thoughts about breastfeeding

i rarely use this blog as a place to state my opinion or debate a topic, and with the continual battle to keep my photos up to date, it doesn't exactly seem i have time. but, i do hope that will change- not to force my ideas down your throat but to give you something to think about and maybe sit down long enough to form your own thoughts on the matter. as joanna recently wrote, as a mother, it seems as if "my brain is out of practice." so, why not give us all a chance to work on that. 

then, laura posted this. the topic is breastfeeding and the question is it acceptable in public?

now, as she states, tennessee protects the rights of a breastfeeding mother for children up to the age of 12 months. so, obviously, the state has regulations in place for those of us who have breastfed in public, but we have all heard stories of people who have been asked to stop or cover up or move. so, i believe the question is more do we accept it? 

i know before i had children and i saw people nursing their own, i had opinions. if they were modest, my thoughts were usually that they were different, natural, family bed practicing, extremists. if they were not, i thought-gross, cover up! then, when pregnant with carter i took a child birthing class and read what to expect and did research on everything from bottles to carseats. after all of my research, i thought breastmilk is supposed to be superior to formula, breastmilk is free, and if God gave me this ability to feed my child, why not at least try. so, with no experience or experienced friends and a couple of grandmothers to be who had their own stories of what they were told was appropriate, i leapt into the world of breastfeeding. was it easy? uh, no! in fact, it was one of the most difficult, nerve racking things i have ever accomplished. i thought i was doing it all wrong, i thought carter was starving (turned out she was) and i thought is it all worth it? after a trip to a lactation consultant who corrected our starvation issue and reassured me with her extreme stories and statistics, i decided to keep trying. if it hadn't been for my pediatrician who gave me great reasons to continue each step of the way, i don't know that i would have made it that first year, but we did and it made the second go around even easier. 

why do i write all this to you? because, i know that almost every single person who checks this blog has at least tried nursing your baby. you know it is the most natural and the most unnatural experience you have ever had. you know it is the scariest thing in the world to just accept that your child is getting enough milk. you know it is painful, painful and even more painful. many of you also know it is a very rewarding experience to bond with your baby in such a manner. you know it is an absolute miracle that God created our bodies to provide for our children until they are able to consume food in the same manner that we do. you know that it is free (doesn't cost a thing), convenient (always available and you never leave home without it), great for your figure (the babies are longer and leaner for life and mommies lose their weight either during or after), and has amazing medical qualities (including lowering the risk of several cancers!) so why in the world do we all have some sort of hinderance in accepting it in a public setting?

so, girls, i ask you to go to laura's post and read- read the post, read the article, read the comments from the article and the post and then think about it yourself. then, if you wish, create your own comment about it and post it either here or there. even if you don't typically comment, most of you will have a thought or two after this. and, many of you are thinking, i don't have time for all this-seriously, this is what we all do when we put our kids down to sit and destress from the day. so, enjoy and put your brain to work!

sprinkler park 05.29

the first week without school was full of lots of activities. on monday, daddy was home for the holiday; on tuesday, we went to our favorite storytime (pictures of the girls are on emily's facebook page); on wednesday, we hung out with meme & papaw; on thursday, we went to the sprinkler park for the first time of the season; & on friday, we hung out at the italian fest. whew-i am tired just typing all of it! 

here we are at the sprinkler park with several mommies & girls from the 4s pod at school.

carter:

amelia-she had so much fun in the water. i loved taking action shots of her!

emma-how cute is she!

claire saying "cheese"!

miller finds another use for his yankee hat:

how sweet! carter & amelia share a snack:

miller & his towel. he then proceeded to sit next to avery and steal all their food. what a little mooch! (some how i did not manage to get a single picture of avery that was in focus-sorry, girls!)

memorial day 05.26

everyone loves a holiday because it means josh is off! on memorial day we did a little shopping including a new blow up pool for the summer. after naps, we blew it up and the kids had a blast!

another trip to the zoo 05.25

memorial day weekend we took a trip to the zoo with jennifer & avery (david was at a conference in london). the craziest part was driving in one car. we always joke that we should carpool and with the cost of gas, we may have to in the fall. so on this particular venture, we decided to put three britax car seats across the middle row of our expedition-that is what we should have taken a picture of. the kids loved it. anyway . . . back to the zoo-we had a blast even though it was hot and sticky.

miller loved the butterfly exhibit and we had to pull him out of the flower beds as he chased them through the garden.

miller was also fascinated with the elephants this trip-just look at his face!

ballet recital 05.16

this year, carter asked to take ballet (we also signed her up for gymnastics). after much searching, we decided to take at ms.pat's school of dance in cordova. we had many school friends in other classes, one of my past parents is a current teacher, many of my past and present students are also students there, etc. also, they have a very similar philosophy to teaching ballet that hope does to teaching preschool. ms.pat's wants children to have fun and love dance. they have a simple recital to minimize cost and put the focus on the child, not the costume, music, etc. it just seemed to be the place for us. carter really loved it, and when daddy had a wedding on the day of the recital and was going to have to miss it and there would be no pictures to show him (because our other camera is his backup), the teachers at ms.pat's quickly moved things so carter could perform on another day. we were very thankful!

