Today I bring you a culinary tip involving cabbage.
Despite my fierce appreciation for Cabbage Patch Kids growing up, I never thought much of cabbage. I just sort of assumed I didn't like it, having heard bad things about starving poor people having to subsist on little else, encountering it overboiled in our German junior high cafeteria, and finding the sight of sauerkraut unappealing.
It took years before I realized that it wasn't true. I really did like cabbage. Those crunchy purple strips in the salad bar — cabbage! I loved those things, often eschewing lettuce for crunchy purple strips with spinach leaves. Sauerkraut, it turned out, tasted good when you actually put it in your mouth instead of just turning up your nose at it.
And, several years ago, Sam and I discovered the joys of pico de gallo. At our favorite Mexican joint, we could not get enough of their tangy, limey mixture of tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. But when we tried to replicate it at home, something was missing. Ours was just not as crisp, tending toward mushiness. We kept returning to the restaurant (no great burden) to inspect the salsa at our leisure. What were the white crunchy bits that were filling out the pico? You can guess where I'm going with this — cabbage!
The problem with adding cabbage to our at-home version of pico de gallo was that we then had 3/4 of a head of cabbage still sitting in our fridge when we were done preparing a heaping bowl. Some of you may be very smart and know just what to do with cabbage at home. We are the kind of people who read those tips on "how to sneak greens into your kids' food" — not because we feel the need to sneak. I like veggies, cabbage obviously, kale, chard, spinach, brussels sprouts, you name it! It's just that I can't always figure out how to eat leafy veggies when I'm not having a salad.
Then Sam had a brainstorm. I was cooking up some traditional foods recipes, and all of them called for a grain to go underneath the main slop of the day. (I actually really love the taste of those recipes, but all of my versions were visually suspect. Are all traditional foods recipes something like a stew?) Due to using up whatever ingredients happened to be on hand (I'm big on tossing whatever looks good into a pot — see stew-like result above), I always had way more slop than grains. So we'd have enough rice or amaranth or whatever to last us the first dinner, but none for the next four days of leftovers.
Sam was dishing up our leftovers one day and grabbed the partially used head of cabbage sitting on the floor of the fridge. Out he came from the kitchen bearing two plates of gooey traditional goodness sitting atop a bed of fresh, crisp, julienned, raw cabbage.
Let me tell you, I don't want to go back to rice. It was so good. The cabbage taste is mild, so all you really got was texture: crunchy, watery, bursting texture to offset the savoriness of the stew on top.
And preparing a cabbage bed is so much easier than cooking rice or pasta or couscous, particularly if you're trying to do it a traditional, soaking way with dry rice. You don't have to cook or prepare anything in advance. As soon as you're ready for it, just grab the head of cabbage and start chopping it onto the plate. If you slice across the cross-section, you'll naturally get some nice strips — cabbage confetti!
So, if you're an expert in using up a whole head of cabbage in other ways, please do share in the comments and then ignore me. But if you're looking for an idea to incorporate leafy veggies into non-salad meals, give the cabbage bed a try! It might sound odd, but it tastes delicious.
Ok, this is just for fun, but I found this nifty calculator that acts like a carnival barker, guessing your child's adult height from a series of current clues.
The Child Height Predictor is good for ages 2 through 12 and estimates how tall your kid will be at age 18.
I'm really amused at how many caveats and cautions this simple little online calculator contains. It warns you that this is only a "fun tool" and simply a guess, and to check with your child's pediatrician if the calculator offends you. Ok, it doesn't really say that. But it does honestly say that the calculator cannot account for factors including poor nutrition, Olympic-level athletics, or children who have a physical condition affecting their growth. I love the idea that there might be parents out there who would seriously blame this online calculator for inaccuracies in the last case.
As for us — Mikko will be 6'2", and if he's not, I'll want my money back.
August is still with us, and the sun is shining. But my thoughts are turning ahead to the upcoming autumn and winter, when Seattle will be shrouded with clouds and weeping with drizzle, and going to the playground will seem far less appealing than now.
I'm already nervous about the transition. We have a very active 2-year-old who needs to move all day to get his wiggles out, feel good, and sleep well.
