Today was Erin’s 24th birthday and we celebrated by going to the mall, eating at Fazolis, seeing “Must Love Dogs,” and then eating a super-rich brownie cake with peanut butter icing. David and I designed and ordered her two shirts that say “Seizure Girl” on the front with a logo David made, and on they back they say, “Have you hugged an epileptic today?” I made her a shirt like that a few years ago and she LOVED it and got tons of compliments on it. Killy got her a hat, Mom and Dad got her the first season of Scrubs, and Miss Carina sent her fancy soaps (an obsession of Erin’s). I think it was a great day for her, expect that she had to go to class tonight. Oh, well. By the way, “Must Love Dogs” is an okay movie – John Cusack plays the sweetest, most adorable man but the female lead is very annoying.

At the mall today I was really saddened by something I saw… I try really hard not to be judgemental of other parents, because I know parenting is a really tough job and seeing someone for 5 minutes doesn’t give you an accurate picture of their parenting abilities/philosophies. But, there was a woman at the mall today with her 4 week old baby. She had the baby in a HUGE stroller (the kind where the car seat snaps into the stroller frame – you never even touch the baby in getting him/her out of the car and into the stroller) all the baby could see was the ceiling, and when the baby got hungry the mom rolled up a blanket and propped a bottle of formula for the baby to eat. Now, I realize that not every mom is able to breastfeed, but if you’re bottlefeeding its still really important to cuddle and comfort your baby while they eat. The act of nursing is soooo benefitial not just because the baby is receiving breastmilk – the cuddling and skin-to-skin contact help the baby and mother to bond with each other – they learn each other’s smells, know each other’s voices, and the baby is actually the perfect distance from the mother’s face. Babies’ eyesight is rather limited, and they can only see clearly at a distance of about 12 inches from their faces for the first few months – aproximately the distance between the face of a baby cuddled against mother’s chest and her face. This is a key component of eyesight development! (Evolution is just amazing, isn’t it?) Also, babies are sooo much happier and healthier if they are worn in slings or carriers than if they’re left alone in a stroller with nothing stimulating to look at and no physical contact. Babies worn in slings have the chance to bond with their parents and form attachments more easily, they “learn” to breathe correctly (babies’ breathing is often quite erratic – being against an adult’s chest with an even breathing pattern helps to regulate their breathing). And, honestly, I think its a lot easier to be out and about with a breastfed baby in a sling, than have to worry about mixing formula and grappling with a huge stroller. Besides – why wouldn’t you want to snuggle your baby – or your toddler! – against you? I had my sweet Killian, all 25.5 lbs of him, in my backpack and everyone kept commenting on how animated, talkative, and happy he was. Of course! He was up at eye-level with everyone so everyone talked to him. People tend to ignore kids in strollers because they’re not at eye-level. Killy also was right against me and felt safe and secure. Of course, I put him down at Costco and he happily runs away laughing, but that’s actually a sign that he’s very well-attached. He is totally secure in his knowledge that he is safe and mommy (or daddy) will always be there for him…

Okay, enough random writings about parenthood. A couple people recently have told me I should write a book about parenting, maybe I should do that so I stop writing about it here!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 29th, 2005 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.