Wordless Wednesday: Little Lady

Okay! Toast It Is!

I keep hearing from people that these are the best days of our lives and that we're gonna miss the "good old days" when our children were young and keeping us busy. I don't doubt that they're right but in the moment it's hard to see it as such. How about an excerpt from a typical day in our house:

I wake up at seven and spend two and a half hours (approximately) getting Gabriel up for school. At 7:22 or thereabouts, he groggily walks out of the bedroom to the bathroom where he splashes his face with four drops of water and looks at his toothbrush and calls it good. We spend fifteen minutes having this conversation over and over and over and over:

Mom: What would you like for breakfast?
Groggy Gabriel: werkoc8a9
Mom: What?
GG: wr823usfsdk
Mom: okay toast it is

If we happen to make it through breakfast without a major catastrophe we call it good. If we make it to the bus stop ON time with a fully packed backpack and lunchbox I paste a gold star on my mom board when I get back.

The feeling of elation at being the best mother in the world (trademark pending) pretty much ends one and a half minutes after Bits gets up.

Mom: Good morning Bitsy, how are you?
Bitsy: (read this in high pitched voice really really fast) HIMOMMMAHOWAREYOUIHADREALLYGOODDREAMSLASTNIGHTBLAHBLAH
Mom: Mhmm, what would you like for breakfast?
Bitsy: (screaming) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIHATEBREAKFASTWHYAREYOUOFFERINGMEBREAKFASTWHENYOU KNOWIHATEITDOYOUHATEME?!
Mom: Okay, toast it is.

Breakfast is done and it's time to get on with the business of the day...but not before cat one and cat two get in on the act. I don't speak cat, but I can try and translate what they're saying:
Cat one: meow meow you should probably feed me today
Mom: what would you like
Cat one: filet mignon, caviar, and whole milk fresh from the cow
Mom: okay! toast it is!

Cat two: meow meow, I'm dumb, you could feed me cardboard and I'd be happy
Mom: Okay! Toast it is!

If during the course of the day nothing manages to catch fire, fall out the window, get stuck in the toilet, or end up all over the wall, I call it good. In fact, if I can brag for a minute, I call it an AWESOME day and strut till it's time to miss bus pick up in the afternoon.

Dinner time is utter chaos, in fact if you could hear the noises coming from the apartment, you'd probably think it was either a) a zoo at feeding time or depending on the day b) a wrestling match complete with grunting sweaty wrestlers, I mean, children.

The best part of the night is bedtime. Oh who am I kidding? No it's not. It's worse than the morning. It's loud and awful and stressful and I want MY mom to read me a story by the time it's over.

Mom: anyone need anything before I shut the door?
Gabe: yes, can we talk about jets? what kind of jets do you like? do you like big jets or little jets...blah blah jets jets jets..blah blah
Bitsy: (at this point sobbing) MOMIHATEGOINGTOBEDINMYOWNBEDIHAVENIGHTMARESANDTHECATSDON'TLIKEMEANDIWANT
TOSLEEPWITHYOUPLEASEPLEASEIDONTHAVEABESTFRIENDTOCALLONTHEPHONEIHATEBEINGFOUR

Mom: okay, toast it is!

At this point cat one and cat two get in on the act;
cat one: meow meow get those damn kids to sleep so you can pet me, brush me, and attend to my every need in the manner I've become accustomed (he's rather articulate for a cat, let me tell you)
cat two: meow meow, yeah what he said...oooh what is that shiny thing?oh hooray a moth. oh look over there....*crash* cat two has run into the wall and knocked himself out...at least someone is sleeping in the house.

Obviously this is a *slight* exaggeration, though at one point in our lives all of these things HAVE happened (other than the cats speaking, man that would just be too weird)

I love my kids, but as Geo and I were talking about last night, sometimes when you're in the thick of it, it's hard to see the humor in what's happening, it's hard to see the memories we're making. He said that after two days of us being gone on vacation, he was so bored and lonely, he could barely stand it. As he said "at first it was wonderful. No one making messes, no constant laundry or vacuuming, I could listen to whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted and no one cared! WOOHOO it was wonderful until the third day and I realized that the kids are what keep things interesting around here" (the cats don't speak to him, apparently) and he's right, the kids DO keep it interesting, our lives would be incredibly dull without them. I mean, I would NEVER have to listen to an explanation of the screen being knocked out on accident at six am (that was this morning, I was woken up to Bitsy crying, quietly saying "momma, I knocked out the screen in our window accidentally getting my pig out of the window" and oddly enough, I knew what she was talking about because I'm mom and mom knows these things! there WAS a pig in the window last night, he needed some air!) I wouldn't ever get to hear jokes from Gabriel like "what did the zero say to the eight? Nice belt!" and then hear him laugh hysterically about it.

I think this quote says it all:
While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about.
~Angela Schwindt

Okay! Toast it is!