Trust me, even toddlers without any sort of processing disorders need a lot of movement in their day, and this list is great at inspiring me to find ways to get Mikko up and moving, even when we're inside.
So I thought I'd share a list of ideas for movement-related indoor activities, and please share any of yours in the comments.
I'm going to assume a few starting conditions, and your mileage may vary. We're in a one-bedroom apartment, so I'm going to assume others might also have limited space to run inside. Of course, you could always leave your home for a bigger indoor space to run around, or brave the weather regardless, but for this exercise, I'm concentrating on home-based activities. Some of them take only a few minutes, and are good to intersperse throughout the day to make sure your toddler has burned enough energy to feel satisfied and get a good sleep when it's time to rest. As I mentioned, I have a 2-year-old, but I think some of these exercises would work for older or younger kids, too. Some will repeat suggestions on the Gross Motor Activities list, since we've used some of the ideas personally. I'm mostly considering things that don't require any particular toys, though if you have ones that work well, feel free to mention them. If you don't have other children around to do all this playing, you'll be burning a lot of energy, too — I don't know about you, but that's something I'm working on anyway (while reading Playful Parenting) — trying not to be so reluctant to get moving and play with my child.
• This one works really well to get our guy moving. Start doing motions, and invite him to join you, like a really easy Simon Says. "Touch your toes, march in place, jump up and down, touch your shoulders, turn around," etc. This can go on as long as you want, or as long as you can think up motions! For older kids, actual Simon Says might add a fun challenge to the game. For younger kids, just following the instructions in the first place can be enough of a challenge!
• Do nursery rhymes and songs that have motions. I used to think that I would instill in my children a sophisticated musical taste — no need to dumb it down, I thought. Well, I don't know about other people's kids, but my son can't get enough of "Wheels on the Bus," "The Itsy-bitsy Spider," "London Bridge Is Falling Down," and "Patty-Cake." Also especially good for easy bilingual learning of body parts is "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" in your target language. Older kids will enjoy hand clap combinations and ball-bouncing or jump-rope rhymes from your childhood. I remember attaching a Chinese jump rope to sturdy chair or table legs worked well when I didn't have three people to play! Try also hula hoops, baton twirling, and making up your own cheers with pom-poms. Come on, you never wanted to be a cheerleader?
• Speaking of which, you might not have a safe space for throwing balls around, but I've found that kicking balls from one person to another along the floor is lots of fun for little toddlers. For non-walkers or as a change of pace, you could also try rolling balls to each other.
• Build very high block towers, and then do what comes naturally: Knock them down!
• Jump out of doorways and closets, or crouch behind furniture to surprise someone. This is a good respite activity for tired adults, because you can get the kids to do all the running, while you stay mostly still in a succession of hiding places! (Ask me how I figured this out...)
• Let your toddler crawl under the covers on the bed, and then play like you can't figure out why — this — bed — is — sooo — lumpy, as you push on the wriggling, giggling mass. Bed covers also make a great tent.
• As long as you're on the soft surface of a big adult bed, play some games that might be dangerous with a harder fall: horsey and airplane and wrestling. I found out by chance that Mikko loves a new game we created. I kneel on the bed, and he clambers around behind me and holds onto my shoulders. Then I fall face-first on the bed while he hangs on and rides down. He ends up landing mostly on my bum, which — trust me — is a soft landing. It's like a toddler roller-coaster!
• Jumping is also fun on mattresses or mini-trampolines or off stools. If your kids are too young to jump by themselves (ours hasn't yet managed to get any air), hold them under the arms or by their hands (not as physiologically recommended, but generally too fun to resist) and jump them really high yourself off of something bouncy.
• If you're still over that soft surface, might as well hold them upside down for awhile. Get them used to gymnastics early! Mikko's started naturally getting into a handstand pose.
• If you have stairs inside, babies love climbing! Particularly if they're nice and carpeted, bumping down on your bums can be fun for everyone. Climbing and balancing along ledges or across furniture is also fun if you have the stomach and set-up for it. My parents even rigged a rope over a doorframe for my wannabe-firefighter brother when he was a preschooler so that he could literally climb the walls.
