While we were shopping at the sale last night (more on our finds later), Ava found a toy workbench with lots of tools on it. Jody saw her lifting up her shirt and putting something on her chest. He wondered what she was doing, but didn’t think much of it. Later, she came over to me and said, “here’s some milk for Julian” handing me an invisible cup. Still later, she handed an invisible cup to our friend Dax to give to his baby Trajan.

I hadn’t seen her putting the tools to her chest and Jody didn’t hear her say it was milk for Julian (but did see her give the “milk” to Dax – which he “drank” himself, hehe), so it wasn’t until later that we were both talking about it that we put the pieces together and figured out she was “pumping milk” for the babies. :) Leave it to my girl to turn a workbench and tools into a breast pump. Love her!

By the way, the pumping for the milk bank is going better for me. I’ve taken your advice (thank you!) and pumped while nursing. It goes much faster that way. Oh, and I’ve been able to express more milk the past couple days, so it seems my supply is meeting the demand of pumping each day. I feel so fortunate that I can do this. :)

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Remember those old jokes – What’s grosser than gross?

I’ve got a new one.

What’s grosser than gross?
When your baby spits up down your v-neck shirt leaving a literal puddle of spit-up in your bra.
Say it with me – Ewwww! Yep, glad I didn’t bother showering today!

What’s grosser than that?
When you know you probably won’t get a chance to shower until later tonight at the earliest.

And on the topic of liquids coming out of babies’ mouths, I was holding Julian up on the couch with me while Ava played with him as she sat on the floor. All of a sudden she gets up to go get a burp cloth and says, “Julian drooled in my eye.”
Be thankful it was only drool, honey.

Stumble it!

And now for a little light reading…

Feb. 2007:
Ava called “Rooster” from the movie Annie, “chicken.”

2/9/07:
The day before, Julian was “talking” and I told Ava he was “finding his voice.” So the next day when he was squealing, Ava said, “Is he finding his voicemail?”

2/13/07:
Me: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Ava (pausing to think): “A pumpkin!”

2/15/07:
Discussing whether or not Ava was going to go to the store with daddy.
Me: “Do you want to go with daddy?”
Ava: “No”
Me: “OK, then daddy will just go by himself.”
Ava: “No, he will get lost in the woods.”
(What??)

2/16/07:
Me: “What do you want for lunch, Ava?”
Ava: “Egg cake.”
Translation – Quiche

3/1/07:
Ava took off Julian’s socks and was picking at his toes.
Me: “What are you doing, Ava?”
Ava: “Getting the crap out of his toes.”
(Doh!)

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If you missed the original post about an Ohio daycare center charging a breastfeeding mom an extra $50/week breast milk surcharge and labeling the milk “biohazard,” please get up to speed here or to directly to Breastfeeding 123 for the whole story.

In actuality, “the Centers for Disease Control does not consider breast milk a hazardous bodily fluid and breast milk thus does not require any special handling, protection or storage by the daycare provider. Breast-fed babies are sick less often and less severely, translating into fewer illnesses spreading to the other children and the daycare staff.”

So why is this daycare freaking out and implementing an extra charge? At this time, I believe they have yet to comment.

Jennifer of The Lactivist is trying to gain national coverage for the story. If you or anyone you know has been discriminated against by a daycare because you were breastfeeding, please contact her.

And now, to lighten the mood…
I had to LOL at my bloggin’ friend Penny when she posted this picture of herself (on a msg board) showing off her biohazardous boobs and biohazardous material container (i.e. her baby – isn’t she a doll?).

Here’s my take on it.

And I decided Julian’s shirt needed rewording.
From this:

To this:

And, oh my gosh, he’s leaking biohazardous liquid all over his shirt!
Considering all of the biohazardous material these babes consume, they sure are growing cute and chunky.

Others joining in on the toxic fun…

Beware the bioharzardous Nora (Eva’s baby)!

Want to show off your “biohazardous” boobs or babe? Email me your pics and blog url and I’ll put them up here.

Since we’re on the subject, here’s an interesting article about breastfed babies on WebMD – Breastfed Kids Become Social Climbers British Study: Breastfed Babies 41% More Likely to Be Social, Educated Adults

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It’s 2:30 in the morning, your 2-year-old daughter just woke up and only mommy can comfort her, your 13-week-old son just did a doozy in his diaper and wants to nurse, the wind is howling outside and the dogs are barking downstairs because of the wind.

What do you do? Do you…

A) Wait for your husband to change your son, then nurse him while trying to cuddle your daughter at the same time;

B) Lie in bed thinking about how you *really* wish you were in the bathroom right about now because of (TMI) the intestinal flu you’ve had the past two days;

C) Brainstorm ideas for a new CafePress store;

D) Think, “I wonder how I can blog about this?”;

E) All of the above.

If you guessed “E) All of the above,” you are right! Your prize is … hmmm, well, there is no prize, other than getting to chuckle to yourself thinking about me in that situation last night.

Around 3:15 a.m., after both kids had fallen back to sleep, I finally got up to go to the bathroom, then snuck downstairs and let the dogs out, drank some Recharge, came back upstairs and checked out Kellymom to look up diarrhea meds that are safe to take while breastfeeding, and jotted down the store/t-shirt ideas I came up with.

Pretty productive for being half asleep, no? Maybe my kids should wake me up in the middle of the night more often. ;)

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My husband Jody has never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day. He sees it for what it is – a commercial holiday second only to Christmas – and I have to agree. Even though I know that it’s all about consumerism – something I try my best not to get caught up in – I have to admit that this girl still likes to be pampered.

I think it was two years ago Valentine’s Day when we said we weren’t going to spend any money on each other. Yeah sure, I agreed to it, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t buy anything for him, but I secretly hoped he’d buy something for me. (Wouldn’t you?) He didn’t. I got upset and I’m pretty sure an argument ensued.

Of course I knew that he loved me and I shouldn’t need a silly holiday for him to prove it (it’s the unexpected little gestures throughout the year that really count), but because our society has built up Valentine’s day to be this special you’d-better-spend-some-good-money-on-me-and-act-all-romantic-or-else kinda day for lovers, not receiving anything other than a verbal “Happy Valentine’s Day” made me feel a little sorry for myself.

When last Valentine’s Day rolled around I knew better and didn’t get my hopes up that I would receive anything. So when he brought home some chocolates, I was pleasantly surprised. (Guess he knew better too. ;) )

This year, however, I decided if I wanted something special, I’d better do it for myself. And so, I treated myself to a shower this morning, didn’t do any laundry ALL DAY *gasp*, and pulled a casserole out of the freezer for dinner so I didn’t have to cook! If you combine that with the slobbery “kisses” I got from Julian and the unsolicited hugs and “I love you, Mommy”s from Ava, my day turned out to be sweeter than any box of chocolates could ever be. :)

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