So we had the pool party on Tuesday. Danielle and Matt arrived around 4pm, and we sat around and talked and played on our laptops until it was time to load up stuff and kids and leave. Everybody came, so the sixteen of us had the pool to ourselves from 8pm until 11pm. We had a fantastic time. Alyssa enjoyed everybody paying attention to her, and Ryan was happy to wander around with a few toys and tooth brushes. He walked along the pool’s edge to get his feet wet, and ventured out into the shallow end a few times. We had peace of mind in terms of his safety around the pool with the swim sweater. Of course, we all still kept an eye on him, and someone was usually with him, and there were four lifeguards at the pool, but having a backup is always nice. It kept me sane, that’s for sure! My head was swiveling at all times to keep Ryan within sight, but I wasn’t having a heart attack every time he ventured near the water.
Wednesday was just a lazy, lazy day… I went to bed around 3:30am and slept until noon. Ryan didn’t stir until almost 1pm, which for him is absolutely amazing. He normally gets up at 10am, even when he goes to bed late, so I know he was tired! In the afternoon, after I had made pancakes and sausage for everyone, we all took a nap. Dan came home from work and he napped too!
Around 8ish Danielle, Matt and I went out to Lane Bryant, dinner at Perkins (their treat — thanks guys!), a quick stop at an adult store (lol), and then to Walmart for a few odds and ends.
Tonight, while we were in the restaurant, I noticed a woman breastfeeding her daughter, who looked to be about five or six months old. It’s the kind of thing I noticed from the next table over only because I recognized the breastfeeding baby hold, and the side of her shirt was up a bit. Otherwise, you never would have known she was nursing her baby. I couldn’t help it; after she had put her baby back in the infant seat and we were getting ready to leave, I stopped by her table and told her how awesome it was to see a mother willing to breastfeed in public. If more women were willing to and refused to hide behind closed doors, more people would see that breastfeeding in public can be done discreetly, and there’s no reason why you should shut yourself away at home or in a filthy bathroom, or fight with a breast pump and potential nipple confusion/preference and milk supply just to appease people who have a lot of misconceptions. And by people I mean women, as nine times out of ten the resistance I have encountered and heard about in regards to breastfeeding in public has come from other vagina owning people. Way to go ladies; keep holding us back and you’ll be doing the men’s jobs for them! :rolleyes:
Now it’s after 2:30am, and I’m watching TV with Dan and thinking ahead to Thursday morning. I need to make sure I’m up at 8am to call a local car repair place to make sure they can figure out what the hell is the matter with my mom’s minivan (not the battery, we don’t think the spark plugs are gapped wrong; we’re thinking maybe the exhaust manifold having a hole in it is causing the problem?), and then call to get it towed. Later, at noon, Danielle, Matt, Alyssa and I are going to the Strasburg Railroad. We’re both bringing our cameras and I’m sure we’ll have plenty of photos to share on Flickr!
Some photos from the pool party after the cut!
Dueling Nikons. ;)
Blurry, but you can see how happy he is!
That looks like soooooo much fun! I wish I lived closer so I could meet up with you all!
Sound like you’ve had an awesome and busy couple of days!
Ryan looks really happy, must of been really nice for him to be able to go to the pool and enjoy it when it wasn’t too busy
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Glad you all had fun at the pool party, wish I could have been there.
Also, I agree with the breastfeeding in public. I am having my c-section in exactly 3 weeks and my grandmother and some other family members are actually trying to discourage me from it for a number of reasons. I won’t get into them on your comments (Im sure I’ll be ranting about them soon enough on my blog, heh). I just wish more people could see breastfeeding like you do! It can be done discretely, and I WILL be doing it.
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I’m glad you’re having so much fun with them. I WILL come and visit you sometime Jenn, i swear. It might be a few years though. Maybe by then I’ll have a little rascal as well.
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I need to make comments about that more – the breastfeeding in public women. It is hard to do with so many people in your business as a mom.
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I completely agree with you about breastfeeding, I think it’s such a natural thing to do and have never/will never think theres anything wrong with brestfeeding in public.
Looks like the pool party was great fun!!
I found your blog on despair.nu, and I completely agree with you on the whole breastfeeding thing. Whenever I’d take my breast out (discreetly, might I add) in public to feed my son, people would stare. And you’re also damned if you do or if you don’t. If I offered him a bottle (of juice), I got looked at by the mothers whose children had never touched or seen a bottle. But yeah, breastfeeding is natural, the best possible thing for the baby and it shouldn’t be knocked.