Riley Park with Davis and Evan

Well David came 2 days this week to visit Claire and I. Claire had a BLAST playing with her cousins! Here is Evan with a big sword! Watch out!

Here is Davis. He picked a tough face!

Here is Evan making his tough face! GRR!

They have a really cool slide that you can have races on at Riley Park! Claire LOVED the slides!

She wanted to try and climb up like Evan and Davis, but she needed a little help.

Claire couldn't get enough of up and down and up and down on the slides!

Davis climbing up the ladder on the equipment.

David pushing Claire in the baby swing. I LOVE this outfit! Thanks Kristin and David. :)

I decided I better get a picture with me in it at the park! Claire likes to smile when she does the "SO BIG" for pictures.

Thanks for reading my blog! Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

That Fun Place

My big brother David was watching our cousins Davis and Evan and brought the boys to Greenfield. We went to THAT FUN PLACE. Here is David riding the bumper cars. Davis looks on. He wasn't tall enough to ride :( Maybe next time!

Here is Evan posing in his bumper car! He's gonna run you over! Watch out! VROOM!

Here is a shot of Evan actually driving around the course. VROOM!

David had the most fun of all the kiddos out there, I'm sure! Here is a crash picture:

Here are Evan and Davis by the tiger on the blacklight mini-golf course.


Here is David being eating by a body-less shark randomly hanging out of the wall. CHOMP!

No more guitar-hero...it's GOLF-CLUB HERE! Davis is putting on the course.

Here is a shot of me with Claire in the stroller. Davis and Evan wanted a shot in the big shark jaws! CHOMP!

Here they are looking scared! WATCH OUT! THERE'S A SHARK! Claire is just looking around, trying to figure out what's going on!

Here is Claire enjoying some pizza. It's perfect for chewing and teething on! YUMMERS!

Evan, David, and Davis getting ready for some yummy pizza. They hand-toss their own pizzas here. It makes it worth going for lunch two days in a row.

They also have a huge indoor play place. Here is Davis in one of the tunnel windows.

Here is Evan behind the netting. David even crawled up in there! Claire was too scared to go!

She did walk around the toddler area a little bit, but preferred hanging out by Mommy, as usual.

Here is Davis coming out of the black slide. They had several enclosed slides. Whee!

Davis peers out of one of the tunnel windows. It's pretty high up there!

Making More Milk

So at the conference I found this cool book flyer for a book that's coming out. The book is coming out on Dec. 8 about MAKING MORE MILK. It's by Diana West and Lisa Marasco. http://www.makingmoremilk.com/ It will talk about
-how milk is made
-what's normal/what's not-supplementing w/o decreasing production
-maximizing the milk production in the first month (it takes 6 weeks to build a milk supply)
-causes of low milk production: management (pacifier use), infant, anatomical, hormonal, emotional
-how to make more milk: increasing milk removal, galactogogues which are herbs or foods to increase milk production (more than just fenugreek and oatmeal!)
-making more milk in special situations: working, exclusively pumping, premies, multiples, induced lactation-processing the emotional journey
-thinking about next time
OH...and it's by 2 lactation consultants and endorsed by LLL

In the US it seems like there's a huge group of people that "didn't make enough milk." So this book sounds really good!

Serenity Prayer

The serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and
supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
--Reinhold Niebuhr

I saw this post on CafeMom sort of using the serenity prayer:

"Women should not feel guilty if they are unable to breastfeed, but they should feel guilty if they are unwilling to do so, and they should be intellectually honest enough to know the difference." ---Elizabeth Gene

I think that's a great quote. I also feel that moms who cannot breastfeed for whatever reason will feel a sense of anguish or loss. Like the loss of their ideal birth experience...it's something that can't really be done over. (Yes, relactation is possible, but very hard and would require a lot of determination and support.) Whereas feeling a sense of guilt is more like a label for a misdemeanour or knowingly doing something wrong. But like I've often seen on message boards...people need to own their feelings. Nobody can make anybody feel anything. And you can change the way you feel. Just don't think about it or do something to change your feelings for the better. "Feelings are what you make them."

