The latest goings-on with Katie

Katie had her 15-month well-baby appointment Thursday morning. She's 31 inches tall, and weighs 21 pounds. There's no health concerns, although I told the doctor that she's a pretty picky eater. As a result, we now have a list of ways to increase her caloric intake- as Dr. Norman said, it's basically anything we wish we could eat. We have the doctor's permission to put as much cheese and butter on her food, to fry her vegetables, and to even let her drink cream instead of whole milk. I'm not kidding. Heavy cream.

We're not giving her cream, but we will start adding half-and-half to her milk. The only reason I brought up her eating habits to the doctor was because we've noticed that she's a little crankier than usual and for a spell, woke up at night. It could be related to the teeth that were coming in, and she's plenty active- still pooping and peeing just fine. But we know that Katie only gets truly cranky when she's hungry...but she only reliably eats fruit and drinks her milk.

Also, her teacher gave us a handout that explains how to handle picky eaters, and this reading and the doctor both agree that Katie has to be in control of her eating. We can't make a big deal of what or if she eats. And, she has to eat because she wants to, not because it makes us happy. We've also been instructed that meal time has to end promptly when she begins to fool around- which we normally do anyways- to teach her to respect meal time. This is probably the area I'm most to blame for, because I've typically let her play with her food if she wants.

But, our life in Iowa is winding down- there's only five weeks til we move. We won't have to put Katie in day care right away in Texas, but I've realized that her school has spoiled me. It's going to be hard to find a place that's as wonderful. Katie's teacher arrives at 9 am, and we get there most days a little before. I notice that Katie looks for Jessie, her teacher, when she isn't there yet. The other morning, I dropped Katie off right around the time Jessie was walking into their room, and all the kids rushed her to say hi. They love her and she's the one person Katie will go to easily when we drop her off.

That's leads to one last thought: say and think what you will about women leaving the home to work, but the difficulty working parents have in finding good child care is appalling. Full time child care is essential for Eric and I to get our work done, yet the monthly cost for day care for a child Katie's age is astronomical. If I had ever thought that I would want to be a stay-at-home mother, I should not have started my PhD because it's landed us deeply in debt and it would be a waste on my intellectual investment to just give up on my work...so no matter what, it's not an option. It just isn't.

But one thing I've been reading for my dissertation proposal argues that the family unit is the key economic unit in a capitalist society, although it is hardly ever viewed as such. It's the family that makes the biggest investment in human capital, and therefore, for society to be healthy, we need to make an investment in nurturing child caregivers- regardless if it's mothers or early childhood teachers. As it stands, caring for children is devalued in our society, even if it's done solely by the child's mother. But since so few parents can afford to stay at home to raise their children- and the U.S. is one of the few developed countries that does not offer paid maternity in some form- it is nearly impossible to expect one parent to leave the workforce. Yet, we are in dire need of a healthy, productive work force (although it sucks that humans are defined by their productivity). That's something to think about.