Welcome to the Sunday Surf! Here are some of the best links I've read this past week.

We usually have our family fun day on Sundays, but we chose yesterday instead: 40% chance of rain yesterday instead of 100% today. Yes, my friends, we have entered fall in Seattle. It's going to be all drizzle, all the time, from here till the baby is born.

I was talking to Mikko about the baby, whom I described as the size (currently) of a grape. He made the shape with his finger and thumb and said, "Like this, Mama?" Yes, like that. "The baby come out now?" No, I said, the baby will be inside until June. "What Joooon, Mama?" It's a month, I said, clearly in over my head now. It's when summer comes. It's fall right now, and then it will be winter, as it gets colder and colder, and then spring, and then the baby will come when it's almost summer. Mikko looked blank, so I continued. Fall and winter are when it rains and rains. He considers this, watching the rain streaming down our windows. "And the rain wash the baby out?" Hmm. I guess.

• "Your Impact" from Code Name: Mama: Dionna's been hosting a Joys of Breastfeeding Past Infancy series that I've been glad to participate in and read. Dionna shares one mama's response to the series, a newfound confidence to continue nursing her baby past a year, even though she has no local support. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of the community and support we can offer each other online.

• "Hiring Community" from Strocel.com:
  

  "The reality is that I’m not going to magically become super-productive while two kids scale the back of the chair I’m trying to work in. If I want to get something done, I need help. And so I decided to hire some. We put an ad on Craigslist, and found Wonder Nanny. She comes two mornings a week and plays with my children while I work. …
  
  In a different time, I would live in a multi-generational community, where I would trade childcare with other adults and have back-up when I needed it. Here and now, I don’t have that. So I have hired my ‘community’. I will admit, I feel sort of awkward. …
  
  I do need the help, though. I’ll admit it. This is my life, working at home with two kids, and I am doing my best."

  As someone who trades off working and parenting time with my husband, mourns the dearth of alloparents, spearheaded a babysitting co-op among her friends, and still has fits of guilt over sending her son to preschool twice a week, all I can say is, Yes. It is so hard for attachment parents (particularly mothers) to let go of the idea that we can or should be our child's only caregiver. I don't think it's even natural in the sense of historically normal. But when we don't have volunteers handy, we have to pay for the privilege of giving our children more trusted adults to attach to and experience life with. To Amber, I say, Go for it, and enjoy! To myself, in my own mind, I wish I could wholeheartedly say the same thing. I'm getting there.

• "Lower Standards" from Goofy Mama: So glad it's not just me…

• Want to sew a mei tai? I do now!
  
  
  • "how to sew a mei-tai baby carrier" from grumbles and grunts: Oooo!!! With free downloadable pattern!
  • "Mei Tai" from Momma Jorje: In perfect Girl Scout green. With link to Kimber's Ball Baby Overall mei tai at Sleeping Baby, another free pattern.

• "How to Be Alone," by Andrea Dorfman and Tanya Davis, via "If you are alone, you should watch this." from The Tumtum Tree: Moving video poem on how to be alone with yourself, for all my beautiful single friends and for myself in those quiet moments.

• "Homebirth Hypocrisy" from Connected Mom: When I was growing up, it was the norm for people to die in hospitals or nursing homes. Now I've watched several older family members choose to spend their final days in their own homes, with the support of family and hospice workers. After millennia where dying at home was the expected thing, we've come around to allowing people once again to make that choice — or at least feeling that they should be able to. I can only hope the same acceptance comes back around for home birth.

• "PILAM 2010: Why I write about miscarriage" from Tales of Minor Interest: October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. As someone who has lost a baby to miscarriage, I appreciate the mission here:
  

  "I write to give voice to those who cannot speak without their feelings being invalidated. I write for those who cannot or will not, for whatever reason, write for themselves. I am not so pretentious as to claim to know what all women feel, for we all experience loss differently and process it uniquely in our own due time, but I write to pay homage to all my sisters in pregnancy loss and to honor and validate their experiences."

• "What Everyone Needs To Know About Infant Formula Ingredients" from Breastfeeding Moms Unite!: Melodie's done a great job of researching some of the stickier ingredients that go into infant formula. This post is not meant to condemn those who use formula but just to offer information that's hard to find out as a sort of informed consent that pediatricians typically are not offering.

• "The worst epidemic you know nothing about" from mamapundit:
  Drug overdoses typically do not end up in police reports or broadcast by the media, even though these injuries and deaths are happening all the time.
  

  "Accidental drug overdose is currently the leading cause of injury-related death in the United States for people between the ages of 35-54 and the second leading cause of injury-related death for young people [after motor vehicle accidents]."

  I know Henry's sad experience has inspired me to be as aware and proactive as possible when it comes to drug use and my children. I hope it's enough.

• That was depressing, so now I want to end on a silly note. I laughed hard enough at "The 7 Most Useless Skymall Products (Reviewed Accordingly)" from Cracked that I cursed it as my choice of reading material while trying to soothe Mikko to sleep. That said, like all Cracked articles, it's juvenile and filled with bad language and sexual humor. So, you know, you're warned. Of course, that's why I like them.

• We are still and ever accepting new, original content for Natural Parents Network, including your articles on "What is natural parenting?" for the November Carnival of Natural Parenting. Submissions to the carnival are due Tuesday, November 2.

• I have two giveaways up at Hobo Mama Reviews:
  
  • You can win 25 custom photo cards from Photo Card Creations if you enter by this Tuesday, October 26. These chic, designer cards are worth about $62 and would be perfect for holiday greetings. Contest is open to U.S.
  • Prima Princessa Presents: Swan Lake DVD from Prima Princessa. My son lurves this preschool-friendly ballet DVD that introduces key vocabulary and dance concepts, shows and explains a professional production, and gives lots of time to twirl around in tutus and tiaras. My review was featured on TutuZone this week, so that was pleasant! This is a Region 1 DVD appropriate for U.S. and Canada. Enter by November 10.

You can find more shared items during the week at my public Google Reader recommendations feed. Check out Authentic Parenting, Baby Dust Diaries (on hiatus), Maman A Droit, Navelgazing, pocket.buddha, Breastfeeding Moms Unite!, Enjoy Birth, A Domesticated Woman's Adventures, and This Adventure Life for more Sunday Surfing! (If you also participate in a regular link list, whether on Sunday or not, let me know and I'll add your link.)

Feel free to add your recommendations in the comments. Happy reading!