BPA is bad

http://blog.thenatureschild.com/2008/10/bpa-roundup-fdas-conflict-of-interest.html Good blog about what BPA is, and why it's bad!

Getting to know me

Welcome to the new 2008 edition of getting to know your family and friends. Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lame and spoil the fun. Change all the answers so that they apply to you.. Then send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person who sent it to you. Have fun and be truthful!

1. What is your occupation right now? SAHM
2. What color are your socks right now? bare feet. then i don't have to wash socks :)
3. What are you listening to right now? Claire playing. Ahh! Eee! Oooh! BANG! Ahh!
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Trader Joe's Everything Bagel with Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam. Yummiest breakfast evah!
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Not very well
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? my mom
7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yup
8. How old are you today? 28
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? anything with babies/kids
10. What is your favorite drink? water
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Sadly, yes. NEVER AGAIN!
12. Favorite food? Sketti
13. What is the last movie you watched? I can't remember
14. Favorite day of the year? Xmas Eve
15.. How do you vent anger? cry
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies
17. What is your favorite season? Summer
18. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries
19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Yup
20. Who is the most likely to respond? whomever is most bored/procrastinating
21. Who is least likely to respond? opposite of 20
22. Living arrangements? Husband and Baby in a house
23. When was the last time you cried? The night before last when Claire had been up from 2-4, and she wouldn't stop fussing, despite me trying everything. I decided to change her jammies in her room in case she was uncomfortable in that pair and stepped on a hard toy. Yikes!
24. What is on the floor of your closet? Junk
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to? not sending forwards as much anymore, posting them to the blog
26. What did you do last night? I had Josh watch Claire while I got my car washed, went to Walmart to pick up the 2 bags of groceries I had left there earlier. Stupid Cashier!
27. What are you most afraid of? A slow and painful death...fires...entrapment
28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Cheese, Cheese, Cheese…
29. Favorite dog breed? I hate dogs. Hate their smell and slobber and hair and neediness and all the poop that winds up in our yard even though we don't HAVE ONE! I'd rather pet a slithery snake.
30. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
31. How many states have you lived in? 2
32. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds!!
33. What is your favorite flower? Roses, Tulips, or Daisies

Mary Ann Cahill

Oh, so I lied. I'm not done yet for today. I forgot to post some of the key things Mary Ann Cahill said in her speech. "When a mother fails to breastfeed her baby, it breaks my heart. Because that Mother did NOT fail. Society failed." And society did not just fail her...it failed much broader than that. And it's sooo true.

It does break my heart to hear of a mother who wanted to and tried to nurse, but could not for whatever reason. I've heard it compared to impotency in men. Something other women can do. Should do. Have no problem doing. (Cahill did not mention that...she's in her 80s...so perhaps more reserved than modern-day LLL gals.) I have seen over and over again in various articles that fewer than 1% of women TRULY cannot nurse. The problem is inadequate support, education, or environment. And they think they can't make enough milk or something is wrong or the doctor gave them bad advice...and...and...and...

Husbands or family members that don't support it...So I was looking for the article where I read that 1% number and found this http://breastfeeding.org/info/EmergencyBreastfeeding.html It's pretty interesting. I feel like the more I read, the more I learn, but the more I realize overall that I don't know. Now who reads all my links besides my mom? :)

Yeah, a society that has 6 week maternity leaves (IF you're lucky) is not very breastfeeding-friendly. Our culture sucks at supporting families. And it breaks my heart.

LLL Conference

This past Saturday, I attended the Ohio LLL conference. It's the 50th anniversary! How fun is that http://www.lllohio.org/conference.html Claire came with of course! My mom drove both ways (yay!) so I got to doze in the backseat next to Claire. We got up early on Saturday and headed to Columbus, which is only about 2 hours away.