• Speaking of how cool my parents were with danger, my dad installed a really long rope-and-board swing in our playroom when I was in elementary school. Our ceilings there were 12 feet high, but something sorta similar might be a possibility. Swinging indoors sounds divine still!
• Have one of those big, inflatable birth/yoga/pilates balls? Babies love to bounce, bounce, bounce on top, with some help with balance.
• Kids love music, and you might as well introduce them to the fun of instruments before all the joy is sucked out in music classes or lessons! Collect a bunch of cheap musical instruments whenever you see a good one in a toy shop or thrift store. Good choices for little kids include kazoos, shaker eggs, little drums, maracas, anything else percussive or shakeable, harmonicas, and recorders, and if you have adult instruments, they'll enjoy supervised time with them as well. Mikko can turn on and jam on my electronic keyboard by himself, and he loves unpacking and fooling with my guitar, violin, and flute. Granted, parts of my guitar and violin are now broken, and my flute is dinged, so either lower your standards or don't say I didn't warn you about the supervised part!
• Once you've gotten some rhythm going, start dancing along to some recorded music, or put on your own parade!
• If you have enough people and space, break out the rainy-day favorites from your own childhood, according to age level: Duck, Duck, Goose; Ring Around the Rosie; Leap Frog; Red Light, Green Light; Mother, May I?; freeze tag. Oh, the fun!
• Kids don't have the same distinctions between work and play that we do. Unless something has already managed to condition them otherwise, toddlers and young kids will enjoy cleaning with you. Mikko loves pushing around a huge broom or dust mops, and I make sure I always break out multiple feather dusters if I want to use one for myself. Have antsy but helpful kids make multiple trips to put trash away or run little errands from one room to another. And is it just Mikko, or do all toddlers love emptying objects out of bins? This isn't so much cleaning as messing up, unless you can convince them to empty the objects into another receptacle!
• For preschool or older kids who understand the concept of time, try timing simple actions, like getting dressed or brushing teeth. Make your kids race from a certain spot, perform the action, and then get back to the starting spot within a certain time limit. Be certain to call out updates and encouragement. This is a good way to trick kids into doing something boring, fyi, and always used to work on me!
• Hop in the bathtub and splash around.
• Build a fort with couch cushions and old sheets, or score a discarded refrigerator box for extra points.
• Spin around and around till you get dizzy. Once your toddler is dizzy enough, you can quietly back out of the contest and just help them watch out for sharp corners.
• Depending on space, room layout, and flooring, your kids might be able to ride trikes or scooters or roller skate (does anyone use regular old roller skates anymore? Well, you know what I mean) in the house.
• Set up some real or substitute bowling pins — maybe some shatter-proof but heavy plastic bottles or block towers — and then take turns rolling balls to knock down the target.
• If you have equally fidgety pets around, give your kids the task of flicking a fishing pole toy for cats (as a former cat sitter, let me forcibly recommend the awesomeness that is Da Bird and caution that you will be disappointed with any other pole toy) or rolling balls and tossing toys for the dogs.
• Try some imaginative play like pretending you're all certain animals and crawling, running, and flying around making appropriate noises. Or make believe you're driving a bus around the house and picking up passengers in the form of stuffed animals and dolls. Let the bus get faster and faster.
• As we know from babywearing, even being carried counts as motor activity, because it stimulates your child's vestibular system of balance. If you have a high-weight carrier, you can still carry your toddler or young child around while you get something else done, or try piggyback or horsey rides if your back or knees can stand it!
• For a special but made-up occasion, throw an impromptu un-birthday party! Make and break your own piñata, play Pin the Tail on the Donkey complete with blindfold and lots of spinning, and blow up and toss balloons around (also a safe throwing activity for indoors!).
And that's what I've come up with! That should keep them busy for a minute or two, right?
Seriously, give me any more ideas in the comments! I can always use new ones to store away for the upcoming loooong winter.
(Shhh...ignore the words. I just want to point out that that's a My Brest Friend nursing pillow in case people want more illustrations of one in use. As long as I'm talking and breaking rules...I love this picture.)
I don't know if it's my son's Americanism, male-ism, two-year-old-ism, or a combination of multiple -isms, but he's obsessed with anything big. I swear I have not indoctrinated him with the idea that he should prefer big to small.
