It's World Breastfeeding Week so here's a song, written by a nursing student, about the subject.
I don't usually
do a long narrative for my Music Monday posts but I'm got to say that
I'm so amazingly proud of Shea for the dedication she put into
breastfeeding Pace for over two and a half years – never spending more
than 24 hours away from him in all that time (actually, she might not
have done so to this day!)
Breastfeeding
(and especially extended breastfeeding) is one of those things in life
that you feel like you can't talk up because it's (sadly) such a
minority position. Shea once mentioned to a friend that part of the
reason we haven't had a second child yet is that it's so draining to do
extended breastfeeding and she feels like she's just finished doing it
for our first child even though he was now three.
“Well, you don't
*have* to do it that long” the friend responded. Now this friend
wasn't one of those new mothers who leaves their freshly hatched baby with the
grandparents when the baby's three (weeks, not years! ) to go on a jaunt to Vegas. In fact, she's fairly “crunchy” (eg.
hippy-esque) in most ways. But still that suspicion of extended
breastfeeding comes through when you hear comments like that – even from
people who you'd expect to be a bit more open-minded.
Another
friend who's otherwise extremely intelligent brought out the “I was
formula fed and I turned out okay” argument. True, this person is smart
but apparently not smart enough to recognize that a sample size of one
is statistically invalid!
Anyhow,
I didn't mean this to be a rant (and I'm very aware that's how many
“lactivists” are thought of within larger society. Or should I say,
that's how they're portrayed. There are some very powerful corporations
and special interests who stand to benefit greatly by marginalizing
breastfeeding and making it shameful.)
But one of the ways that Shea's influenced me is by making me an even
bigger believer in breastfeeding than I hope I would have otherwise
become. (It's not something I probably thought a lot about before
getting married and having kids. But I'm pretty sure I would've been a
breastfeeding believer on some level – if for no other reason than the
common sense science of it. Hmm, something the human body has evolved
over thousands of years as the perfect food to give a newborn every
advantage or…a powder made in a factory?)
We happened to
just watch *Grown-Ups* the other night (thanks to the staffer at “Live
with Regis & Kelly” who put it out as a torrent! ) and one of the running jokes was that one character's wife is still breastfeeding their child at four years old. “Oh well, at least extended breastfeeding is getting some publicity?” I said to Shea.
On the other end of the pop culture spectrum from Adam Sandler fart and poop movies is the supermodel Gisele who is a proud breastfeeding advocate,
saying it helped her regain her figure after giving birth and if she
could, she would make it law that new mothers have to breastfeed for a
minimum of six months. (Yes, I know all the arguments about “My milk
didn't come in – I had to bottle feed” or “My baby just refused to latch
so I had to bottle feed” but that's a whole other post for some other
time.)
So anyhow, given a choice between a supermodel and Sandler, I know who I'd pick!
Edmonton writer and columnist, Todd Babiak, has just posted the last in a year-long series of columns about his family's sabbatical in France.
Having gone with his wife and two young girls, some of his thoughts on the experiences we (try to) give our children were particularly resonate for me (though I have no one year sabbaticals on the horizon…unfortunately!) The full series of columns is available on his Edmonton Journal page.
I'm not sure how often we take can & bottle recycling but it's usually once we get about 4-5 bags. This time, we had more like a dozen!
(We also love when the local soccer/hockey team comes by on bottle drives as they often feel like they've hit the jackpot when they hit our house – we usually just give them whatever we've had built up!)
I posted this three years ago (!) but the question recently popped back into my head and since I find the answer truly awe-inspiring in that “how many stars are there in the galaxy?” kinda way, I'm going to post it again.
I suspect the process has remained essentially the same in those intervening three years but is even better because of advances in hardware, software and web technologies as well as ongoing, constant refinements by the Google team.
Having a birthday in mid-summer has its advantages. One is that Shea and I have a tradition of going to one of the big summer blockbuster as one of my presents. (Well, usually we do anyhow. But the first year we did a birthday movie, I wanted to go to “Jurassic Park 3” but Shea thought it might be too scary or stupid – I can't remember which – so we went to “Cats & Dogs” instead…which turned out to be both scary and stupid! )
But since then, I've usually gotten the movie of my choice – Batman, Spiderman, Star Wars and the like. Last night, we went to “Inception” which was this year's pick but a little different than the typical Hollywood whiz-banger. I won't talk about it too much since it's one of those “you pretty much can't say anything about till you've seen it” but I will say that it was pretty cool. Not as confusing as I heard, didn't blow me away as the best film in the history of history like it did for some others.
