At their father's knee. What do doctors know? Progress on the war front – we may get one yet..

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This morning Grandpa Sasha and Grandma Nadia needed to get out for a doctor's appointment. Grandmother Nadia was nagging away at a furious rate, and Sasha was defending himself rather ineffectively. I pointed this out to Eddie as an example of the kind of thing to avoid.

I was making some cooked cereal for Zoriana.  I had the milk in the microwave and was about to add the dry cereal.  I can't remember the name of it – it looks like cream of wheat but I think it's made from manioc.  Anyhow, Oksana broke in to tell me I had the proportions wrong. She does that kind of thing quite frequently. Examples: The spinach I bought was too old. I have too much grease in the frying pan. I need to heat the milk before we give it to the kids.

Sometimes she is right. The question is, is the marginal improvement to the cooked product worth the cost of aggravating one's spouse? My answer is no. If I screw it up, which I sometimes do, the kids are not going to complain and we will have peace in the family.

I employ a number of stock phrases in such situations. "Let me make my own mistakes!" "If you want it done right, do it yourself!" "He who does all the work makes all the mistakes!" None of them have much effect. The most concise, pithiest is one from my military days. It is often on my mind but I haven't used it yet because it's a little bit crude. "Don't jump in my shгt."  Soldiers understand it implicitly. Unfortunately, wives generally don't. This one, two previous ones, and other men's as well. This was common material for comedy 50 years ago, though it is politically incorrect today.

And where did she learn to stick her oar in when it clearly isn't welcome? The answer is on display. Can I persuade my kids to learn from this? That's a good question. Oksana overheard as I tried to tell Eddie this morning. Oksana chimed in with the defense "That is how I grew up – just look!"  Obviously true. Now, can we look and learn?

On the subject of learning and superstitions, we discussed the necessity of avoiding salt altogether in 16-month-old Marianna's diet. I contended it was an old wives' tale. Oksana had heard from her mother and every other source that you could not give babies salt. We resolve to look it up.

I searched on "salt in a baby's diet." The first umpteen responses said that the baby should not have salt in their diet for the first six months to a year. These dicta were delivered in the same authoritative manner as pronunciamientos from Anthony Fauci. From on high, with no supporting evidence. About #20 in the list returned was a 15 page analysis of the situation by a registered nurse.

She had done some research.  Imagine! The guidelines date back to the 1940s. They are based on theory and educated guesses of the time and supported by small-scale studies.. Theory one was that a baby's mineral intake should match that of breast milk. Theory two was that a baby's immature kidneys could not excrete too much sodium.

Problem number one: the mineral content of breast milk varies by factors of ten or more, from mother to mother and over the period of lactation. There is no benchmark. Problem number two: the immature kidney theory could not be substantiated clinically.

Back in the 1950s the baby food companies – Gerber and Nestlé per my recollection, not this article –  pushed the idea that children should start on solid foods at about two months. This was about the time of the great Nestlé scandal of powdered baby formula being diluted with polluted water in Africa causing widespread deaths among infants. At any rate, the baby foods had high levels of salt in them. This made doctors concerned, and led to the formulation of the guideline that there should be no salt whatsoever. The baby food manufacturers, caring about profits, did what it took to ensure their continuation. They all took the salt out without asking questions.

So for two generations the people in white coats have been pontificating on the basis of old wives' tales and superstition that baby should have no salt in their diets. These wise men seem not to have noticed that generations of babies grew up quite well with breast milk until they were weaned, and thereafter whatever they could manage to chew of the food that the families were eating. Common sense had worked pretty well.

I hope I have struck a blow for common sense. We will see. A couple of blogs back I included a photograph of baby Marianna sitting on the table, noting that I disapproved of her being there and playing with the things she found. This morning I saw her sitting there toying with a porcelain mug and a bowl.  No! I went and retrieved the mug, but didn't want  to hear her complain about me taking away the bowl.  I left her to get bored with it while I swept up some nuts she had strewn on the floor. Not fast enough! She broke the bowl.

I hope it is clear that in this instance Father Knows Best. I don't think it'll make a bit of difference. But it is not worth the friction involved in making a point of it.

With regard to our war, somebody has obviously gotten to President Zelensky.  He is singing Washington's tune. The United States papers are full of maps of invasion routes and so on. They once again name the targets of the invasion as Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odessa and other major cities. They cite unimpeachable but anonymous intelligent sources. What is new?

I observe that Russia would feel an obligation to defend the People's Republics. I have never seen any reason why they would invade the rest of Ukraine. Not employing my own common sense, and not from what appears in the United States press. The only reason given seems to be a supposed – and often denied - grand desire to reestablish the Russian Empire or something like that. This morning's paper included a list of Ukraine's resources, as if Russia did not have quite a few of its own.

All well and good, but Ukraine does not want to be part of Russia. Russia knows that full well. They could easily conquer Ukraine but never adequately hold it. It would be even more of a headache than they had trying to hang onto Ukraine's Western oblasts in Soviet times. It makes no sense. But then again, in these times very little makes sense. It might happen anyhow.

So far as I can tell the fireworks at this point are in the two People's Republics, not Ukraine proper. To this naïve observer it looks like the provocations are not coming from the Russian side. But, in the fog of war – which many are of course counting on – who knows?

One benefit of this war is that I have heard from several people who had not been in contact for several years. I have invited you all to read this blog. If you are doing so, glad to have you! I know that our opinions have differed in the past. There is a lot of water under the bridge. My opinions have changed and perhaps yours as well. Please stick around.

That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong man sometimes sticks to his guns, the good looking woman is blessed with the uncommon gift of self understanding, the grandparents are oblivious, and the children are drinking it all in.

Graham