Cold Water

The other day some visiting students got to observe a baby feeding session. They thought it was hugely interesting and took tons of pictures and video. They laughed as Juliana lunged eagerly for the spoon and helped smear food all over her face, bib, hands, her clothes, my clothes...pretty much anything in the surrounding two foot danger zone. After she was done eating, I gave her the bottle sitting out on the table so she could drink/play with the water inside.

The students were shocked: “You are giving her cold water??” In all fairness, the water was room-temperature, but most Chinese consider anything cooler than steaming-hot to be cold water. And drinking cold water is as big a taboo as say, not wearing long underwear in November. And for a baby!

I reminded them that crazy foreigners often drink cold water and will even give it to their children. I know they hear these things, but I'm not sure they really understand. I should probably explain in greater depth.

“Crazy foreigners drink cold water pretty much all the time. They actually add ice to perfectly good water to make it even colder. They never or hardly ever drink hot water, except in the form of coffee or tea or hot chocolate. But plain hot water? Warm coke? They just don't do it. Even in the wintertime people drink cold water.

Children drink cold water. Old people drink cold water. Sick people drink cold water. Pregnant people drink cold water. People who have just had a baby drink cold water. And sometimes, even people's babies drink cold water.”

I should tell them all that but and maybe they would understand a little better. But probably they would either think, “I can't actually believe that. It's just too crazy,” or they would think, “This explains a lot about foreigner's crazy behavior...the cold water has gone to their brains!!”

In other news, I am jealous of you if

• You ever sleep for more than 2 hours sleep at any given time
• You get up less than 5 times a night
• You don't have to go to bed before 9pm in order to get enough sleep
• You have had a good night's sleep in the past eight months
• You bought Girl Scout cookies (unrelated, but they sure are good...)

I am not jealous of you if

• Your baby wakes you up every half hour
• You are in your last three weeks of pregnancy and so uncomfortable you can't sleep at all
• You are being tortured by means of sleep deprivation, because not only are you sleep deprived, you are also being tortured, and that can't be fun
• You are currently in a long-term coma and sleep all the time (ok, a little jealous)