Breastfeeding a Toddler

Ahhh, nursing a toddler.  It's so quiet and calm and sweet.  Right?

 Hmm....until they start flapping their arms around.  Then it starts getting a little dangerous.

 Oh.  Right.

Toddle Along Tuesday: Favorite Firsts

One of the most exciting things about raising a baby is getting to experience their "firsts" with them.  The first smile, steps, word, laugh, song, etc.  Each one is so awesome to see, it really makes all the hard work worth it. Of course, I love all of those things listed above (and I think babies strategically plan that first smile for the exact moment that you are about to go absolutely insane from sleep deprivation), but here are a couple recent firsts in our family.
Everett: he now sings.  She started this in the past few months and it is absolutely adorable.  Especially the first time I heard him singing along to Adele in the car.  "Oooooh, no more has!  Oooooh, no more has!" (Rumor has it, of course.)
Everett has also recently become polite.  It nearly makes me cry every time he's so sweet.  On mother's day, he kept collecting flowers and would bring them to me, hug and kiss me, and say "happy mother's day!"  Last week, he had asked what day it was and then collected a flower, hugged and kissed me, and said, "happy Friday day!"  lol  This morning, he also told me, "thank you for making yummy food, mama."  swoon.

Callum: the new words and sounds every day are just hilarious.  The first time he imitated a chicken by himself=hilarity.  The other day, he pointed at the overhead light in our van as I was buckling him in, and said "ITE!"  Proud mama heart almost burst as I said, "yes baby!  That's a light!"
He can now run, but I'm not as proud of that because it means he's constantly falling down.  : /

Hanging out at the farm

AKA Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Auntie C was in town after her law school graduation, so we spent a lot of time over there visiting.
Plus, they got some new animals.  Three baby goats.

Callum likes herding them

And they like to follow Everett (except they got ahead of him here):

When goats get boring, there are always the chickens to visit:

And horses to sit on:

And donkeys to ride:

I didn't get as many pictures of poor Everett since I was walking beside him while he rode the donkey and he kept running off to do something else.  But they did both sit still for a second while dinner was cooking:

Oh hey, looky there!

I finally updated my blog look.

 Much more summery.

Annnnnd, I finally made a blog button!

 See? ----->

 That is all. :)

Toddle Along Tuesday - Things I'll Never Do

Every first time mom has a few things that they will "never do."  Being that for me, this was over three years ago, I'm having a hard time remembering what my gross misconceptions were....but I know I had them.  I think it's just natural that women plan what kind of mother they will be, not really understanding how hard it is doing this whole mom thing.  I'm sure I never thought I'd be as crunchy as I am.  That really evolved with having kids.  I blame natural childbirth and breastfeeding.  :)
I don't think I ever imagined I'd use cloth diapers.  I love those things.
I had no idea about baby wearing.  Do that too.
I do believe I thought that I wouldn't let my kids eat food in the grocery stores.  Thank goodness the co-op lets the kids get an apple/banana/carrot to munch on while shopping.
I do know that I swore my kids would never run around in just diapers.  There is currently a toddler running around in the cutest airplane diaper ever created (but cloth is WAY cuter and different than sposies).

I never thought that I would have to experience all out screaming tantrums in public.  Yeah.  Those are fun.

Jumping on the "Mom Enough" Bandwagon

I'm sure you've seen this week's cover of Time magazine.  I thought about posting, I changed my mind, then I changed it back again.  I don't really want to give them more attention for their obvious shock value cover, but I also want to get my two cents out there.

I haven't read the article since I don't get TIME magazine and probably never will, but based solely on this cover (which is what the world sees), here's what I think.

My first reaction was that I loved the picture.  While I never nursed a child that long, and personally don't think I would, I just thought it was a great picture of a devoted mama feeding her babe.  Who cares that he's 3 years old?  Apparently TIME magazine does.

Then we get to the actual words on the cover.  "Are you mom enough?"  Some might answer with a simple, "nope!", but that shouldn't have to be their answer.  Just because someone didn't nurse their child until he was in preschool does not make her any less of a mother.   And then we get to the calling of Attachment Parenting "extreme."  I do consider myself an attachment parent to some degree.  No, I am not at the farthest end of the "attached" spectrum, but I do babywear, cloth diaper, extended breastfeed, nurse on demand, and on and on.  Direct from Dr. Sears' website is this description of "attachment parenting": Attachment parenting is a style of caring for your infant that brings out the best in the baby and the best in the parents.  Attachment parenting implies first opening your mind and heart to the individual needs of your baby, and eventually you will develop the wisdom on how to make on-the-spot decisions on what works best for both you and your baby.
Does that sound "extreme" to you?  Because it's not.  Attachment parenting does not mean "you must do this" and "you must not do that."  It's a general view of life and parenting.  It means you pay attention to your baby and cater to its needs.  Just because I had Everett on a routine at 4 months old, does that mean I wasn't subscribing to attachment parenting?  No.  I learned that he was a happier baby on a routine, so that's what we did.  It wasn't for my benefit, it was for his.  And happy baby makes for a happy mama.

I could not imagine nursing Everett still and if I was, there most likely wouldn't be a Callum.  Everett had his last nursing the morning before we found out I was pregnant with Callum.  He had slowly weaned himself down to that point (yes, he DID wean HIMSELF) and we were both ready to be done.  I felt at peace with the decision.  I think that nursing him until he was 18 months old was perfect for both of us.

I'm still nursing Callum at 14 1/2 months with no plans to stop any time soon.  As long as he's interested, I will keep going (to some degree.  I have my personal age ceiling and that's my own business.).  No one can deny the health benefits of breastfeeding so of course I'm going to try to provide it for my baby as long as I am able.

So, TIME magazine.  Cut the crap.  Don't try to pit us mamas against each other.  We have enough guilt and judgement to deal with before you stuck your giant nose into our lives.

TAT: Bedtime Routine

This week's Toddle Along Tuesday is about bedtime routines.  We have a pretty set routine every night and if we forget a step, the boys let us know.  We try to get the bedtime thing going around 6:45 but sometimes it's not until 7 or so.  We typically have a pretty late dinner (6:15/6:30), so we're just finishing up dinner before bedtime.

Bath night (the boys don't get baths every day because they both have sensitive skin and are prone to eczema.  If they had a bath every day, it would dry out their skin too much.):
Everett picks out pajamas for himself and Callum while Brian or I get Callum undressed.  The boys play in the tub for about 10-15 minutes, sometimes they get their hair washed.
Getting out of the tub is always a fight.  We dry kicking/protesting boys off and get pajamas on.
Teeth brushing.  Callum usually takes this opportunity to grab his toothbrush and run away.  Sigh.  Chase the baby.
After they are pajama-ed and brushed, we settle into their room and sit on the floor.  I attempt to nurse Callum (sometimes he wants it, sometimes he doesn't) while Brian reads Everett 2-3 books.

There are many hugs and kisses in every direction.

Callum gets plopped into his crib with various stuffed animals, his sippy of water, all the nuks we can find, and his pillow/blanket.  He giggles and snuggles up with his stuffed giraffe.
Everett needs his Thomas blanket on first, then his comforter.  He also needs a water bottle on his headboard.  More hugs/kisses for him.
We turn on their sound machine, say "goodnight" and "I love you" and shut the door

On non-bath night, we just do pajamas, then teeth and the rest of the routine.

And if I'm lucky enough that they sleep in in the morning (I think that's happened twice), I get to find this in the morning: