Things my first child consumed in his first year:

Organic Sweet potato
Organic winter Squash
Organic Avocado
Organic Banana
Organic mango
Organic watermelon
Organic papaya
Organic oatmeal
Organic brown rice, pureed to perfection
Organic green peas
Organic zucchini
Organic egg yolk
Organic grass fed beef
Organic yogurt
Organic puffs, Oatios, teething biscuits…on occasion

You get the picture

Things my second child consumed in his first year:

A little of all of the above, PLUS,

Hot pink play dough
Rocks
Dirt
Bark
Leaves
Plastic Beads
Strawberry milkshake (swiped from big brother)
Red M&M (fed by big brother)
Dark chocolate
Sip of beer (covertly snuck the bottle when we were having friends over for dinner)
Googly eye
Red Pom Pom (think Rudolph nose)
Blue Glitter (evidenced during diaper change)
Elmer’s school glue
Non toxic dish washing liquid
Sidewalk chalk
Orange peel
Banana peel
Tangerine seed
Toilet paper
Paper towel
Paper from straw wrapper
The tip off of almost every crayon he’s ever held

How lucky is he???

Today might be the most important holiday of the year.

Happy Mother’s Day to the best mother and mother-in-law a girl could ever imagine.

I love you!

When I saw the new issue of Time Magazine, my first thought was – “Hey! That could have been me!”

I’m just glad I wasn’t asked to pose for this cover, as I’m not sure if I would have done it.

In fact I know I wouldn’t have.

I love it. And I don’t love it.

Even though I know it’s meant for shock value and will cause an insane media firestorm, I’ll take it. Anytime the public sees a picture of a mother breastfeeding her child, it becomes more normal, less shocking.

I recently heard a popular, late night, shock loving, WOMAN talk show host say, “If you’re kid is old enough to ask for it, it’s time to stop.” Oh how original.

I haven’t read the article and I am presuming it doesn’t paint attachment parenting in the best light, especially considering this image has nothing to do with attachment parenting. But I love that attention is brought to breastfeeding a child beyond infancy.

I have friends and family who continue to nurse into the third and fourth year, and they are not hippies living on a commune. But you wouldn’t know who they are- we don’t see them, and they don’t talk about it. The kids usually don’t ask to nurse in public, and the whole scenario is a bit taboo. Maybe with this conversation starting, it will become less so.

And my hope is that the public will see this and then be less shocked when they see a nursing baby, as the pendulum swings.

I recently had two separate encounters where women made me feel uncomfortable about breastfeeding my baby. And as publicly outspoken about the benefits of breastfeeding as I am, I always use a nursing cover and am as discreet about it as I can be. This is the world we live in, and even though I have to see barely covered breasts on the covers of magazines in the checkout line at the supermarket, people are uncomfortable watching a mother use breasts to feed a baby. Whatever.

But I don’t love this cover shot, because the truth is we still live in a country where it is not the norm to nurse past 6 months (only 23 percent of moms are still nursing beyond this age), and that three year old boy had no say in the photo. He has privacy rights too, which is the very reason I never show photos with my kids faces in any of my articles.

I’m pretty sure that boy will resent his mother for a long time. Especially when he goes to middle school.

What do you think?

In honor of Mother’s Day…

“I believe that infants and babies whose mothers give them Loving comfort whenever and however they can are truly the fortunate ones. I think they’re more likely to find life’s times of trouble manageable, and I think they may also turn out to be the adults most able to pass loving concern along to the generations that follow after them.” – Mister Rogers

“All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” -Abraham Lincoln

Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience; this was what upheld me in time of misery.” -Ludwig van Beethoven

“Most people’s mothers are the most influential person in their life. But my mother survived the [concentration] camps, and she was very strong. She made me strong, but she wanted me to be strong. That’s more important.” -Diane von Furstenberg

“When Valentina was not even 1 month old, my aunt [gave me the best advice]: ‘Put her to sleep yourself every night. Sing to her and cradle her in your arms and sit by her side — every night. Because one day you won’t be able to, and it’s going to happen really fast.” -Salma Hayek

“Before you have kids, when you’re on a plane and there’s a screaming kid, all you can think is, Give me earplugs! As soon as I became a mom, though, I got it. You find yourself asking, ‘What can I do? You want me to hold him?’ Because you think about the time your kids was screaming, and there was the one parent who looked at you and smiled. And that compassion was everything.” -Mariska Hargitay