The morning kicked off with a Keynote Speech by Mary Ann Cahill, one of the 7 women who founded LLL. I like history, so I was very interested in what she had to say. She has a new book out about the history of LLL. I just might have to buy it at the Indiana conference that's coming up. http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Voices-Dream-Mary-Cahill/dp/0912500875 Her speech was really inspirational. She talked about her personal history. She talked about her first birth. She tried breastfeeding her first one. The nurses would only bring the baby every 4 hours. Can you imagine? Nowadays we know the best thing to do is feed that baby 24/7!

And a few weeks later, Mary Ann Cahill brought the baby to the doctor for a rash, and he said she had to stop breastfeeding and give formula! I think it's amazing that she went on to help found LLL. She said she tried to unwrap the blanket of her first baby in the hospital and the nurse yelled at her that she wasn't allowed to. I can't imagine not being able to look at my baby or even keep the baby in the room with me whenever I wanted to! Of course there were all types of birthing and breastfeeding experiences across the board, just like there are now. It's nice that women have gone from helpless victims to active participants in birthing their babies.

So then the rest of the day was divided into 4 sessions. The first one I went to was on what to expect from a developing one to three year old as far as language and physical skills. Basically they should have 3 definite words by 18 months and be able to walk by 2. So I guess we're good to go. Yay.

The second session I went to was with Mary Ann Cahill. It was similar to a regular LLL meeting. She said she wanted to just listen to our ideas. She wanted to know what LLL could do to help more mothers initiate and continue breastfeeding. Valid points were brought up all around. Someone suggested publishing a manual on the function of the breasts, much like the pamphlets that are given out about the function of the female reproduction system. I also think it would be a great idea to publish a book on a 4-5th grade reading level on pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and parenting. I know when I was teaching English, I had 10 kids drop out. TEN. Three of whom were preggers. All three of them had low reading levels, with the lowest being second grade reading level. She was actually labeled "mild"--to those non-teachers that's mildly retarded. You would never know it though. She was fine holding a conversation and looked normal. She just couldn't read or do math very well. Other good ideas--train OBs better as to breastfeeding and catch the women while they are pregnant. Once the baby is born it's too late.

The third session Claire and I went to was on Tandem Nursing. It was called "Everyone on My Lap." I basically went out of sheer curiosity. I know I've run across a couple people now that didn't know you could tandem nurse. I guess I am somewhat of an anomaly as I was half of what they would call a "tandem set." A tandem set would be 2 children who nursed at the same time. This doesn't actually mean that they were nursed one on each breast, at the same session, but during the same overlap of calendar months. My older brother David was only 18 months old when I was born. So my mom "tandemed" or nursed both David and I for 9 more months! It talked about common myths surrounding nursing while pregnant or tandem nursing. Basically they said that "back in the day" that people thought it would harm the fetus. Wrong. Or that the older child would get sick from the colostrum (newborn milk) which is also wrong. Colostrum is a laxative (moreso than regular breastmilk), so the older child will return to newborn runny poops for a few days until the colostrum is replaced by milk.

The last session I attended was on the "Perils of Praise" which is a bad title IMHO. Basically it just said you should use constructive praise. Instead of just saying, "Wow, You are so smart!" The parent should say WHY. "Wow, You did a great job coloring with lots of bright colors!" Basically the same goes for criticism. Instead of "You suck! You are stupid!" You should tell your child what they did wrong and how to fix it. "Your room isn't clean yet, you still have a lot of work to do."

My mom went to a session on the "Joys of Grandparenting" and got an idea for "Camp Grandma!" She also went to "Herbs and Homeopathy" and one on communication. She shared with me some of the cool stuff that was said. There were so many good sessions going on that I had a hard time picking which ones to attend. I feel like I learned A LOT in one day. It was also great to meet other moms and see all the other little babies. And Claire had a blast!