"Big," he'll say, "big piece," as he rejects the bite-size chunk of cherry tomato we've put on his plate and pops a whole one in his mouth, only to spit it out within a few moments.
"Big," he'll say as he spots a pick-up truck. "Big truck." Then a delivery truck will rumble past. "Big!" he'll exclaim. Then a semi. "BIG!" By now he's squealing with glee.
So the other day, I guess it should have come as no surprise. He climbed up in my lap to nurse and said, "Nummies," or at least his dolphin sound (sort of a "hnee-hnee") that passes for that. Then he pointed to one. "Big," he said with satisfaction, then pointed to the other for good measure. "Big nummies."
My parents are visiting this next week, and I've been trying to plan little excursions that might amuse them. We have to stay pretty close to home, because of needing to be called in at any moment to sign for the closing on our condo. Though I'm not all that hopeful of that, after the closing has been extended twice and the mortgage company is at a stalemate with the HOA over budget issues — sigh. But enough of that. My parents are visiting! Yea!
So, yes, they and we have not yet visited Mount Rainier, out of a lack of imagination as to what exactly one does there, assuming one is not the active sort. We're not going to start all that foolhardy climbing and snowshoeing and what not, when Mount Rainier claims about 3 (active) lives a year, and that's not even counting any potential volcanic eruptions! So, barring hiking and camping, and wanting to stay close to a getaway vehicle (just joking, truly), what do you do? Do you just drive around the foothills? Picnic on a slope? It's been mystifying me. I love Mount Rainier. I love looking at it from a distance. If I get up close, I won't be able to see it anymore!
Then I had a brainstorm and found what I thought was the perfect solution: a train ride around Mt. Rainier! I even found a little scenic railroad that offers such a thing, for what I thought sounded like very reasonable prices.
Then I went searching online for reviews, because the railroad's website was very sparse as to what exactly one would see on this "scenic" trip. As far as I could tell, the track is along old logging lines and the site caters more to historic train buffs, as opposed to sightseers.
I happened upon a travel site with two reviews in total. Both blasted the excursion, lamenting that all you could see out the windows were underbrush, more underbrush, and hobo camps.
Don't imagine I wasn't tempted to go anyway after that...
"Jayachandran and Kuziemko argue that women with a preference for male children may wean daughters earlier in the hopes of restoring their fertility and conceiving a son, resulting in worse health outcomes for girls."
In developing countries especially, breastfeeding protects against disease and mortality in infancy, so daughters are suffering from the mothers' efforts to stop breastfeeding in order to conceive again.
Commenters also suggest another reason that girls are weaned sooner might be out of disappointment on the part of the mothers and, therefore, emotional distancing. Purely suppositional, but both theories are disturbing.
*****
In an opinion piece for an online newspaper, a woman lamented that her paltry two months of maternity leave were not nearly enough to establish successful and long-term breastfeeding, and that she regretted that the necessity to go back to work interfered with her daughter's health and with mother-infant bonding. I figured it was another American, what with our super-crappy short and unpaid maternity leave policies, but it turns out it's written by a Ugandan. This reinforces my perspective that we need mothering and breastfeeding's value boosted the world over.
*****
And now a couple cheerier ones...
As I was bopping around Babble, I came across this awesome comic strip of a home birth, titled, appropriately enough, "My Home Birth" as told by Christen Clifford and drawn by David Heatley. Click on the first panel to enlarge it, and then hover your mouse over the right-hand side to click on "Next" to get to the next (well, duh, I know) panel. I don't know about you, but I love reading me some birth stories, especially good home-birth ones. But sometimes people write really long or don't have good pictures (guilty here, on both counts! I'm wordy as all heck, and we sort of dropped the ball on photography during the 42 hours of back labor...). Sometimes the pictures go the other way, being all-out graphic, which I actually do appreciate, but sometimes not, like if I'm trying to eat a Sloppy Joe or something. Don't get me wrong — I still love crazy long and detailed birth stories with close-up shots of perineums (don't stop posting them, you lovely birthers!), but it was refreshing to read this brief graphic one, enjoy the slight artistic distance of illustrated nakedness, and kick back with the humor.
