Give Peas a Chance

Here is the lil' dude Going Green by eating her organic sweet peas last night.

No, we're not that type of family. Unfortunately. Or fortunately, I can't decide how I feel about the subject yet. She is eating organic peas in this picture because the spot on the shelf where there should have been Gerber's regular non-organic peas was empty and Mama wanted to buy some peas without having to go to another grocery store.
Anyways, it's Earth Day today, and the going green and organic movement is in full force so it just has me thinking about raising a baby in 2008.

I guess if the Dad and I had decided to raise the lil' dude in an organic environment, it should've started with my pregnancy. And it did not. At all. I'm talking almost daily ICEE's in bright red and blue, Hunt's canned spaghetti sauce (again daily), and plain M&M's. Yes, I took care of myself, but not in the organic sense. And the 31.5 hours of the lil' dude's labor and delivery were not experienced sans drugs. There were copious amounts of wonderful drugs.

The folks behind this organic trend are sm-aaaaart. So smart. The trendy simple packaging is so appealing to a marketing junkie like me. The clean, simple look to everything they make for babies has an allure . . . I can't describe it, but I know I want to run my hand across the whole end-cap of the aisle at Target where they have their organic product line displayed. Today, I discovered Gerber even debuted a line of organic baby clothing. Old Navy has a line too. So I can't say I can't find items at my normal shopping locations because I can. So why don't I?

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, or straight up lazy. Or trying to recession-alize my spending. I fell in love with a handmade stuffed elephant last weekend, but shoved it back onto the shelf when I peeked at its tag and it read $55.
I can get off the hook without much effort and say, "when I was a kid, there wasn't anything organic besides my grandma's vegetable garden," and I turned out fine. My mom used cloth diapers on both my brother and I, howevs. It wasn't trendy then though, my mom said the disposable diapers of yesterday weighed 13 pounds a piece and leaked like a sieve. That's like a whole other baby.
The lil' dude uses Pampers Swaddlers because that is what we chose from the get-go. The daycare lady said she would gladly use cloth diapers if we chose to go that route. And now, they make the most ridiculously cute cloth diaper covers ever . . . it was hard for me to resist ordering the pink camo and skulls ones just because. But, we throw our kid's diapers into the trash.

And, Gerber makes organic baby food. I can't even think if there was a price difference. If there was, it was pennies. Yet, I chose the non-organic flavs. Maybe there is a direct correlation between organically-fed children and their superior health. Maybe there is a direct correlation between organically-fed children and their higher instances of allergies and illness . . . pick up a book or Google it and believe what you want.

What if, when the lil' dude goes on a playdate or to preschool and has to bring a treat, she is the outcast for being the only little who eats non-organic food? What if it is the other way around? Maybe by then Keebler Elf cookies will only be organic. (Keebler cookies? Absolutely. And, our house watches TV too, lots of TV.)

I am not saying our house is anti-green. I wash clothes in cold water. We recycle. I have reusable grocery bags. We unplug things. I reuse the "Take and Toss" spoons the lil' dude eats her cereal with. I'm growing some veggies this summer. I try not to love Clorox Wipes and Swiffers and paper towels and Huggies Disposable Washcloths and my 11 magazine subscriptions too much . . . but, it's a throw-away world and convenience trumps practical sometimes.

Here's the lil' dude playing in non-organic bubbles.



When she gets a little older, and starts exploring her world, she'll try to eat things she is not supposed to. Like dirt. And bugs, and leaves off my Croton plant. Then, we'll sponge-paint her a onesie which reads, "Organic Baby: I Eat Dirt" and we'll live happily ever after.