love this last picture of her running off stage! she was so cute and i loved just being able to sit and enjoy her performance, which was made possible by my wonderful father who selflessly volunteered to keep miller so mommy, daddy & meme could go and dote on our sweet girl.

gymnastics

later, the class took off their tutus and ballet shoes and showed off what they had learned in gymnastics. as i am sure everyone has, we had already seen many of these new skills at home-somersaults on the bed & couch, crab walks from room to room, etc. 

somersault:

sassy walk back to the line:
bow (note the very dramatic bow occurring in the background. the teachers literally came over to check on her because each bow became more and more extreme!):
her first bouquet from mommy & daddy:
we were allowed to leave after her last performance due to her age and the length of the program, but we chose to stay and let her watch the older girls. carter has absolutely loved ballet this year and wants to take tap next year instead of gymnastics. she would also like to take hip hop, but it is not offered anywhere until age 5. carter had a blast watching and dancing along to the other girls' performances. 

lollies 05.11

on a sunday in may, we decided to run a few errands after naps. one of our stops was j.crew in saddle creek, where they just added the crewcuts line. one of the girls asked if she could give the kids a lollipop. sure! uhhh . . . little did we know they would be so big! the kids loved them!

3 year old picnic 04.23

this year for carter's school picnic, we let it just be her. we feel like sometimes it is nice for one child to get all our attention. she thought it was fun to eat with mommy and daddy while at school but was very distracted by all the families and playing going on around her. 

a family brought a bubble gun which everyone thought was great and wanted a turn at. carter had a blast running in the grass with all her friends and eventually getting her turn as well.

a total rant

i have been trying to post regularly, but not too often because i am about to run out of edited pictures. josh still has one wedding to go before he is caught up and can edit our dinky pictures. if you know how we are with a camera, you know we are either on or off. we either have a camera in tote and use it even when others think nothing important is happening, or we didn't even bring it with us. it's not that we are event capturers because what we take may not be a true event, it is just whenever we feel like taking pictures. since school is out, i have toted the camera a couple of times, and some of you may be wondering where are those pictures? and like i said, they are coming . . . as soon as josh edits them! ha! 

so, enjoy a few more posts before we get caught up and i can also blog about daily life-like the reason i am blogging now is the newer neighbors next door have decided to weed eat right outside our bedroom window at three o'clock in the afternoon in the middle of the summer. i understand he is retired and thinks that you can do yard work at whatever times you like, such as 6-8 am, 3-5 pm or my favorite, 7-8 pm. oh my gosh! does he not know what it means to have toddlers!!! they like to sleep in all those time slots!! and sometimes, i do too!! and, that is my rant for the day! (btw, this rant is much nicer than when i called josh 2 minutes after being woken up 5 minutes into a nap by weed eating outside my window!)

the one where miller turns 2

miller turned 2 april 17th. we celebrated with a retro cookout the following weekend. i choose birthday party themes based on my children's current favorites. anyone who knows miller knows he LOVES to eat but he is also obsessed with the play kitchen, plastic food, and specifically the plastic cheeseburger buns. so, that is where our theme was derived. we decided to make it a retro theme because, well, we love anything from the 1950s because that is when both homes we have owned were built. so, here is the food . . .

the birthday boy with his papaw, sporting his paper hat from the varsity in atlanta, georgia. thanks, papa joe, for picking those up for us at the drive-in.

"sister" as miller affectionately calls her

brother & sister eating their mini cheeseburgers 

and, to follow the theme & desire of the birthday boy, we had cookies & shakes instead of cake. every time i asked miller what he wanted for his birthday he would yell with enthusiasm "cookies!" so, that is what he got! and he blew it out through the bubble wand-silly boy!

miller made precious faces when he opened his presents. here he is trying to reach the bottom of the bag to find . . .

this! yeah for tools!

ROAR! that was miller's reaction when he pulled this out of uncle john's gift bag!

WOW! what is that? addy knows. grammie and papa joe gave miller a scooter. pictures to follow in another post.

thanks everybody for all the great gifts and fun times! miller loves you all!

giggles with grammie

the night before we celebrated miller's 2nd birthday, josh's parents spent the evening with us. our children love all of their grandparents, but it is especially fun to see grammie and papa joe as they don't live here. this particular visit grammie and carter created her own fairy tale. it was very cute and funny listening to the different things they created. 

"i love la"

the first weekend of april josh surprised me with a trip to los angeles to celebrate our anniversary. it was the first time since miller was born that i have been away overnight from carter and the first time for miller. josh has wanted to take me "out west" forever and thought this would be a fun whirlwind trip, and that it was.

we stayed here:

we drove this:

we shopped and ate here:

we waited in line to celebrate with cupcakes here:

and, we photographed ourselves in our bathroom mirror before dinner here:

we had a very full and incredibly fun first day. what an amazing husband i have!

speaking of which, if you are wondering why in the world we went on an anniversary trip in april when we were married on may 15th, it is because of the crazy, hectic life josh currently has. josh has started a wedding photography business that has him working several nights and weekends. he loves capturing a couple's special day and hopes to one day focus on this love full time. as for now, he is a very busy man, but he doesn't mind because he feels called to his passion. so, if you haven't visited our click here next links, click here and enjoy some of his recent events.