Yes, apparently one or both Jason and I say “oofta.” Yes, we also live in North Dakota, so it probably happens more than we ever realize. This fact was hammered home to us the other night at supper when Jason said, “oofta” after A had a coughing spell. K looked at him and said, “Asa poopy?” So apparently, we not only use the word oofta, but we use it as an expletive when changing a smelly diaper.

More and more over the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing K repeat things that we have said to him. One night, Jason was giving him two choices for getting his diaper changed. K kept telling Jason that he didn’t want to have his (poopy) diaper changed. He wanted to wear it. (On a side note, you can tell we’re not exactly steaming down the road of potty learning :-). ) Jason told him, “That’s not a choice.” Later that night during the bedtime routine, K and Jason were talking and at one point, K said to Jason, “No, Daddy, that not a choice.”

Last week, we spent a little time with my mother-in-law and father-in-law. One of the days, my nieces (ages 6 and 4 were over). At one point, I heard them arguing, and the six year old was saying, “That’s fair!” to her sister over whether or not she needed to share some toys with her. Fast forward to this morning. I was showing K the new library books we had checked out for this week. He was pretty excited about them, and he kept pulling them out of the bag and saying, “That very fair!”

Then, there are the things he picks up that I’m not sure where they came from. “You know better, Mommy!” “A, you being bad!” “No, no, no, no, no!” These are not things we say to him. I know that now that his peers are speaking more and we are around more and different people, his pool of experiences to draw from also grows.

He’s at an age where he is such a sponge. He doesn’t have preconceived ideas of what is fun or not fun (video games vs. books) or what music is good or not good (pop music vs. opera). He loves so many different things. I think that his new tendency to repeat things that we say at just the right time is good for us in more than one way. While it reminds me that he’s always listening to what we say, it also reminds me that he is picking stuff up All. The. Time. I am raising a little sponge, and I want him to be able to absorb all that he can before this time ends.

You know that whenever your spouse says, “Do you know what your son just did?” something hasn’t gone quite right. This morning, I was laying in bed nursing A, and Jason said those words. I didn’t answer, because I knew he was dying to tell me. Sure enough, the answer followed almost immediately. “He put Magic Butt Cream in his hair.” For those of you who don’t know, Magic Butt Cream is the diaper cream that we get from our doctor for a diaper rash that isn’t controlled by the regular over the counter stuff. A few weeks ago, K and Jason had a talk about how we don’t eat the Magic Butt Cream. It’s only for sore butts. It’s not for eating. Well, he didn’t try eating it again. This time, he took about 1/2 of what was left, and he smeared it in his hair. Ugh.

Unfortunately for me, Jason was on his way out the door and on his way to work. I was lucky enough to take over the emergency bath. In addition to having a head full of grease, K did not want to take a bath, and he had a poopy diaper! I managed to talk him into the bath. Then, I started in on his hair with Dawn. Dawn cuts grease, right? I figured that was my best chance at getting some of that stuff out of his hair. He was patient enough to let me lather and rinse his hair twice. THen, he lost patience, so I took him out of the bath, and he spent the rest of the day with the wet look.

Tonight at supper, he continued on with the hair experiment and decided to try applesauce in his hair. I told Jason that it was his turn to work on K’s hair. He did the 2nd bath of the day with both boys. While they were in the bathroom, I checked the internet and found that some people suggested using cornstarch for getting Vasaline out of hair, so we tried it. K thought it was pretty funny, and I figured it couldn’t hurt. I didn’t get a chance to see his hair after it dried, so I’m not sure if the cornstarch solved our problem or not. I’ll be interested to see how it looks tomorrow.

If you don’t want to read about nursing, today’s a good day to take a break from the beautiful letdown.

First, nursing bras. Who makes these things? Why do they all sag? I have yet to find a nursing bra with good support. Even when I take the little adjuster things (the plastic clasps on the bra that make the straps longer or shorter) and push them over the back of my shoulders, I am still not getting decent support. I have been wearing nursing bras since November of 2005, and I’m still unimpressed. Any suggestions?

Secondly, nursing in winter. I need some new winter clothes or something. Nursing in clothes that keep me warm is a tough job! Sweatshirts are too bulky. Some of my undershirts are a little too tight. Some shirts don’t work out that well with a nursing tanktop. Sigh… Apparently, I’ve been having apparel issues lately.

