Can you put granola in ice cream?

I’m a crunchy mom…I’m a hippie, tree hugging, granola mom.  Ok maybe I’m not that extreme but for some moms out there I would be considered a little different and here are three reasons why or at least the top three things people give me a funny look for:

1)    I breastfeed (tmi  maybe but I just don’t care anymore).  Someone asked me this once and when I said yes they looked at me funny and said I didn’t take you for the type.  I don’t know what that meant but I found it slightly insulting.  Admittedly this isn’t too extreme (none of these things are) but for some reason breastfeeding has become not the norm over the past decade.  Anyhoo, I decided while I was pregnant to at least give it a shot.  As with all other major decisions, I left my options open, meaning that I decided to try everything (except cloth diapers) and see how it went.  Well I was lucky to be able to breastfeed without too much trouble.  Abigail cooperated, I cooperated, it all worked out.  Well then the question arose of how long I was going to do it.  I decided to divide and conquer, a month at time.  Well I made it through the first six weeks which if you've ever done it then you know the first six weeks are the hardest.  so I set my goal to three months then six months.  Well it will be six months on the 19th and everything is still going very well so I have actually extended my goal to a full year (to be perfectly honest I’ve actually challenged myself to do it for a year).  This is the “extreme” part for some people.  They look at me and say “A year?!” as if that’s too long to breastfeed but it’s actually the American Association of Pediatrician’s recommendation.  Sidenote: the World Health Organization recommends two years. And trust me there are a great many women out there who do it for much longer, God bless ‘em.   I like breastfeeding. I like knowing that I am doing the best thing for my baby.   It’s hard, but I like it.  I like the time I get to spend with Abigail while doing it.  It’s her and me time, it’s time I get to just relax and cherish my baby girl.  It’s nice that no matter how crazy life is I know I get to spend quality time with her at the beginning and end of every day. (Pumping, on the other hand, sucks entirely.)  Selfishly though this has made my baby weight fall off like whoa.  I'm actually only a few pounds shy of pre baby Gretchen, eventhough I'm far from feeling like pre baby Gretchen.  It all evens out though becaue I am CONSTANTLY hungry, some days it's actually worse than when I was pregnant.  Abigail is eating more now and my body is working overtime to keep up with her, hence the two chocolate chip cookies I ate today and the ice cream i eat every day around 3pm...

2)      I make my own baby food.  Ok so apparently this is trendy now and we all know how trendy I am so of course I went out and bought the Baby Bullet and immediately began pureeing my own baby food.  So far so good, we are taking it slow.  Sweet potatoes were a bust, but pears, bananas, and avacados havee been a big hit.  I know exactly what Abigail is eating.  I like picking the best fruits or veggies and preparing them myself.  This way I know she’s getting organic and we’re not going broke while doing it.  It’s quite easy and actually fun…

3)      I’m an attachment parent type mom.  I don’t believe in the Ferber Method more popularly dubbed the “Cry it Out” Method or CIO. Don’t get me wrong, the thought’s crossed my mind several times and we even tried it for about three minutes once, then caved.  I believe in cuddling and holding and coddling and spoiling my baby girl until she can’t possibly be cuddled/coddled/spoiled any more.  I pick her up every time she cries and don’t put her down til she stops.  Abigail is not a “cryer” she's more of a "whiner," so I'll def. let her whine fof a few minutes but if she turns to crying then I pick kher up.  She cries when she's sick (who doens't) or when she's so extremely tired that she can't seem to sleep (still have trouble figuring that one out) but other than that she doesn’t really cry that much, maybe for a minute or two here or there but we’ve been really lucky with her.  So when she does actually cry I get upset too.   A piece of me crumbles when a little tear falls out of her little eye.  (Side note, did you know that babies don’t actually have tears until they’re like three months old.  When they do start to develop and you see one leave your baby’s eye it will break your heart.)  Now I say this knowing that my baby is just shy of six months old and there may come a time when she screams for attention.  At that point I will most definitely need to reassess our current parenting “method.”  Many people on the message board I participate in talk about how they are working on their babies sleeping through the night.  Well Abigail doesn’t do this yet and I’m not going to force her to.  She goes to bed at 7, sleeps til 6 and wakes up once to eat.  I’m good with that for now.  In my opinion if she wakes up then clearly something is wrong, ie she’s hungry or she needs a diaper change.  It’s the least we can do to take ten minutes to feed or change her.  Now in all honesty when I’m up at 3am feeding her I definitely consider “sleep training” much sooner.  But it’s working for now so we’ll reassess in a few months. And yes I am exhausted. This is all part of the “Winterer: I don’t know what the hell I’m doing so l’m gonna try this” Method the Joe and I have created.  I’ll be sure to expand on the specifics of this at another time, is actually pretty easy.

So really the only thing holding me back from being full on granola is my repulsion of cloth diapers (please don’t take this personally if you use them, more power to you) and the fact that instead of driving a Subuaru Outback I drive a gas guzzling SUV, but it’s a crossover SUV so I think that counts for something. Also I’ve recently started wearing my Danskos again that has to gain me some hippie points…

Alrighty well I’m pretty sure I’ve offended enough people today

*Note: I really dont mean to offend anyone or critique anyone's parenting method (ie cloth diapers,formula, etc.).  Different strokes for different folks and we all gotta make it through this parenting/baby thing the best way we see fit.  I'm in no way, shape, or form equipped to cast judgements on anyone :-)