I've included my favorite box here, where she refers to her angry, kicking self as a "roving Neanderthal." I am quite modest and reserved in real life, but during birth it was like I just had to exist, as an animal, a birthing animal. I flung off clothing. I made sounds. I was emotional. I just was. And I try not to be embarrassed about that.
In other hopeful news, there's an alternative to the formula-sample bag of "goodies" the hospital sends home with new mothers. The Cottonwood Kids Healthy Baby Bounty Bag (what? I didn't name it) contains breastfeeding-friendly samples and educational information. I wouldn't really care so much, only it sounds pretty sweet:
“Our new Healthy Baby Bounty Bags contain 100% breastfeeding support and natural product samples, coupons, resources, and more, from top brands including Lansinoh, Bravado, and Seventh Generation. We’re working with leading hospital birth centers to send a clear message about the benefits of breastfeeding, embracing the medical community’s endorsement of breastfeeding for healthier babies.”
Those are good brands to identify with, so I'll go ahead and support the idea. The bags are WHO Code compliant, encouraging exclusive breastfeeding and with no nipple substitutes, bottles, or formula samples included, and the company was started by a dad of three girls (who apparently did not feel his daughters deserved early weaning...).
The breastfeeding-friendly hospital I birthed at avoided the issue by just not handing out goodie bags at all. I walked away with a swaddling blanket, brochures on breastfeeding and pumping, and a couple pairs of those mesh undies that hold in the industrial-size pads. Those things are preeetty sexy. They also gave me — go figure — formula. Because my son clearly needed it. Oh, wait, no, he didn't. Sigh. I would gladly have taken some Lansinoh lanolin or some Bravado bra coupons instead.
But this had happened before, and I knew what to do. Awhile ago, I first read Unconditional Parenting, by Alfie Kohn, and marveled at the mind-blowing I received. I discovered there was an Unconditional Parenting DVD, which our library carried. Bingo! It was absolutely perfect. It translated the main points of the book into a limited-timeframe format. Sam enjoyed it so much that he recommends the DVD to other parents without the energy to add another book to their reading list.
Please note that I am not faulting Sam for this. When I enjoyed In Defense of Food, I subsequently checked out Michael Pollan's longer tome, The Omnivore's Dilemma. I checked it out about six times and never got past the intro. At 464 pages, it just wasn't happening.
So I understood the reluctance to dive into a book, for whatever reason. But to share my experience with Sam, was there a companion DVD to In Defense of Food? Well, sorta.
King Corn, directed by Aaron Woolf, is a documentary that follows two school friends, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, from East Coast city life to the fields of Iowa, where they pursue a dream to grow one acre of corn and then track where that corn ends up. They basically want to see if it's true, as Michael Pollan and other food gurus contend, that corn is as ubiquitous a part of the American (or, broadly speaking, the Westernized) diet as they say it is.
Short answer: yes.
We have switched from being omnivores who eat real, whole food, to being consumers of processed, food-like substances, and in all of our meals corn and soy reign supreme. (Soy doesn't get as much mention in this film, what with the title of King Corn and all, but it's becoming just as insidious.)
If you're like me and you have something processed handy (a bag of Cheetos, say, or a bottle of ketchup), go and grab it and see if you can find the corn and soy that are abundant within its hallows.
Here are some words that can mean corn is present: anything with the word "corn," such as corn flour, cornstarch, corn gluten, corn syrup, corn meal, high fructose corn syrup; but then also such seemingly innocuous entities as baking powder, caramel coloring, confectioner's sugar, malt, starch, modified food starch, treacle, vanilla extract, vegetable protein, and vegetable shortening; as well as such chemically obtuse ingredients as dextrin, maltodextrin, dextrose, fructose, monoglycerides, diglycerides, MSG, sorbitol, sucrose, and xantham gum.
And here are some that indicate soy: anything with the word "soy," such as soybean oil, isolated soy protein, soy protein concentrate, soy isoflavones, etc.; lecithin; hydrolyzed vegetable protein; textured vegetable protein; margarine; teriyaki; and my favorite, natural flavors; among others!
