Things I'm loving on Friday

Kellymom.com

This is a fantastic website devoted to breastfeeding support. Got a question or problem that is breastfeeding related? Then it is bound to be answered on this site.

Kellymom is run by an American lactation consultant named, you guessed it, Kelly.

I find it such a positive and encouraging place to visit when I'm doubting myself. I've got great advice on milk blisters, giving baby water, starting solids, iron needs and sleep!

And there is so much more to read.

Modern Family

My new fav telly show is Modern Family.

I love it so much. I laugh out loud almost the entire episode and can't for the life of me work out why Mike barely cracks a smile.

It's on Sundays at 8pm on TV3.

Wordless Wednesday - I ♥ Mary Janes

I can't help myself. I have to add some words!

These are Adele's first patent leather Mary Jane shoes. Sigh. This is why I love having a girl. I think I'll have to keep these shoes forever.

I ♥ Mary Janes!

FYI - They're Tip Toey Joeys from Wobble.

What defines me?

I was trying to update my profile the other day and was struggling to describe myself. My first thought was to say "I'm a mum and a wife". But I thought, no! thats too boring. I must have an identity of my own??

But then I started thinking about it. What's the alternative?  We usually introduce ourselves by saying what we do - I'm a teacher, I'm a lawyer, I'm a truck driver.

So what would I say? I'm an internal communications adviser.  I'm a public servant. But that's not who I am. That's just the last job I had. Why should my employer define who I am?

No. I'm a mummy. I'm a wife. I'm a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a sister, a friend.

I choose to be defined by my relationships. By love.

What could be better than basing my identity on those I love?

But I haven't mentioned the most important relationship of all. I am a daughter of God.

Here's me with the whanau. They make me who I am!

Shock, horror, I showed too much

He he he, Mike was a little shocked yesterday when he saw yesterday's post about breastfeeding and spotted the obvious in the pic of Adele latching for the first time.

He was like "thats showing a bit much isn't it?" and I said "I put it in black and white!"

He he he.

Things I'm loving on Friday

Been a while since I did a 'things I'm loving' post...

Breastfeeding

I'm loving breastfeeding. It's such a great way to connect with my cherub.

My two favourite things are watching her little eyes roll back and her eyelids fall shut as she is overtaken by sleep. It seems to be such a peaceful way to fall asleep - I admit I'm a bit jealous.

The other favourite is when she's been sucking a while and then gets another let down. Suddenly she has to start swallowing regularly again and her eyes often widen as she concentrates hard. Ooh and I love hearing the milk swishing around in her mouth before she swallows it.

Can you tell I think about this a lot? I love the La Leche League principle "Mothering through breastfeeding is the most natural and effective way of understanding and satisfying the needs of the baby".

Here's us at the Hamilton Gardens.

And this is our very first breastfeed. She was so clever and breastcrawled and self latched within 10 minutes of birth! (BTW, breastcrawling is super cool - google it! Hmmm, maybe I'll blog about it sometime...)

Send a card

This is a cool service from NZ Post where you can go online, pick a card, upload your own photo, write a message and they'll post out a card to someone for you. I've done it a few times now. I took a photo of Adele holding a cardboard sign saying 'Happy Birthday Aunty Susan" and uploaded that as the front page of the card. Super cute! And a very handy service.

A note though - you do need to do it a good few days in advance. It takes a while for them to print and send.

API speaks

A fav website of mine at the mo is API Speaks. It's the blog for Attachment Parenting International. The say they are the voice for gengle parents everywhere.

A variety of writers contribute blogs and they offer interesting perspectives on parenting.

Wordless Wednesday - Tomatoes!

Creation a week #9

I've been awol for a few weeks. Not much sleep, holidays, sickness, busy-ness etc. But this creation I actually did over Easter! It's just taken me this long to get around to photographing and posting it. Adele is getting back in to the swing of things now (sleep-wise) so I'll hopefully have more time for blogging again :)

So here is the Easter bunny I made for Adele. It would have been really cool with a wee bell inside but I didn't have one - next time!