Max's first trip to the Aquarium

This week my 15-year old nephew Austin and 14-year old niece Anna are staying with me. I invited them up to visit because I am a glutton for punishment. Just kidding. These kids are great! I always used to go stay with my aunt for a week or so when I was a teenager every summer and enjoyed it a lot. So I thought they'd like to come up and visit, hang out in the pool, etc.

Yesterday we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I love that place! I've only been once, but the weekend I was there was wonderful, since that was when John asked me to marry him. :)

Anyway, I decided at the last minute not to bring my camera because I figured I wouldn't have much to take pictures of. I wish I had, though, because Max was way more into it than I would have thought. I did manage to get a picture of him on my cell phone (sorry for the poor quality):

He just kept looking at the fish, and one big one swam down close to him and he was trying to grab it! It was almost too cute for words.

I love this kid. Can you tell?

Elimination Communication

I had a question posted in the comments section of an earlier blog, so I thought I'd answer it here. It was about elimination communication (EC for short).

I was reading Cindy's blog one day about how she got into doing EC with Harper, and like her, I pooh-poohed the idea, until I read more about it. Here's the basic idea:

Animals are born with the innate desire NOT to sit in their own waste. Just look around nature and you'll see. Human babies are the only ones taught to do so. Before the advent of disposable diapers a lot of babies were potty trained prior to 2 years of age. My own grandfather's mother claimed that he was potty trained at 3 months (they just hung him out the window).

Human babies are conditioned to sit in their own waste in diapers, and then we marvel at how hard it is to train them NOT to go in their diapers after they have done it for a year or two! If you start early (prior to 6 months is ideal but you can even start later) you can learn their cues as to when they need to go and just take them to the potty. You just have to watch them, and it can take a while to learn, but they will let you know when they need to go, believe it or not! We've been doing this with Max since he was about 3-4 weeks old, and it's actually pretty fun! You don't have to do it all the time, even. Cloth diapering helps, because you can know when they've gone sooner, and they can feel when they're wet. This way they don't get used to sitting in it.

Some people do EC with the intent of going completely diaper-free, and some just use it as a tool to make true potty-training easier when the time comes. Nay-sayers say it's not training the kid, but the parent, but don't we have to learn our babies' cues for hunger, tiredness, etc.? This is no different. It just takes attachment parenting to a whole new level, and I'm for that! I like it because I'm getting to know Max even better, it cuts down on diaper changes, reduces blowouts (that alone was enough for me) and the chance for diaper rash. It's also fun to hear people's reactions...most are amazed when they hear about it, and even more so if they get to see him in action!

I'm sure I'm leaving lots of stuff out, but this is the basic idea. For more info, visit http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/, or check out the book by the same name by Christine Gross-Loh. Good stuff.

A bit of venting...

I fully intend to write a longer, more cheerful post at some point in the near future, but something is just bugging the devil out of me and I've got to vent.

I should make a sign to wear or just tattoo this somewhere on my face: "I believe that babies should be breastfed exclusively. I believe that ALL WOMEN can breastfeed their babies. DO NOT talk to me about why you 'can't' breastfeed your baby. I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR your excuses, and I AM HEARTBROKEN for your baby that you make horrible choices for his/her nutrition."

There is a girl that works at the same place I do, that is a young, single mother who was pregnant at the same time as me. I don't really talk to her too much as she tends to be a little high-strung for my taste. She came to work a few days after her baby was born and we passed over the topic of breastfeeding, and she said she wasn't going to. I do not know of a tactful way to urge people I don't know well to breastfeed. I tend to get confrontational when faced with excuses for not doing so, especially because these excuses tend to stem from ignorance, so I kept my mouth shut. Her baby is now 5 weeks old and I ran into her at work today. She began a conversation by asking me, "How much does your baby weigh?" I replied, "Oh, last check, about 16.5 pounds." She says, "My baby is 10 pounds [some-odd] ounces." (I wasn't really paying attention.) I said something non-committal like, "Oh, really?" Then she goes on to say that some friend of hers's baby is [some amount of time] older than her own and he doesn't even weigh 9 pounds or something. I said something to the effect of all babies being different, at which point she replies, "Well, we're feeding him stuff we're not supposed to. We feed him applesauce, and baby cereal." This baby is Five. Weeks. Old. She continues about how it helps him sleep at night, and he had been eating like, "every 2 hours". "Well," I said, "their tummies are very small, so that's quite normal." But then she said how much happier he is. I am so dumbfounded I can't even put together a complete sentence at this point. I think I said something like, "Well, you're happier" as I booked it out of there before I went off on her.

I do not get this. Where does this logic come from? I really wish women would educate themselves. I am so sick of hearing about these babies who are given all this extra "food" (if you want to call formula that) in the effort to make them sleep longer! And that doctors recommend it without trying to get to the bottom of why a breastfeeding baby is having trouble, if that's the reason (if they even tried it to begin with). I was talking about this with my friends Jim Bob and Cindy and how it's just basically putting them into food coma. It makes me sick about these babies getting empty calories or inferior products because their parents are either uneducated, do not care, or are just plain lazy! Human milk for human babies, people! God made our bodies to do it, but it's not easy! It's hard work to teach a mama and a baby to become an efficient breastfeeding pair, but it's so worth it! Take Max for instance. I never once entertained a thought of not breastfeeding him, but it was a lot of work at the beginning. He had to have a chiropractic adjustment in order to be able to latch on correctly, and I also had to meet with a lactation consultant. These people are worth their weight in gold.

At the pharmacy where I work, the door to get in is right next to the Great Wall O' Formula, and I shudder every time I go in or out. I guess people nowadays are just believing what they are spoon-fed by the mass media, doctors, and marketing giants as to how they should feed their child. It's just ridiculous, and I wish I could make a difference. I am just so incensed by it I tend to step on people's toes. I guess I either need to get over stepping on people's toes or figure out a way to educate people in a tactful and loving way. It is, after all, for the babies. They are the ones benefiting or suffering from a poor choice made by the parent.

That's all. I wish I could say I feel better now, but I don't. Ugh.