Like mother like daughter.

So Saturday my mom, baby Violet and I attended a family birthday party at a park in Lakeland. While I was there I breastfed V in the car in the same spot my mom breastfed me in many years ago. It is the only pic of my mom breastfeeding me and I let my mom take a picture of me in the same spot. I thought it was sweet.

Silence your phones and leave your baby at home!

I got into some online arguments today about bringing babies to the movie theater (excluding children's movies). Seriously that is my biggest pet peeve on earth! If your baby cries even 2 seconds it has already disrupted my movie experience. Movies are expensive and I found a responsible sitter to watch my daughter and you should do the same. All it takes is one cry and a critical line in the movie can be missed. Coughing I can handle, people getting up to pee can get up all they want but please be considerate and leave your baby at home. It is loud and can not possibly be good for their hearing anyway. The only little kids that should be in a movie should be sour patch.

My nipple is not a teether!

So V is now 8 months old. Sometimes I still think it is weird to think of myself as "mom." But Mom I am. This also marks 8 months of breastfeeding and let me say that I NEVER thought I would last that long. I have officially surpassed any other member of my family in terms of breastfeeding the longest. When I was pregnant I would say I hope to breastfeed to 6 months but we shall see what happens. The more I read and researched the more I realized that 6 months was not enough and my ultimate goal is to make it to 12 months. I do look forward to my boobs being "mine" again. V got her first tooth on June 3rd and proceeded to bite down on my nipple. It even left a tooth mark...yikes! Hopefully the rest of her teeth will come in slowly so that I can finish up my breastfeeding goal.

At the end of next month I will be going on my husband's firm retreat and I will be away from her for 2 nights. I do not look forward to it. We are not ready. V still takes naps on my shoulder and spends half the night sleeping in bed with me while nursing. Agh....must not stress as a weekend away from daughter should be a stress free relaxing time. I have noticed that she nurses a lot less than she use to and she no longer nurses for comfort during the day. If she is not hungry than she does not want boob. All bets are off at night though and all she can think about is BOOB!

When she is finally weaned I want a nice cold bud light. I do miss social drinking at gatherings. One thing I do have to look forward to is college football!!!! Go Gators! I know that has nothing to do with what I was talking about but it is my blog and I will send out random shoutouts to my school if I want to :)

Rubber Ducky Your The One

What is sad is the fact I have at least 40 more rubber duckies that are not in the picture. I hope to take a pic of her with all the rubber duckies she owns one day this summer. Needless to say her bathroom is completely done in ducks.

Breast is Always Best

"Suess" for Nursing Mothers
from The Compleat Mother Magazine

Mother's milk is just the thing!

Would you nurse her at the park?
Would you nurse him in the dark?
Would you nurse him with a Boppy?
And when your boobs are feeling floppy?
I would nurse him in the park,
I would nurse her in the dark.
I'd nurse with or without a Boppy.
Floppy boobs will never stop me.

Can you nurse
with your seat belt on?
Can you nurse from dusk till dawn?
Though she may pinch me, bite me, pull,
I will nurse her 'till she's full!

Can you nurse and make some soup?
Can you nurse and feed the group?
It makes her healthy strong and smart,
Mommy's milk is the best start!

Would you nurse him at the game?
Would you nurse her in the rain?
In front of those who dare to complain?
I would nurse him at the game.
I would nurse her in the rain.

As for those who protest lactation,
I have a perfect explanation.
Mommy milk is tailor made
It's perfect food, you need no aid.

Some may scoff and some may wriggle,
Avert their eyes or even giggle.
To those who can be cruel and rude,
Remind them breast's the perfect food!

I would never scoff or giggle,
Roll my eyes or even wiggle!
I would not be so crass or crude,
I KNOW that this milk's the perfect food!

We make the right amount we need,
The perfect temp for every feed.
There's no compare to milk from breast-
The perfect food, above the rest. Thos nursing smiles are oh so sweet,
Mommy milk is such a treat.

Human milk just can't be beat. I will nurse, in any case,
On the street or in your face.
I will not let my baby cry,
I'll meet her needs, I'll always try.
It's not about what's good for you,

It's best for babies, through and through. I will nurse her in my home,
I will nurse her when I roam.
Leave me be lads, leave me be ma'am.
I will nurse her, Mom I am.

Hobby Turned Obsession?????

My other motive for starting this blog was to continue my hobby/obsession for freebies. For the last three years I have in my spare time at work entered contests and signed up for freebies. My biggest wins have been a free year of Netflix, 3 ipod shuffles (I returned 2 for a nano though) and some $100 leather shoes I won for my husband. As for freebies I get anywhere from 10-20 magazines in the mail a month, and tons and tons of small samples of deodorant, toothpaste and such. I also belong to a company where I test products for them and afterwards I get to keep the product. Finally, I belong to a survey company where I get paid $3 a survey and I usually get to do around 2 a month. It adds up though because I have bough stuff for V’s nursery using the money.

Since becoming a stay at home mom I have found more time to devote to my hobby and I recently uncovered mommy blogs. Many have giveaways for free stuff. They blog about a product/company and you go to the company website then comment back on the original blog post describing an item you saw to prove you went to the website. I love checking out the websites because it tells me about products and cute items revolving kids/babies. I usually enter these contests while V is boob feeding. Maybe 2 hours a day tops. So far I have won somewhere around 16 contests and I have only done this for maybe 2 months.

My loot thusfar:
A organic newborn outfit for a boy (will make a great gift)
$50 gift certificate to tinyprints.com (where I will make V’s first birthday invitations)
Around 10 different books
A huge box of organic cleaning supplies (stuff I had wanted to try anyways)
Pillow
New kind of toothbrush
Super cute pink hair clips for V
A toy watch
2 baby/children’s CDs
Napkins
Toy wrangler (too keep V’s toys from falling out of the stroller)

Back to my original point. I started this blog because if you post a button for the blog on your blog some contests then give you an extra entry. Therefore on this blog I will have a blogroll of my favorite blogs (that offer giveaways).

No Food and Drink Allowed

So today after 6 months in my new town I finally have my library card. As a future library professional this is very exciting for me. It is a smaller library than what I am use to. Coming from Orlando and their massive downtown library it is very strange to see such a small library and small book selection. I will make do and as soon as Violet reaches 18 months I will have her there weekly for toddler time. I am seriously excited to share my passion of books to my offspring.

I also experienced my first session of nursing in public. I picked the back corner of the library put a blanket over her and let her get some lunch. I got a few double takes from some library patrons but it was more painless than I thought it would be. My mother was with me and reached out to the nearest shelf and pulled a book off so we would have something to do while she ate and it was a giant history/picture book of my college (UF). We laughed at the odds of that happening. We also laughed at the no food or drink allowed in the library rule. Should I have checked my boobs at the door?