There's an column in the Washington Post today that brings up a subject that is intriguing to me.

Fiona Mathews of the University of Exeter and her colleagues studied 740 women who were pregnant for the first time.The more calories they consumed in the year before they got pregnant the greater their chances of ending up with a boy. Fifty-six percent of the women who ate the most calories had boys compared to 45 percent of those who consumed the least, the researchers reported this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

When the researchers examined exactly what the women ate, those who tended to eat cereal for breakfast were the most likely to have a boy. That's right: A big bowl of cereal. Same goes for potassium and salt -- providing support for those old wives tales.

Since I have one daughter and one son, this made me try to think back about my eating habits prior to each of their conceptions.

We live in a college town and it is a great place to be raising our family. The university makes our small town have a multicultural feel that I love. In addition, we have the museums, science and arts ususally found in larger metros.

This time of year, however, it is all about March Madness in my hometown.  In my house, it is all about bonding over "our" team, the University of Kansas Jayhawks.  We watch the games as a family and I suspect it will be one of the things our kids remember fondly about growing up.  My son is a trivia king when it comes to his team and he can cite you chapter and verse about scores, final seconds and the players.

I never imagined that it would be this way.  

It was a long weekend.  DH came down with the flu on Thursday and went to bed.  By Sunday, I was tired of taking care of him and tired of taking care of everything else. I was counting up the four days he had been out of commission and thinking about the kids catching it from him.

Seriously getting grouchy, I fed the kids an appealing (not really) lunch of whatever leftovers I could dig out of the fridge. After noting a lack of fruit or veg, I sliced up an apple for them and retreated to the loft office upstairs.

Mostly I just sat up there, staring into space and listening to them talk to each other.  They get along pretty well but like most siblings, know exactly how to push each other's buttons.

My DS turned the converstation to eating habits. Neither kid is a picky eater, but his sister has a couple quirks that he likes to point out.