To Start the Day

~Today starts with no coffee I drank it wall yesterday. Even though I knew there was none left and I knew that I'd be a full dollar short after paying for shipping confirmation on the 2 pretties I just sent out in the mail. A skien of handspun for one of my favorite online peeps and ... erm- cough... a surprise for one of my favorite in real life people. 

~Today will see us at the "big playground" as soon as KaBean wakes up, gets dressed, and eats something. I think we found desert sage growing near our favorite playground, but I'm pretty sure it's part of the landscaping and may therefore be coated with pesticides. If it is not wild or if it looks like it is probably maintained with some sort of chemical cocktail I will leave it there and move on... If not, I will be gratefully clipping a branch and thanking the plant and earth and neighborhood for such a special gift. The bundle that Huz brought out with us on our move is almost gone. We burn it like crazy here, love sage. So it's time to get some more... speaking of which, i need to find my red string!

~Today finds Huz and the ManChild awake before 7am. I know I know... someone out there is probably like "that's nothing my fill-in-the-blank gets up at insane-ungodly-hour!!!" But still, this is my story and 7 am hurts my brain sometimes. Instead of chilling in bed nursing, the ManChild is currently racing his matchbox cars across the steamer trunk that came over the ocean with my great great grandmother's people from some no longer in existence European country. A very loud game for a momma who woke up before 7am to no coffee. 

playground here we come.

Happy Birthday, ManChild

My son just turned 2. He officially ended his second trip around this sun. He came out of me and is still nourished at my breast. His expressiveness and happiness impress me every day. He loves his big sister and wants to be everywhere she is and she does amazing with him for the most part. This little boy, my ManChild, is one of the best things about waking up every morning. Actually, I think the silence before he wakes up is the best, sshhhhhh.... I want to right about the things that have been important to me in the past, I even just listed them out, but even that felt like too much. But I feel this year, I am just so happy he is mine, well ours. I love him. I love him and his father and his sister and our unit. We are so blessed.

I love you, my little ManChild. Happy Birthday.

He's absorbing the knowledge. Education thru osmosis. Resting under to books works the same way the Fibonacci Baby Blanket will make that baby good at math. 

I know he looks asleep, but he actually told me that Lighting McQueen needs boobies. And also that McQueen likes boobies.  

And apparently, Tow Mater really likes boobies too. 

Best conversation all week when Huz came home from a shoot,

ManChild, "Hi Daddy!!!! Hiii!!!!!"

Huz, "Hey kiddo, I missed you, what did you today?"

MC, in the most excited 2 year old voice you ever heard, "Got BOOBIES!!! Daddy, GOT BOOBIES and switched SIDES!!!!!!!"

Huz, not as excited but still a lot excited but not enough, "You got Boobies?" 

MC, kind of disappointed in Daddy for not being properly stoked but still personally thrilled, "Yeah, Daddy, Boobies, switch sides. and Mater and Queen boobies, too."

My boobies are great fuel it seems. 2 years, going strong.

Walking with Kids

I have to remember that even in this heat, these kids of mine think everything is worth stopping for. Every rock on the ground and airplane in the sky. Every bird call requires speculation as to how big "that eagle was..." regardless of wether or not there was actually an eagle. usually not. I have to remember that it isn't about me, it's about them and how I hope they'll see the world when they start making their own decisions. It's about showing them that they can trust me. That I know they want whatever it is and chances are that I have a plan in place to get it for them and 'now would you please hold my hand so we can cross the street to get to the playground where you want to go?!' The point of putting cut up fruit low in the fridge is not to save me the trip of actually putting the knitting down to feed them (ok, maybe a little) but to give them the feeling that they have power over at least some parts of their day. A well supplied art drawer where they can get to their projects helps keep the house well decorated them feel like they can create whenever they want. Nursing The ManChild whenever he needs it keeps me on his time... and now they are pulling me upstairs for bed, and he is very upset... boobies out!

18 Year Old Love

I recently went and saw the new Twilight Movie 4A with my dear friend, Pippi. It was fine, I guess. I'm honestly not a big fan of the movies, up until I saw the new one I think I had only ever seen the very first one. I will admit to reading the books. I'm not really a fan of those either, but at least they were books so I got to make up my own images in my head. I could go on and on about the lameness of the movie but the point is this: I am so glad I did not marry the man I was in love with at 18. Not because I didn't love him, or because we would have turned out horribly and destined to fail and all that but because I never would have found this One. This man. This silly, frustrating, sleeping-while-the-kids-do-god-knows-what man.
It is hard knowing that I love him no matter what. It is hard knowing that this man actually means so much to me that I refuse to put financial comforts before Us. Much to the frustration of my mother. It means that there are no ultimatums. No "If you don't make tons and tons of money I'll take the kids and move in with my parents!" Because a) if the 3 of us plus Isis tried to live there again it would suck like nothing else and b) I don't want to separate from him over money. I can't say "Since your'e not making the money I'll go get a job and put the kids in day care." Any job I would get (without a great deal of luck) would not pay me as much as hourly daycare for 2 kids. So, I'd have to go back on food stamps. Where now we are barley scraping by and we take no assistance from the government, if I were to go back to work, we would have to go back on government assistance. And also, my baby boy is still nursing!

That's right, the Little Baby Man Child has been nursing for 16 months! That is 2 months longer that with Little A... Oh! it's almost her birthday! Little A's Fourth Birthday. I think we will be having another Butterfly Party. Last year's was a Pink and Golden Tea Party and I guess this year's is going to be a Butterfly Princess Party. I'm really excited and will soon be trolling the internet and Pintrest for good Little Girl Birthday Ideas.

That's all the word vomit for now. I missed you. I feel like it has been forever. I still believe in the revolution. I love the world.


also, i miss melinda. but she'll be home soon!

