On Breastfeeding (Warning not for the faint of heart!)

I came across this article written by my fellow medical wife, Kate. I thought it was a great article but was really surprised by the comments. It saddens me when people compare feeding your child the way God intended to going to the bathroom or having sex. I'm with Kate, I fed my girls everywhere. I wish I had been more comfortable early on with Jena, it would have saved me a lot of heart ache. But live and learn. So, I try to pass on good advice to my fellow nursing moms because I know that not everyone has someone to talk to about it. With me, I had my sister-in-law, Julie. She nursed 3 children before Jena came along. Since my mother did not breastfeed, and treated my doing so somewhat of an anomaly, I truly valued Julie's support.

Of course, not everyone shared my enthusiasm for it. Once, at a lunch with Roger's work, the Colonel's admin assistant made a comment when I was feeding Lily. Lily was crying and I said, "Oh, she is hungry." I then proceeded to pull out a BIG blanket to use as a cover. The woman then politely pointed out where the bathroom was, to which I replied, "We're fine here. But feel free to eat your lunch in there if you'd like." It was a large crowd and I think most people didn't even notice. So to the faint of heart out there, get over it. Babies are made to be breastfed! That is, after all, what breasts are for.

Super Hero Man!

And now for the latest installment of conversations with a 3 year old. Recently I ordered a pirate costume for our pirate lover Jena from Disneyoutlet.com. It came in on Wednesday. Jena was very excited and put the costume on right away.

Later she told me the man gave her the costume.
Me: "What man?"
Jena: "The Super Hero Man!"
Me: "But I bought that costume for you."
Jena: "But the man in the truck brought the costume."
Me: "Ahh, the UPS man. I asked him to bring that."
Jena: "Well, I call him the Super Hero Man and he gave me the pirate costume!"

I never get the credit!

Welcome back Hardy Babies!

I've added the Hardy Babies back to our friends list. Melissa has made the blog public again. Avery and Haley continue to do amazing things. Recently, Avery has started to regain control of her left hand! Way to go, Avery!

Elephant Hall

Growing up, my favorite thing to do in Lincoln was to go to Morrill Hall (aka The University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History). We went there all the time and if we have stayed there I probably could have worked there I knew it so well.

Most of the locals call it Elephant Hall because the first exhibit you see is Elephants (really their ancestors the Mastodons.)

Some of the exhibits have changed, but most of it was the same. It was great to show the girls.

Where the Buffalo Roam.

Hands down, Jena's favorite part was the Paleontology exhibit. She could have spent all day "discovering" fossils.

13 months

Lily turned 13 months yesterday. Here she is standing, I think she will be walking on her own every soon. She cut 4 new teeth on our trip, one in the front on the bottom and three premolars! She is way ahead of Jena at this point in the teeth department, but Jena had way more hair.

Nomades come home

We are home again! I have more pictures from the trip that I will post soon. But I just wanted to let everyone know we are home from our long vacation. It was nice to see everyone we got to see and good to show the girls place I used to go when I was their age.

Thanks to my Aunt Sharon, Uncle Jim and Brittany for letting us use their house as a home base. And thanks for all the help scrap booking. Thanks to my Aunt Janelle for putting together a great family reunion and family history book and letting us crash at her house over the weekend. And thanks to my grandparents for letting us stay with them during our visit. Thanks to Budget rental car for upgrading us to a cool SUV for no additional cost! And a special thanks to the travel rep at Delta who fixed my seat assignment for me, after the internet rep wouldn't. I really didn't want my 3 year old to sit alone on a plane. And thanks to the girls for being such troupers. 2 weeks is a long time to sleep in a strange bed.

We are getting settled back in. Seems strange to be home after so long. But Roger and Hershey took good care of the place while we were gone. Those of you around town, we look forward to seeing you soon and sharing our adventure stories.

Reinwald Family Reunion

The main reason for our trip to Nebraska was for the Reinwald Family Reunion. The Reinwalds are the family of my dad's mom. A lot of my dad's cousins were able to come. Thanks to my Aunt Janelle for planning everything. The girls and I had a great time.

The girls had a great time getting to know their cousins. Here is Jena with my cousin Joel's son, Trey. He is 8 months younger than Jena and they were fast friends.

Here Jena is with Piper. Her grandpa is my dad's cousin, Denny. Piper is 2 months older than Jena so they had a great time talking about princesses.
On Saturday we took a Missouri River cruise.

Lily didn't make that trip because it was 102 that day. Thanks to Aunt Sharon for watching her. Jena really enjoyed the Shirley Temple she got with lunch. She felt like such a big girl.

Here is my cousin Lydia later on Saturday with Lily. Lydia just loved playing with Lily.

We played minigolf that night. Here is my cousin's wife Anna, 8 months pregnant with the latest Fenton. She was a trouper.

Here is Jena claiming her prize with her Fenton cousins.
Hanging with Claire, Hailie and Kendall Fenton.

Preping for an old fashion slumber party. Just like the millions I had with my Fenton cousins.

Sunday we went around visiting old family sites around Swanton, NE.



Finally, hanging out at Aunt Janelle's with my neice, Desi. She and Jena had a great time playing.
I had to put this picture in because these are the same toys I played with at my aunt's as a kid.
Jena, Lily and Desi. My dad's three granddaughters.

Kearney

We went to Kearney last week to visit my family out there. The girls had a great time meeting more family.
They really enjoyed playing with their cousins.

They loved puttering around in Grandpa's garden.

Here we are with my Great-Aunt Mary. She will be 92 next month.

They really liked checking out the lay of the land. It was so strange to see them play with the toys I played with as a kid in the places I played with them.

Outside my bubble

The girls and I are still on the road for another week. I came across this post today about a recent suicide of a military wife in Fayetteville. I've felt a little like I'm in a different world here, definitely outside of my Bragg bubble. I'm in a place where people don't understand about the constant deployments and training that are part of our lives. It saddens me that more people are not more informed about the fight our troups are doing in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Much less the toll it is taking on our soliders and their families. If you know someone whose spouse is away, give them a call and say hi. It might mean the world to them.

On the road

Hey everyone! The girls and I are in Omaha for the next few weeks. We made it here Saturday and are adjusting to everything pretty well. We head out to Kearney tomorrow to visit my grandparents and great-aunts. Then Friday, we are back to Lincoln for our Reinwald family reunion. We haven't seen to much yet, but we have been enjoying the food:


Mmmmm, Runza!