(no subject)
I got a package in the mail today: a case of gluten-free organic beef jerky. It's so much beef jerky that it came with a store display.
I feel like B is two years old all over again.
When he was little, he was also allergic to soy, so I weaned him to rice milk - which is really just calcium-fortified starch water - when he was 11 months old. I had been a vegetarian for ten years and very committed to not cooking or eating meat, but I also knew that lentils and starch water weren't enough for an 11 month old. His little tummy was too small, I reasoned, to hold enough bulk to get enough protein from his limited plant sources, so I made him meat. T made a special trip up the hill because he wanted to see me cook the meat. When it was cooked I ground it up in the food processor, mixed it with cooked rice or quinoa flakes, and froze it in ice cube trays.
He stopped wanting to eat mashed-up baby food at some point, maybe around the time he was two or three, so I switched to microwaving cubes of lamb for him and then cutting them up on his plate. He ate it every day. I was adamant about him eating it daily because I really felt like he wasn't going to get enough protein otherwise. I had spent years arguing that plant protein was plenty for a human diet, and then I spent years arguing with E that B had to eat meat daily. Once, I remember, when he was three or four, I rode my bike over to where they were in North Berkeley and threw the meat at her in our friends' front yard while screaming that he had to eat the meat every day.
At some point in the next couple of years, I dropped the meat entirely. He wanted meat as a treat, but I didn't think he needed it nutritionally.
He needs it now. The high school cross country workouts are brutal. They are running repeats up the steepest streets in the hills. They are going to two workouts a day next week. He's growing and adding muscle. So I got $150 worth of organic gluten-free beef jerky from FedEx ground. I promise not to throw it at anyone.
I feel like B is two years old all over again.
When he was little, he was also allergic to soy, so I weaned him to rice milk - which is really just calcium-fortified starch water - when he was 11 months old. I had been a vegetarian for ten years and very committed to not cooking or eating meat, but I also knew that lentils and starch water weren't enough for an 11 month old. His little tummy was too small, I reasoned, to hold enough bulk to get enough protein from his limited plant sources, so I made him meat. T made a special trip up the hill because he wanted to see me cook the meat. When it was cooked I ground it up in the food processor, mixed it with cooked rice or quinoa flakes, and froze it in ice cube trays.
He stopped wanting to eat mashed-up baby food at some point, maybe around the time he was two or three, so I switched to microwaving cubes of lamb for him and then cutting them up on his plate. He ate it every day. I was adamant about him eating it daily because I really felt like he wasn't going to get enough protein otherwise. I had spent years arguing that plant protein was plenty for a human diet, and then I spent years arguing with E that B had to eat meat daily. Once, I remember, when he was three or four, I rode my bike over to where they were in North Berkeley and threw the meat at her in our friends' front yard while screaming that he had to eat the meat every day.
At some point in the next couple of years, I dropped the meat entirely. He wanted meat as a treat, but I didn't think he needed it nutritionally.
He needs it now. The high school cross country workouts are brutal. They are running repeats up the steepest streets in the hills. They are going to two workouts a day next week. He's growing and adding muscle. So I got $150 worth of organic gluten-free beef jerky from FedEx ground. I promise not to throw it at anyone.