But forgetting specific ingredients, what King Corn demonstrates is that corn is even more widespread than that. Corn is present in beef, for instance, because cattle in feed lots are fattened on corn meal instead of their natural food of grass. Corn makes an appearance in pesticides and packaging; its oil fries up our fatty foods; and we even fuel our cars with corn-derived ethanol. The government subsidizes corn growing, and keeps thinking up new ways to grow more — and then use up — this one crop.
To make a people of corn, our country has become corn-reliant. The movie shows, in cute stop-animated motion featuring the Fisher-Price farmhouse I remember from my youth, how farmland has been swallowed up by corn, and how farms have gone from variety to monoculture, from family-owned to corporate.
For all that, King Corn is rather gentle in its rhetoric. It's not out to make the Iowan farmers feel bad. I really appreciated the way Cheney and Ellis spoke courteously with everyone in their new town and listened to the stories around them. It turns out that the corn farmers already know there's something wrong with the priorities in food growing, but it's one of those complicated situations where it isn't easy to figure out what the "right" thing to do is and, then, how to accomplish it. The guys grow their corn the way the other Iowans are doing it, with loads of fertilizer and pesticide, and using the standard strain that's become widespread throughout the Midwest, but it's unclear if growing it organically would make a difference, or would change the outcome.
In one scene, the filmmakers try eating one of their freshly grown ears of corn — and they spit it out in disgust. What's taking over America's heartland isn't the sweet corn you buy to grill up with butter and salt for Fourth of July, and it's not one of the many varieties that were once natively grown on this soil in the pre-Pilgrim days. It's inedible food-processing material, fit only for animals who can't choose better for themselves and for disguising through chemical processes into some form of food-ish product.
Because the guys can't gain entrance into any high-fructose corn syrup manufacturing plant, they finally get someone to tell them the recipe over the phone. It's a horrifying concoction that includes unfamiliar enzymes and requires face masks and gloves to create. It's about as far from "cooking" as you can imagine. At the end of it all — a sickly sweet syrup. That syrup goes into almost every processed food out there, not just things we typically think of as sweets, but even things like breads and condiments and toothpaste.
I recommend this film as a good intro into the ideas of In Defense of Food or Weston A. Price — the general idea that Americans are not eating right. The film doesn't go much into what Americans then should be eating, but it's probably pretty easily guessed: real, whole, unprocessed food. That doesn't allow, of course, for the fact that some of what seems to be just that is actually processed food in disguise, such as our meat that comes from corn-fed, antibiotic-injected animals or our produce that comes from pesticide-sprayed, genetically modified fields. That's where paying attention to the origins of foods comes into play, and where eating what's termed a "traditional foods" diet can help.
I'd like to talk more about traditional foods in the future. I read about one blogger who did a traditional foods challenge, eating only foods that your great-great-grandmother would recognize as food, for a month. I wanted to do the same and picked July as my target, since we had parents visiting in June and August. I figured our summer was going to be pretty relaxing, so I'd have plenty of time to soak beans and simmer grains. And then we decided to buy a house, and everything just went all stupid. We've been stressed and haven't had much time to cook; we're trying to use up what's in the pantry and freezer before we move; and we keep turning to comfort foods to wallow. When I write about these issues of eating good foods, I want to confess right now that I am no hero of the movement. I am learning and wishing and rather pathetically trying. I figured at some point that I'd share more of that journey with you.
Remember how I said that, in the end, the situation was complicated? The filmmakers have to decide what to do with their own little one-acre harvest, in much the same way that each of us has to decide what to eat and what to promote with our grocery dollars. But it all feels like a very little drop in the bucket when it comes to influencing the government's obsession with corn, or the culture's addiction (and my own) to cheap, convenient, tasty food.
Next up is changing my own habits before tackling the world's... But, first, a couple more DVDs to watch. I really enjoyed Super Size Me, and The Corporation is what convinced me to switch to organic milk if nothing else; if you're looking for something more hard-hitting, try these. I'm interested in seeing Food, Inc., but unfortunately our library doesn't carry the DVD, only the Participant Guide.
Still, maybe I've seen enough now to convince me. Our plan when moving into our new place is to transfer only worthy foods, and anything that is purchased for it must be equally sanctioned. Sometimes it's best to make a clean break, right?
