Out On The Town...

This morning, I received an anonymous comment on my blog. It said: Does this child ever eat a meal at home?

That's all it said. I didn't know how to take this. An attack on my parenting? As if Paprika should spend more time at home? That I am a bad parent for not fixing her more home-cooked dinners?

I wish the commenter had left his or her name, because then I might get an idea whether this was a joke...or if it was for real. But I'll never know. For this reason, I have disabled all anonymous comments on my blog from now on. If someone has something to say, I want to know who it is!

Gosh, well, first of all, I want everyone to know that Paprika doesn't really eat the food in restaurants. We go out to restaurants primarily because she loves people watching. We live in a small apartment, and I don't want her sitting indoors all day watching television. No matter how much everyone tells me she'd love Noggin, we don't watch TV in our house.

When we leave the house each morning, I pack a healthy lunch and snacks for her in my huge bag. As anyone with a toddler knows, "meals" are a myth. At least for Paprika, eating is more a grazing activity.

Obviously, I care deeply about her nutrition. I breastfed her until she was two years old, and only stopped because I had to go to the hospital to deliver Vivian and Annemarie. She weaned in the four days I was gone.

I try to make Paprika's life as magical as possible. For us, this means lots of time together, lots of time at the park, at museums, out seeing the world, and very little time in our cramped home quarters. I feel really fortunate that we live in the type of place where every day we can go on an adventure, and every day we can explore new places together. Using the world as our classroom is a big priority to me.

But I do eat out a lot. It's true. Paprika sits with me and drinks water, and eats the snacks and lunch I bring for her. She is a really picky eater, and she much prefers my food to what is being served up when we go out. So, we plan ahead.

The truth is that I am 7 months pregnant. I am still grieving the loss of my twin daughters. I run an international support group for pregnancy and infant loss. My husband works, on average, 80 hours per week. I publish books in my spare time. And I make it a priority to be home with my daughter, and be there for her every second she needs me. I clean the house when she's sleeping. I do laundry during her naptime. The dishes get done after she goes to bed. When she's awake, I am available for her. So, yes, when I want to, when we're on the go- I go out to eat because I am pregnant, hungry, and I don't feel like going home to fix a meal for myself. Mr. Mustard gets catered meals at work...so there's no reason to stay home and cook meals for him.

That's our life! I'm so glad I got that off my chest! :-) And, in case the commenter is still wondering: Yes, Paprika does eat at home. Usually at least twice per day. I just usually don't blog about it! ;-)