all my years of vegetarian living, the only health professionals that have questioned my diet have worried about my knowledge of nutrition, and my ability to eat a balanced diet that includes non-haem iron, and combine it with vitamin C so that I can metabolise it correctly.

To be fair, it is a little harder to have a balanced vegetarian diet, because you have to think about what you are eating more than your standard omnivore. But anyone who does give that extra bit of thought to their diet is likely to have a better diet than someone who eats an unexamined diet. 

It stands to reason that a thought out vegetarian diet would be healthier than an “anything goes” omnivorous diet, no?

My life is being closely examined right now, and the diet is under a microscope.  Weight Watchers have given me 32 “points” to eat every day, and I haven’t had more than 28 in a single day so far.  And I don’t feel hungry.  I wonder if I’ll have a loss this week?

PS. Just found out about a new book examining the source of our food. I have read “The Ethics of What We Eat” by Peter Singer, but that was written from an American perspective.

How good am I?

I took the kid to “big kid” playgroup this morning, and then off to the pool for water aerobics. I only got to do about half of the class, because Inigo wasn’t happy sitting beside the pool, and when I got him in the water I was worried about him getting too cold. The water is heated, but the wind was quite chilly.

So that’s two classes in one week. Hopefully I’ll make it on Friday as well – as long as it’s not cold!

Crawling?

Inigo is nearly 11 months old, and all the kids we know around the same age are already crawling. Even William, who is 2 months younger than Inigo started to crawl last week.

I’m not in the least bit worried, he’s still completely within the normal range, and my gorgeous nephew Alex didn’t crawl till he was almost one.

Inigo is confidently picking up food and shoving it into his mouth, he’s waving, he’s babbling, he’s engaging – he’s on or ahead of the curve in most things, so I’m confident that there isn’t anything to worry about.

You can see forward motion, but it’s not exactly orthodox…

Wii Fit

For a while now I’ve been thinking that eBay is not good value. With the exception of my gorgeous new backpack, of course.

When I decided to buy a Bumbo a few months ago, I looked on eBay, and found they were going for between $40-$50, and considering the recommended retail price is about $90, that’s not too bad. But then I found one on special for $48 at Big W.

So Mark and I are thinking about getting a Wii Fit at some point, but I had no idea what they cost. A quick google found one on eBay with a current bid of $122.50 + $20 postage, another one for “buy it now” $159.95 + $24.95 postage. Big W has them on special this week for $124.

So now I just have to decide if I’ll use it, or if I’ll be better off not going to the gym than not using the wii fit 😛