Time to dethrone corn and regain my status as an omnivore.
So all those naysayers who said it's unnatural and degrading to encourage children to play at breastfeeding — there ain't nothin' you can do to stop it.
Things have been stressful in house-buying land, and I haven't felt up to writing about it, or about anything really, preferring to wallow in my discouragement. Everything else has been worked out so far, and we're hung up on one minor budgeting snafu that's up to the property manager to work out — only she won't return phone calls and doesn't seem able to read a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet that she put together in the first place. Oy.
To that end, I wanted to find something to post about that wouldn't make me sad. And I thought — breastfeeding photos! Beautiful breastfeeding photos.
When I was looking for images to use for my week of breastfeeding posts, I found so many wonderful breastfeeding photographs that I couldn't find a place for. So I thought I'd round some up here and let you enjoy them, too.
It's sort of like a Wordless Wednesday post, only it's Friday, and there are more words...
"This is what a nursing toddler looks like" is from sarah-ji on flickr. Here is her blog post about extended breastfeeding called "out of the EB closet," and her reasons to post the picture are on her flickr page. I'm so glad she did. Mikko's over 2 years old now and still nursing, and I love seeing other mamas with nursing toddlers for the support and camaraderie. It's definitely not abnormal as a species or historically, but for this culture, yeah. Here are Sarah-Ji's reasons to go public:
"I was originally going to keep this photo private, but i decided that we need more images of nursing toddlers in our society to normalize not only breastfeeding in general, but extended breastfeeding as well. i'm no militant lactivist, but the nursing relationship has been a very tender and rewarding experience for me and cadence, especially since i work full-time outside the home."
This photo is titled "Post partum," and it just speaks that perfectly for me. That mix of bewilderment, love, exhaustion, exhilaration, and "What were we thinking??" And I do believe that's a Boppy nursing pillow there under her sweet baby. It looks like she's got it balanced on the arms of her chair, which is what I often did as well. Via 3rd Wheel at flickr.
I love "Lunch At The Zoo" by Brave Heart (flickr) for its extreme stripiness! It's like seeing very colorful tigers. I'm also liking her wrap, which looks like a nice stretchy wrap for a newborn. Trips to the zoo are so much fun when you're carrying your own little creature through!
Here's another great one for extended nursing called "Nursing Charles on the train" from rmcf28 on flickr. I love how Charles is making a tent out of his mother's shirt — he's got his whole arm up there! This is one sure way to make a train ride nice and cozy for everyone.
"Beth & Laurel (mid-feed)" from moppet65535 on flickr gives a great example of side-lying nursing, which is the lifesaver of every breastfeeding cosleeper. In the interests of safety, please note that I am not (and this picture is not) endorsing the parent falling asleep on the couch as safe cosleeping. But do see how side-lying nursing can help you relax and put your feet up even when you're not sleeping!
I don't even know what the nursing pillow is in "Breastfeeding" by Marc van der Chijs on flickr, but check it out! It's as big as a loveseat cushion, and it looks like it's wrapping around her. Any guesses?
Thank you for joining me in Hobo Mama's observance of World Breastfeeding Week: August 1-7, 2009. It's been wonderful to celebrate breastfeeding with all of you! I've so appreciated your thoughtful comments and the chance to visit your blogs and hear your thoughts on breastfeeding as well.
Here's one last post to wrap it all up.
*******
If you're new to Hobo Mama or want to catch up on some articles having to do with breastfeeding, here's a roundup of some of my best breastfeeding posts, indexed by category. Some will repeat if they fit in multiple categories, but this way you'll be able to select a specific topic of interest to you to read about. The posts are listed within each category in reverse chronological order, most recent at top.
If you're reading this past the day it was posted, feel free to use the general breastfeeding label search to find any new posts and any I might have missed.
Feel free to let me know if any links are broken or if you want to suggest different topic groupings. Also feel free to suggest new posts on specific topics!
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living.
Riding the rails with my husband, Crackerdog Sam, and our hobo kids, Mikko Lint Picker (born June 2007), Alrik Irontrousers (born May 2011), and Karsten (born October 2014). Trying every day to parent intentionally and with grace.