Next, falling asleep while nursing. Neither of my boys have ever been the nurse to sleep type. A did for a while, but he stopped that quite a while ago. K never really nursed to sleep even as an infant. I’m not sure if it was the turkey or what, but in the past few days, both K and A have fallen asleep in my arms while nursing. It’s such a sweet feeling. They’re just so sweet and pure and loving.

Then, there’s three years of nursing and almost eighteen months of tandem nursing. After three years of nursing K and about 18 months of nursing K and A, I’m starting to feel ready for K to get ready to wean. At this point, I don’t think that I will do anything about my feelings. If K isn’t ready to wean, I won’t push him. I’ve considered limiting the number of times he nurses in a day, but I don’t think that’s fair to him. If he did it out of boredom or habit, I might consider it. I don’t think he does though. I think he really needs to nurse in order to reestablish a connection with me. This morning, my parents were up with the boys while Jason and I got a bit more sleep (thanks a lot, Mom and Dad, we appreciate it). I heard Kael outside the door at one point asking for “mommy milk.” I heard him asking for me a while later just as I was about to get up. When I came out to the living room, he said, “Kael needed you. My wanted mommy milk to feel better.” Now, really, how can I argue with that? I don’t, because I know he’s telling me the truth.

Finally, support. I have the best family. They are all great about the nursing and tandem nursing. My mom nursed me for at least a year and a half. She nursed my brother until he was almost three. She’s always been very supportive of the boys nursing. She encouraged me to check out the local breastfeeding support group which I have really enjoyed, and she was a huge help when both of the boys were newborns. She sat up with me and helped me with diaper changes and burping. WONDERFUL! I know that some people are fortunate enough to have support when their babies are young, but as the baby grows, their support fades away and they hear “when are you going to start that baby on formula/solds/cows milk?” or “when are you going to stop nursing?” I have yet to hear either of those questions. Of course, my boys both eat solids, but I *never* get asked when I’m going to wean! That means a lot to me. Also, over the weekend, my parents stayed here as did my brother and sister-in-law. They don’t have kids yet, so I’m not really sure what their thoughts on nursing are, but I would never have had any reason to suspect they are anything but positive and accepting. K nursed several times over the weekend, and A nursed MANY times. In fact, he nursed a couple times at the dinner table on Thursday during our Thanksgiving dinner, and no one batted an eye.

Since he was born, A has been sleeping in our room. He slept in a pack n play for a while. Then, for a while, he slept with us. Then, back into the pack n play. Last week, we decided to move him into a crib in the same room as K. I thought that it would be a rough transition for A. He’s always been a baby who needed to be close to Jason and to myself. I figured it would take two good weeks before we could tell how things were going. Well, he surprised us. After a couple initial struggles, he has done just wonderfully. He nurses. Then, Jason takes him to bed where he lays down and falls asleep. K has been struggling with the transition more though. Unfortunately, I think this came at a bad time for him. He’s also at a stage where he’s kind of ready to start potty learning. He’s not able to get through the day without a nap, but if he does take a nap, then he struggles to fall asleep. I think that having both of those things to deal with and this transition of A moving into his room has been tough on him. Poor guy. I’ve been trying to give him some extra love and mommy time. He has ramped his nursing up, too. Now, I just have to laugh at my worries a few months ago that he wouldn’t still be nursing at 3. I think he nursed 5 or 6 times yesterday, and 3 or 4 today. Sometimes, I wonder if A will wean before K.

Now that K is three, I see some big changes coming. First, I’ve noticed that he’s becoming a preschooler and no longer a toddler right before my eyes. He puts his own shoes on when he wants to. He is starting to use the potty. He has great conversational skills. He has a great imagination. He is dropping his nap. He is telling us that he wants to start wearing underwear and using the potty. It doesn’t seem real that he could go from such a tiny baby to this little boy. It is amazing and a little sad all at the same time.