I also tried on some new slings/wraps/carriers and got 2 new free BPA-free sippy cups. Yay! I also got Claire some cool new books!

I hesitated to order them online in the past because I like to read the whole story first. But I guess you can't do that with adult books either. LOL!

I got her:

1. http://www.amazon.com/Mamas-Milk-Mama-Me-Alimenta/dp/1582462453/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224723748&sr=8-1

...because she likes animals and this has a ton of animals in it! Also are a lot of cool facts like Baby Elephants nurse 2-5 years and Foals nurse every 30 minutes!

2. http://www.amazon.com/We-Like-Nurse-Chia-Martin/dp/0934252459/ref=pd_sim_b_2 ...because we call Claire our little Panda and Pandas are featured! Plus this one has a lot of more tropical animals like giraffes...

3. http://www.amazon.com/Made-Mamas-Milk-Mary-Olsen/dp/0971537402/ref=pd_sim_b_2 ...because the story is so cute! The pictures are slightly 70ish, but at the same time hilarious ;)

I cut myself off at three for her. But they had a gazillion children's books, several on nursing related topics since, well it was a LLL conference. I like the nursing animal books because I think it's goofy to see animals bottle-feeding their baby animals in books (like that's possible)...well I guess that they can't talk either, but that's not my point!

My point is that bottle-feeding images are too prevalent in society. Yes, they may contain breastmilk, but usually not. See the book Claire is holding above? It was from the United Way Success by 6 Campaign. http://www.successbysixindy.org/ It has sentences on each page like, "Babies need love." "Babies need clothes." Then it says "Babies need bottles." Josh laughed when he read it and goes, "Did this page make you bristle?" What a good word. Bristle. Yes, it did. I think I'll glue a picture of me nursing Claire over it and write "Babies need nummies."

Because it's not just about the milk. It's about the comfort and the bonding and the way of mothering. Breast is best. :) End of breast-post for today!

Outings with Oma!

My mom came down this past weekend on Friday! Yay! We had fun! Claire loves paper. For the most part, she has stopped gnawing on books. I think that's because I discovered her THIRD one year old molar coming in on the top!!! So she's going to have a mouth full of teeth before we know it. She loves paper! She loves to just sit and turn and flip through pages. I actually can't remember the last time she ripped any pages so hopefully we are done with that stage in baby-life!





We went to Riley Park with my mom here in Greenfield. The weather couldn't have been
better! It was a perfect fall day. Claire has had issues with the swings in the past, but she did really good today! No crying!



Claire loved the slides! She must have gone about 50 times. Mommy and Oma both helped her go several times! She also had fun climbing up onto the equipment, but I went with her as she has no sense of danger of falling, yet...I read someplace that kids do not fully develop depth-perception until about 8, which is why kids fall all the time!


On Friday, we also went to the library to show Oma the fishies and the huge play area they have. Claire enjoyed showing Oma how much she loves the puzzles. Lately there have been a lot of big kids hogging the puzzle areas, but there were only 2 other kids there when we went Friday afternoon!

We also went to Marsh to get a few groceries, and Claire was able to ride in one of the "CAR" grocery carts. It's basically a cart with a car attached to the front, with 2 little seatbelts and 2 steering wheels. They are usually always taken when I go shopping in the mornings. I guess if you have more than 1 kid, it's really the best way to keep slightly older kids contained. And they only have 2 of them! Anyways, she had a ball. She enjoyed grabbing some stuff off the lower shelves and swiped a card in the card aisle. She loves cards because they are paper!

Our Little Giggle Girl

My mom came to visit this weekend! We went to the LLL conference in Ohio near Columbus. It's crazy that it's only 2 hours from here. It's about the same distance from here to there as it was from here to North Manchester. Anyhow, we decided to put all the videos that were on my mom's flip camera on our machines. So here is a delightful video from sometime in September. I'm not sure which wedding it was after...I think Sonja's as Claire's dressed in very light PJs. We are in my parents bedroom: