What is Normal?

Joe's been going more and more au natural lately.  All the organic bath and cleaning products I use aren't good enough anymore- he makes his own concoctions out of coconut oil, peroxide, baking soda, and vinegar. He would go barefoot all day if he could.  He fights colds with raw garlic and cayenne pepper instead of nyquil like the rest of us.

 I usually find his crunchy habits pretty amusing, and enjoy hearing the science behind them.  Some of them I've actually embraced, like drinking raw milk and making our own kefir.   But things get a little heated when they involve the baby's health.  I happily breastfeed, and make her organic baby food from scratch, but I'm NOT going to put egg whites in her socks (Joe's idea) or spread coconut oil all over her, thank-you-very-much! 

The most emotional Sisi debate we've had is over formula.  I have plenty of breastmilk to meet her daily needs, but I don't have any extra to leave with babysitters on occasion.  Not a drop.  Trust me, I pumped 3 times yesterday (evening, middle of the night, and morning) to make a bottle for this weekend, and got maybe 1/6th an ounce. Barely a sip.  So frustrating! 

So I assumed we could supplement, on rare occasion, with Earth's Best Organic formula.  No biggie, right? 

Wrong.  Joe thinks some of the ingredients are questionable, and wants to make his own baby formula from scratch using this recipe.  A recipe that calls for rare ingredients that I know we can't procure and test out before this weekend.  After going back and forth about it, Joe agreed it would be ok to give Sisi the Earth's Best formula on rare occasions.  So I gave her 1 oz with her solids today, and I actually cried.  I felt so guilty and sad, like I'd failed. She is no longer an EBF baby.  I know, it's totally silly to feel this way, as millions of babies raised on formula turn out great.  Heck, I was a formula baby and I turned out alright (I think!)  I don't blame Joe for these feelings, since he is never forceful or stubborn about his opinions.  I blame mostly my perfectionism.

I watched Sisi carefully for any negative reactions to the formula, and guess what?  She still has 10 fingers and 10 toes.  I think we'll be alright :)

Back to the topic at hand.  The other day, when Joe was acting especially crunchy, I asked, "Do you do ANYTHING normal anymore?" 

And to that he responded, "What is normal?" 

Hmm, good question.  I guess I know how the typical American eats, how much TV he watches, and how little exercise he gets. Maybe normal isn't always a good thing.

And anyway, I didn't marry Joe because he was normal, I married him because he's passionate, intelligent, and not afraid to look like a weirdo sometimes.   Or a lot of the time :)