Sunday, December 25, 2011

Very Merry Bottle?

In continuing with ideas about bottles... One thing that's popular during the holiday season is of course drinking. With the holiday parties and dinners, people are often very fond of putting in their two cents on drinking while pregnant. I'm not a heavy drinker, but I do enjoy the occasional glass of wine with dinner, or cocktail on those rare occasions when I go out. I will admit to finding it frustrating to have a conversation about the topic every time I either decide to drink a half a glass of wine (or not).

So I set out to at least make sure I educated myself. I read all manner of science articles and popular press articles. The bottom line is that most web sites geared towards pregnancy are very quick to say that the only thing that is safe is to have nothing at all. While I somewhat understand this approach because it is very difficult to say how much is "safe" when (most animal studies with negative effects have used high doses in very young animals), it strikes me as a bit like saying abstinence is the best safe sex policy (but of course that's a different conversation). One of the only articles I found that would actually say that some is ok is the one below.

Study OKs Some Wine During Pregnancy | Health News | News & Features | Wine Spectator

Of course it's up to every pregnant woman to decide for herself. Any thoughts from other people out there?

Regardless, a very Merry Christmas to those readers who celebrate and Happy Holidays to all!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Quick Observation

Whitney has started taking great pleasure chewing her food and then spitting it out. Sometimes dramatically. She does this with all kinds of food, even food I know she likes. Today's lunch was an amazing display of crushed peas, carrots and pasta that she managed to dump onto her seat and then sit on. Lovely.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Makeup

Makeup Makes Women Appear More Competent - Study - NYTimes.com

'via Blog this'

I read this article a little while ago, and I've been on and off thinking about it ever since. I don't wear makeup. Not a lot of people in the science world do, and the ones who do, often do it wrong. I've been toying with the idea of wearing some, just to see how it goes. But I'm torn. Am I just giving into the social norms that in many ways I've worked so hard to fight against (by being a woman and a scientist)? Or am I, by being more "feminine", contributing to breaking down those barriers by showing (hopefully) that you can be smart and wear makeup too? I think I'm going to come down on the side of wearing the tiniest bit of makeup (maybe some subtle eye shadow, a little concealer, and some tinted "chapstick"), but that's not my final decision and it would be great to hear what others think.