The internet: friend or foe?

The internet has become such a fabulous tool. A quick search on google will bring you more info than you could ever want, much faster and easier than going to a library and having to look stuff up in books. I laugh sometimes about what it'll be like one day telling D (or his kids) about way back in the day when we wrote with pencils and paper and looked stuff up in libraries, and "Mommy, what's a 'dewey decimal system'??"

At the same time, it can be pretty infuriating sometimes to try to get good info from the internet.

I've been trying to do research on dairy allergies. Our pediatrician recommended trying goat's and sheep's milk for me as good alternatives to cow's milk. I've found some sources that support this, but found plenty others who claim that often kids have reactions to ALL those kinds of milk (but does that mean if they had the milk directly, or passed on through breastmilk?). I keep finding sites that have the same initial vague information, but little more detail. And although I've found several places that suggest that most babies will outgrow this allergy by 6-12 months, I've also found many others that site 3-5 years of age to be when many outgrow it. I honestly haven't been that concerned, assuming he'd outgrow this by the time he's eating regular foods, but then to think of having to keep him off dairy till he's 3+ years old... that's depressing. That would basically mean no processed foods at all, ever (or at least very select few, as just about everything under the sun is made with milk or milk derivatives, or soy), until we're sure he's fine. I think I'll just continue not thinking about that possibility for a while.

And then there's the question of it I try to reintroduce milk slowly in a month or 2 (as some sites suggest), as it would be really really nice to be able to have it if he does seem ok with even small amounts after a time, but then there's also the risk that extra exposure would only make the allergy worse or make it stick around longer which I DON'T want. So I guess the thing to do there is to just stay away till I wean him. Which sucks (when pregnant Zach once offered to give up alcohol along with me, do you think it'd be fair to ask him to give up ice-cream?). But I guess that's just part of this whole parenting deal.

In other news, we may have hit a pretty big breakthrough with sleep recently. I don't want to say much about it as, of course, if I write about it then it'll stop. But if this keeps working I think it'll make all 3 of our lives much happier and easier, so here's hoping.

And in cute-Donovan-behavior news, our screen saver right now is slide show of pictures of D. Yesterday I was holding him near where the computer is and noticed him watching the slide show. He looked at the pictures of himself for a good 10+ minutes. Then later on Zach was watching some videos I've taken of D, and D started watching those, too! And then video D was making noises and real-life D started vocalizing, too, and it was as if he were talking to himself. It was adorable. =P Speaking of which, there's some new videos up on youtube, like this super incredibly adorable one of Zach dancing with D, and a couple of D in his new baby bouncer. Enjoy. =)