Political Life Rant... or Occupy Wall Street

So, I've been following this movement called Occupy Wall Street for the last few days. If you don't know what I'm talking about read here......
K. did you read it? great, now here is the list of demands, read this too...
K, got it? Good. Read on


It amazes me that so few people see this as potentially the most world changing thing to happen in a long time. Every single thing is the world, everything. like all the things, is effected by the things that happen and get traded on Wall Street. Everything from food to nature to plastic to thoughts to breastfeeding is hurt or made rich by what happens there. Yes I did say breastfeeding. Every mother who has ever been told by a medical professional to use formula should get behind this movement. Every mother who ever felt bullied out of breast feeding by formula ads should be with this movement. This movement's call to end the corporate personhood of people will finally end formula the apparent ease companies seem to have when confronted with, oh i dunno, bug parts in their product. By taking Wall Street out of medicine many doctors will be free to heal people and continue to learn about the human body without the long fingers of the corrupt insurance and pharmaceutical companies in their pockets all the time. I don't think this will lead to total collapse unless it is handled wrong, I do think that with the all the medical and technological advances that have been made this will lead to better health and better quality of life than ever before. We don't need to rework everything, the root system is our financial system and if we fix that, everything else will fall into place.

Occupy Wall Street
Occupy the Hospitals
Occupy La Leche Legue
Occupy the World

Summer Gardening and Happy Breastfeeding Week!

Our family has been extra busy out in our family garden at my parents place. The  Littles are having an amazing time out in the dirt helping water. Little B is having an amazing time eating fresh raspberries and fresh dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. But thats ok, it is soooo good for him to get some organic dirt germies in his gut and then get them flushed out by the amazing liquid commonly referred to as breast milk. 

Hey! Did you know it is International Breastfeeding Week. Or something like that. Any way (I'm a super great lactivist right? lol), if you don't already do this crazy stuff, next time you see a mother out nursing her child, smile at her (but not in like a creepy way, a nice way. good job), do your best to make her feel as comfortable as can be. Nursing mothers don't get enough credit in American society. Our society does its best to make us feel awful for choosing to what our body is made to do. I know breast milk is the best thing for my son. You know that breast milk is the best thing for your child. It is well known but still American women are afraid of it. Afraid that it might be uncomfortable. or that maybe it wont work and they wont make enough milk. that their boobs will sag (who does that? seriously? who would chose looks over their child's well being?). afraid of what the neighbor will think. Why are we so afraid of these things? I had no idea there was anything to be worried about. I knew that babies get mother's milk and thats that. When I had Little A we had to be pretty firm that this is what we were going to do. I told the nurses in no uncertain terms not to wake me or the baby every 3 hours for a feed, she will be fed when she tells me she is ready. Some of the nurses were really confused when we said she would "tell" me when she was ready to eat (I hadn't heard of feeding on demand or on cue or what ever). But that was it. That was the most adversity I have had to face in both my breastfeeding journeys. I know a few people who have negative stories and I know a few people who chose formula and still don't really understand why. I also have friends with amazing breast feeding stories, like my faerie god-sister come to earth, Raintree. She got the Dairy Queen award when her daughter was in the NICU and even after months of not being able to nurse, her daughter latched successfully within the first few attempts. 

And the point of the breast friendly rant was ... something awesome. 

Helping the tomatoes get tall!

This Is Bigger Than Leaky

There is more to this attack on our right to breastfeed than just the deletion of The Leaky Boob. A few weeks ago the personal page of Guggie Daly was removed because "it violated Facebooks terms of service."


Excerpt from "Safety"

We do our best to keep Facebook safe, but we cannot guarantee it. We need your help to do that, which includes the following commitments:

1. You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.
2. You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.
3. You will not develop or operate a third-party application containing alcohol-related or other mature content (including advertisements) without appropriate age-based restrictions.
4. You will not use Facebook to do anything unlawful, misleading, malicious, or discriminatory.

Excerpt from "Protecting Other People's Rights"

We respect other people's rights, and expect you to do the same.

1. You will not post content or take any action on Facebook that infringes or violates someone else's rights or otherwise violates the law.

Sooo, it seams to me that almighty Facebook has not read the terms of service. Here we go-

     1) Ok, really this should be obvious. But in case you missed the connection, I'll help you. How is repeatedly removing our support after endless apeals and pleas from users to help us educate people about breastfeeding not bullying. That is like the smart kid getting beaten up all the time for getting good grades. Aren't there anti bullying laws now in most states? 

     2) (in order ) My breast milk hates everybody! It hates you, your momma, the dinner you made last week AND you car! Dude, bitch my boobs will so kick your ass, You don't even have to some closer- I'll squirt you in the eye! ... K, the porno-one is hard because creepy people DO troll our sites and take our pictures (But don't freak out and pull stuff. If you are smart about the people you friend and the pics you use on your profile, you will be fine) This beautiful photo of my baby nursing will incite riots over the lack of education in this country. Really? Have you ever been to Kim Kardashian's page?

     3) Mafia. Isn't that an ap about selling "contraband", building your "family and shooting people?

     4) Teaching about breastfeeding is not misleading, it is the truth. And we want to help, not judge all mothers, no matter how they feed their babies. 

    

     So isn't Facebook infringing on our rights by removing almost everything related to nursing? If you search for key words in the search bar it is so easy to see erect penises and dildos, or almost completely naked breasts (I would never be able to show that much skin just nursing! lol); Find violent or hateful (or both)- I mean dead baby jokes? C'mon.

Please, reinstate The Leaky Boob, leave Guggie Daly alone, and if a momma is brave enough to post a pic of her nursing the light of her life, please just let her be. Because if you leave us alone, the time will come when mothers don't online support just to feed their children- their friends, family, partner will be there is reality to help her.