Cara Faus knew that something was wrong by the time her daughter was only four months old. Her baby wasn't making eye contact with anyone, ever, and still wasn't rolling over. Cara and her husband kept checking for baby developmental milestones in the coming months, and started to worry, but they also didn't want to be hasty: everyone knows that babies grow on their own timetables. They hoped that their daughter would soon begin developing more “typically,” or at least more happily, and acquire the skills that people take for granted in “normal” children, like playing.

by Starlene

I was slender for the first two decades of my life, even underweight as a child. Then I had my two sons in my mid-twenties and never got back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I thought at the time that having children had changed my metabolism. In looking back with what I've learned from GAPS, now I believe it was the birth control pills I was on for two or three years, and the four courses of antibiotics I'd taken in the year prior to becoming pregnant with my first son.

Dear Family,

We order cases of “Seventh Generation” toilet paper, partly because it's functional and recycled, partly out of habit (Jeff and I have been buying this brand for over a decade), and and partly because it's nice to only run out of toilet paper every few months. Also, because the wrapper features this great quote:

“In our every deliberation, we must
consider the impact of our decisions
on the next seven generations.”

--From the great law of the Iroquois Confederacy

Dear Family,

“Even if fifty million people say a foolish thing,
It is still a foolish thing.”
--Anatole France

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Jemmerisms:

We recently and belatedly removed the “child lock” on the under-sink cabinet in the bathroom. Jem watched, asked some questions to determine its function, and then said, “Why did we have that hook on the door for a LONG time? You shouldn't, 'cause I'm growing up fast.”

Running and sliding on the icy ground: “It's called SKIDDING!”

Out at night: “I'm really tall in my shadow.”

Dear Family,

I just finished Gary Taubes' latest book, "Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It." I cannot recommend it more highly--not because it's a "diet book" (which it isn't), and even if you think you have absolutely no interest in the topic of human weight gain/obesity.

Dear Family,

Some of you ask, “Why does this Diet take so friggin' long?” This is from the FAQs on Natasha Campbell-McBride's website gapsdiet.me:

“1. Why does it take so long to change the bacterial profile in the gut?

Dear Family,

Last week, I rhetorically asked the following questions: Why don't we all learn about Weston A. Price's research as soon as we can talk? And why don't we talk about the amazing health and societal differences he documented between Primitive and Modernized races? Why don't we talk about this with everyone we know, every DAY?!

One Alert Reader (as Dave Barry likes to say) offered some thoughtful answers:

This morning I was thinking:

1. When trying to affect gut flora, one is up against absolutely entrenched homeostasis.

2. Changing this, even in order to heal "mild" symptoms, takes a looooong time and a lot of faith, since as Natasha Campbell-McBride says, medical knowledge of the human gut "is in its infancy."

3. Dr. Campbell-McBride says that healing requires an average of 2-3 years of "hard work" while adhering strictly to the GAPS protocol.

Dear Family,

“'If only I had some grease I could fix some kind of a light,' Ma considered. 'We didn't lack for light when I was a girl, before this newfangled kerosene was ever heard of.'

“'That's so,' said Pa. 'These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraph and kerosene and coal stoves--they're good things to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.'”

--“The Long Winter,” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

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Jemmerisms:

Dear Family,

Jemmerisms:

Trying to open the kefir jar: “This lid is SO tight--it's frickin' JAMMED on!”

Standing outside on the boulder near the sandbox: “I'm the tip of the mountain! I'm gonna jump into the deep of the snow.”

Pondering the possibilities: “If I had extra arms, and cut off this [his head], I could carry it.”