I guess the coolest thing about it is the whole sub-culture that immediately developed to analyze, speculate and consider the film which has so many different levels and ways to interpret it plus so many questions to argue about.
Recurring feature alert! I've done this before where I do five quick hits on my five most common topics on this blog and why not, let's do it again.
Here's a few quick hits on my most popular topics…
Hockey Uhm, it's July 28. This does not bode well for this aspect of the Pop Topics recurring feature. Luckily the Reddit hockey sub-reddit has lots of posts to keep a fan interested. Here's one on “The Ten Ugliest Hockey Players of All-Time” and I'm proud to say I picked #1 before clicking the link!
Libraryland “Libraries get a mall make-over” highlights a trend for locating public libraries in malls and I've gotta say, RPL has been on this trend for fifteen years when we first put a library in a local mall. (Er, that date may not be exactly right. I wasn't around then…) Plus we're doing the co-locating thing all over the place – we've got one branch from the same era in a city facility that also has an indoor pool, we've just broken ground on a re-located branch that will become part of an inner-city community centre and another will be part of a shared facility that has a wide range of community organizations in it including public health, police, schools and more.
Pace Cuteness Let's see…this wasn't Pace directly but we thought it was funny when he came home with some art from daycare labeled “Paste” by a casual worker they had in that day. We knew “Pace” was a fairly unique name but never expected it to be mis-heard like that! This probably doesn't count as “cute” either but when we were heading out of town last weekend, Pace immediately recognized McDonald's, thought Superstore was Wal-Mart and today, saw a Domino's logo on top of a car and happily exclaimed, “Pizza delivery car.” His brand awareness probably provides way too much insight into the crap we do as consumers!
Politics I love this take-down of the Tea Baggers. They don't get mad at some of the most outrageous acts in the history of their nation but try to offer people the ability to go to a doctor when they need to and look out!
Google Lit Trips is a pretty cool site where users can submit their own mash-ups combining Google Earth files with the places visited in famous novels. Although it's aimed mostly at teachers looking to teach literature in a different way, this site can be enjoyed by any book lovers.
I remember watching this performance live when it was first broadcast – I think on MuchMusic back in the day.
At the time the song “Nautical Disaster” hadn't yet been released and was only a rant in the middle of “New Orleans Is Sinking”. I didn't realise this and thought Gord Downie was being his usual quirky self introducing the song “New Orleans Is Sinking” as “Nautical Disaster” – which was/is actually quite fitting.
Went to my hometown this weekend for the grand re-opening of the historic Bell Farm Round Barn , a reconstruction of the original building which had been near collapse only a few short years ago which would've been a shame, both for the loss of history and also, on a more personal note, as this farm was on the way to our own family farm and I've spent much of my life driving past this building, which often inspired thoughts about the people who settled in the area and the groundwork they laid for our present lives here on the prairies.
The reconstruction used many of the same stones and materials from the original structure although with a few added touches to keep with modern building codes (the original had neither plumbing or electricity.)
It did however have many firsts and significant accomplishments including the first phone system ever operated in Saskatchewan. This was how the founder, Major Bell, kept in touch with the twenty-seven cottages where his foremen lived and worked across this 53 000 acre farm – a farm so large that that passing trains would often stop so passengers could have a gander!
Hopefully one of the areas original tourist attractions can once again regain that mantle. If you're in the area, I encourage you to check it out.
Bookstore Bingo is apparently a new trend on Twitter where people post some of the silliest things they overhear at bookstores (and libraries?) HuffPost has collected some of the best ones.
) to go on a jaunt to Vegas. In fact, she's fairly “crunchy” (eg.
) and one of the running jokes was that one character's wife is still breastfeeding their child at four years old. “Oh well, at least extended breastfeeding is getting some publicity?” I said to Shea.
) Plus we're doing the co-locating thing all over the place – we've got one branch from the same era in a city facility that also has an indoor pool, we've 