A is growing up, too. I know it has to happen, but at the same time I’m not quite ready. A is walking. He’s dancing. He also pushes cars and makes a car-like noise. He is also slimming out. When I look at pictures of him from his birthday in July and now, I can see how he’s growing and looking more and more like K and Jason. If it weren’t for his blonde (WHERE DID HE GET THIS???) hair, I think he’d look almost exactly like Jason and K. As it is, I regularly get comments about the resemblance between the three of them. Luckily, I was the container that carried both K and A, so I can get at least that much credit.

I’ve always heard people say the same sorts of things about little kids. “Enjoy them when they’re small.” “They grow so fast.” “Before you know it they’ll be… (going off to school, driving, getting married, you name it).” Recently, I’ve been thinking about another saying. “The days may go slow, but the years go fast.”

And, because I’ve been overloading with pictures lately, here are a few more.

Baby K

K with his lego tower

Baby A

A eating a caramel apple

Lately I’ve been thinking that I need to spend more time writing about nursing, tandem nursing, extended nursing, and other thoughts on those topics. This is a breastfeeding blog, right? I just seem to have a writer’s block in that area though. I told Jason tonight, the reason that it is harder for me to write about nursing now is that it just is. What do I mean by that? Both K and A are nursing regularly. They’re both nursing well. They are both able to get what they need, and I am able to feel like my boundaries and needs are respected. I don’t feel like I have any angst to share with you about this!

I suppose that could be a topic in itself, right? Tandem nursing for almost 16 months, and nursing for 36 months straight, and happy with my choice and how things are going. (Terrible grammar and sentence structure there) So, it’s likely that I will be spending less time writing about nursing and other nursing issues for the time being. Maybe if Baby #3 rolls around at some point (in the distant future), I will have more to say about it again.
Until then, how about a picture of K tandem nursing Baby Ellie and Mr. Monkey

Nursing Baby Ellie and Mr. Monkey

to tide you over?

that International Babywearing Week is November 12-18? I didn’t know that until today.

One of the blogs that I regularly read is Adventures in Babywearing. In honor of Babywearing Week, Steph posted a giveaway. She is giving away a Pop Nest Sling or a Sparrow Hatchling Sling from Nonny & Boo.

If you are interested in winning, click on over to her site, and sign up on the Mr. Linky with some baby wearing pictures or some thoughts about babywearing if you don’t have any pictures. Here are some of my pictures. Happy Babywearing Week!

In Line to See Obama in April

A in the Kozy

K wearing Baby Ellie

I think that K has cabin fever already. Starting on Wednesday, it got pretty cool here. It started to rain. It rained and rained and rained! Then, it snowed, and it all froze. Right now, it’s cold and frozen outside here. This morning, I got up and one of the first things K did was to run laps. He ran through the kitchen, into the dining room, and back to the living room. He did this about 15 or 20 times in a row. Jason and I just laughed at him, but I got to thinking that it’s only November 9. We have a LONG winter now before it’s going to be spring and nicer outside. I know that we can play outside in the winter, but it’s just not the same. *sigh* I think we’ll be scouting out indoor play places.

Wow! I never thought that K would actually be a 3 year old. I also never thought that he would be a breastfeeding 3 year old. When he was born, my initial goal was 6 weeks. Then, I thought 3 months would be doable. After that, I decided to follow his cues.

K has always been a child who needed a lot of physical contact. He likes to be held. He likes to hold hands. He likes to climb into my lap and play. For him, I think that nursing has been more about physical contact and reconnecting than the milk. Of course, he likes the milk. When I recently went on a weekend trip, I left frozen milk primarily for A, but I think that K drank as much as A did. Some people crave Coca-Cola. Some people like milk or water or beer. K LOVES a glass of “mommy milk.” In fact, the first time I gave him a cup of pumped milk, he stood in the kitchen and chugged it. When he was done, there was milk running down his face. Jason and I were laughing so hard. Now, if I’m going to be gone at bedtime, he’s on the lookout for a glass of milk.

I have gotten some looks and some unsupportive comments about my choice to 1) nurse K for almost 3 years and 2) do that while tandem nursing A (15 months). If I’m honest, I think that it makes me sad more than anything else that people think that there’s something weird, wrong, or odd about our choices. I don’t think that everyone should or can nurse for 3+ years or tandem nurse. I just wish that people would realize that it’s an option and it’s not as crazy as it sounds.