Addison and I were at the playground today, and for a while we played in the dirt in the shade underneath the slides. We made all sorts of dishes: dirt oatmeal, dirt pies, dirt smoothies, dirt spaghetti. And then we ate it.
Just kidding, I didn't eat dirt. Addison did.
In the last couple of months, we've learned that Addison has a new favorite snack. It's called nature.
Although it makes Addison's Grammy dry heave (she's a notorious germophobe), Lindsay and I don't really have a problem with a little good clean dirt going into Addison's system. Sure, there's always the risk of the hantavirus, or maybe giardia, but then, just living life can be risky, right? We don't want our daughter to live in a bubble. In fact, I'd say that we might even have been mildly inclined to encourage the practice as an immune booster or as a way to really get in touch with the earth. If only Addison seemed like she needed encouragement.
Here's Addison, while on our vacation, licking her "ice cream cone."
Don't be fooled. It's actually a half-decayed pine cone.
And here she is, also on vacation, licking the ground. Nature walks seem like a great activity with a toddler, but we rarely make it very far, because Addison just wants to spend time communing with and consuming her earth mother. She plunges in her face like it's the tastiest thing she's ever encountered.
Yes, that sound at the end is her teeth cracking into pieces as she munches on rocks.
We might as well put dirt on the menu since at least it will fill her belly a little bit, and she rejects 95% of the other food we give her. I actually found her the other day, licking each finger individually after a nice long play in the flower garden. "Mmm," she said, rapturously. "Dirt so yummy."
Dirt so yummy.