Wanted For Questioning

The police are currently on the lookout for the above individual. Aidan David Graham, age 3, is found in connection with many horrible crimes which include destroying a printer back in 2006, messing up a family room only minutes after it was cleaned, and saturating a mother who was trying to bathe her children. If any of you have information leading to the apprehension of this individual, please contact the authorities immediately. We advise you not to approach the suspect, as he is extremely cute and will likely distract you from your original objective with his delightful ears and winning smile. (Though you may succeed in distracting him by yelling, "Free bobblecue!")

Thank you for your cooperation.

(For anyone confused by this: This is Aidan's passport photo, and I think it looks like a mugshot. Also, the term "bobble-cue" comes from Wordgirl, a fabulous PBS Kids show, which we all like very much. The Butcher tends to butcher the English language with words like "bobblecue" (barbecue) and "diskapointy" (disappointed). If you've not seen this show, I HIGHLY recommend it!)

I Love to Wean!!!

WARNING: Don't read this if you are having breastfeeding challenges, but you are determined to overcome them. Don't give up if you feel good about breastfeeding. I don't want to be a bad influence. But...

I won't give lots of detail, but from the title of this post you might've guessed that, after many tears, debate with my husband, prayer, lots of lost sleep, pain, etc., we decided to give up the benefits of breastfeeding in favor of bottle feeding. As it was with Sophie at 6 weeks (who pulled away from the breast and wouldn't nurse anymore), and Aidan (who was slowly killing me with sleep deprivation and starvation, etc.), it has totally been the right thing for me to do.

Here are some of the reasons I'm glad we weened Ian:

• His daytime feedings are no longer 1 1/2 hours apart on a regular basis. (I kept thinking, "Is this a growth spurt? What am I missing here? I thought growth spurts typically lasted just a few days at a time." Yeah, yeah, you may argue I was misreading his cues, but I'll not defend myself on that matter. I know he wanted to feed.
• My chest doesn't hurt anymore, and I get to wear a bra everyday and all day, if I like - and I like!
• I'm not starving anymore. I get to eat dairy, peanut butter, fruit, etc.
• My baby is happier more often.
• I don't have to change my top in the middle of the night.
• I get to sleep and pawn off night time feedings on my spouse.
• I have energy to actually do stuff. Lactating really exhausted me (not to mention all of the night-time feedings).
• My baby is kind of poochy. As a matter of fact, I'm convinced he gained one pound the first week off the breast. Sounds crazy, yes, but when my babies are a little chubbier, they're a lot happier!

(Doesn't he look happy?)

And the final reason it was right for me:

The day after we weaned Ian, I said, "Sophie, can you tell that Mommy is feeling better today?" Sophie replied, "Yeah, Mommy, you haven't even yelled at us at all yet!"

Don't get me wrong, I kind of liked that purple mouth look. It was pretty punk!