Right now Elle is developing at an enormously quick rate. She is extraordinarily happy but is definitely letting us know when she is not -- squinting her eyes to gear up for a fake cry or getting a little mad. It is incredible to watch these emotions, and seemingly many more, fly across her face. In addition to the emotions flying across her face, she often likes to hit her head in an "oh no" fashion when she is eating. We have absolutely no idea what this is about. Wilson and I certainly don't do this. And even though we are sometimes nervous that she is hurting herself, it is pretty cute to see her with the "doh" like expression.
She is also walking quite well while holding our hands and directing us into different rooms. For example, when she wakes up in the morning and if she doesn't see her dada (who is away for work), she directs me to walk into our bedroom to check if he is there. Sadly for both us, he was not.
She is also continuing to enjoy playing with other babies and kids, other 'little people.' She has a 2 year old friend who doesn't seem to mind when she grabs his hair and pulls as hard as she can. In fact, there have been a few wrestling sessions between them that she appears to be fully delighted by....
I admire how strong Elle is
as she discovers her body. This week, I am reporting on my own
"body" goal from Week 42. When I named this blog
series, I liked the acronym – “Baby, Aspirations, Body,
Exploration” but wasn’t thrilled about shortening the health and
fitness aspect to “Body”. For me, “Body” is the wrong
emphasis. I strive to focus on health and fitness. That said,
my body goal of eating at least 60 percent plants 5 days a week has only
occurred 1 week out of the past 4 weeks! Fail.
I am surprised by how hard
it is because I consider myself someone who loves fruits and vegetables.
I didn't realize a month ago how difficult it is to actually eat mostly
plants. Some of the difficulty has come from the large role that
proteins can play in a meal. Secondly, living in the Bahamas with
its food challenges of hardly any locally grown produce doesn't help.
Another difficulty is how I crave oatmeal or toast in the morning.
It is interesting because I often eat a large bowl of oatmeal filled with cut
up banana, apple, frozen berries, etc. And even though that seems
healthy, the meal isn't actually 60% plants. It is usually only 40%
plants... 60 oatmeal/40 plants.
So while I will continue to concentrate on eating more plants, I actually think that the quest for a “perfect” body is a quixotic quest because perfection is always moveable. This quest is also morally questionable because I don’t like the concept of placing certain bodies at a premium over other bodies. It also feeds into other troubling cultural and societal norms such as deriving an individual’s worth primarily from what they look like.
That said, focusing on a certain body outcome can provide a “stick” not to eat everything in sight. Our demographic is incredibly lucky to afford to buy food basically anywhere and everywhere. And the easy access makes it hard to resist the constant barrage of food. We live lives frequently tempted by thousands and thousands of empty calories. Those empty calories (and the non-empty ones) expand our waistlines and derail our health and fitness.
But the conclusion that I
am coming to is that I ultimately need to continue my reframing to focus on
vegetables and leave the body stick behind for many reasons. First and
foremost, I don’t want to pass along any negative and perverse messages about
body image to Elle. I want her to have the freedom to focus on her body as
a tool to experience the world and not an end to itself. The appearance of
“body” is such a small part of what health and fitness means.
Health and fitness is about calm, fun, strength, peace, longevity, and
joy. All the things that I want to pass along to Elle…
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| Cuddling/playing in the bath with Colby |
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