What Does This Say??

Today Bits and I had to go to the jewelry store; my poor engagement ring needs to be fixed; the prongs are worn and the diamond is loose-not a good thing. So as I'm standing there ordering the new head for my ring (and honestly, when the woman asked "would you rather have a new head?" the 12 year old boy in me wanted to answer "no, I'd rather have a new butt, this one has a crack in it!" but I restrained myself...barely) and Bits comes up to me with a flyer for a resetting event. She asked, "what does this say momma?" I told her it said they were resetting rings. She asked what that meant. I told her it meant if you had a loose stone or a ring that you didn't like anymore you could get it redone so you could wear it again. She thought about it for a minute and said "hmmm"

Jokingly I asked her "what, lady, do you have a diamond I don't know about that you need to put in a new ring??" and started to laugh. She looked at me and said VERY matter of factly "yes, I do momma. My big diamond heart fell out last week and you haven't fixed it yet, maybe they can fix it here" I had to think about it for a minute and then it hit me. A while ago someone gave Bits this obnoxious gaudy ridiculous DELIGHTFUL thoughtful gift of a huge honkin' ring that has a HUGE heart shaped "diamond" in the center. It was literally glued in place with rubber cement or some such thing, it didn't take long for the heart to fall completely out...and now, apparently, we need to take it to a jeweler and have it reset, probably in platinum because this girl has expensive tastes already. *shakes head* I guess I'll never ask her something like that again, will I? That'll teach me!

(also, I'm still giggling over the new head thing for my ring...mostly because it reminds me of the joke about having a new butt instead of a million dollars he he. I'm such a 12 year old boy)

The First Week of 2nd Grade

The first week (WHAT?!) of second grade is nearly over. I'm not even sure how that happened. It's been an eventful week to say the least, full of epic momma failings he he. We had supply drop off and Gabe's teacher handed me his name tag and said "please be sure he wears this on the first day" No worries, I stuck it in my wallet where all important things go and then promptly forgot to stick it to his shirt before he got on the bus. Whoops.

How do you follow that up? Oh let's see, how about mixing up bus times so that your kid misses the bus on the second day of school? Yup, that was what I did for an encore. As Gabe and I were walking to the car so I could drop him off at school he said to me "Jeez Mom, way to go, it's my second day of school and I'm already missing the bus"

So today is day three and what will I mess up? NOTHING! His lunch is packed (and double checked!) he has an appropriate snack in his bag for breakfast, a full water bottle, his gym shoes AND his art shirt. The bus leaves in a half an hour and I'll be down there in 20 minutes! I'm guessing, though, given my luck, I'll probably forget to get him off the bus and he'll wander up here scowling, wondering to himself how he got such a negligent mother. I suppose at least, he'll have something to talk about in therapy when he gets older, right?

As an aside, it's recently come to my attention that people seem to think that I'm singling them out when I blog, that my blogs are an attempt to brag about how *amazing* and *wonderful* I am. Let me say this, I started this blog to chronicle my children growing up for family who doesn't live nearby to see what they're doing on a regular basis. Oddly enough if you go back to my first few entries (and you can't right now because I have to fix my url and I'm not quite internet savvy enough to fix it at the moment) it's nothing but "bitsy can say these words: blah blah blah" or "Today Gabe helped me plant our herbs. Look at all the cute pictures" In recent months, I've become more vocal about politics and things I observe. I am going to have to put a disclaimer on my blog, much like the ones in the front of books, "this is a work of (mostly) fiction, identifying names, events, and places have been changed to protect people. Any resemble to people, past or present, is purely coincidental." Because while I may blog about seeing my family or throwing my niece in the pool with Gabe and Bits, when I blog about feminist issues, parenting issues, social issues, etc I'm not blogging about anyone in particular. I'm a reader, an AVID reader. I often see articles on line that spark my interest and this blog is my outlet to say what I have to say about the things I wonder about. Oddly enough, yesterday Geo came across my "potential blog ideas" list and said "what in the world are these? These don't make any sense together" well of course they don't, they weren't meant to be read in order or as a list of things that make sense!

If for some reason, you come across a blog and immediately think "that Chrissi is such a b*tch, here she is blogging about ME and what I'm dealing with" please take a second and ask yourself WHY I would chose to single you out on MY blog. Take a second and think to yourself "Gee, do I maybe have some issues that I need to work out and it's being vocalized here?" I blog about current events, I blog about things that bother me, I blog about whatever the heck I feel like blogging about, without any regard to what other people may say or do or think about what I am blogging. So here it is: My blog is not a direct reflection of any one thing or anyone person in particular; I write to get things out of my system, I write because it gives me a little bit of spending money every once in a while, and I write because I enjoy it...and with all that being said, if you're so insecure that you think every single thing ever written on this blog is about you, perhaps you ought to look a little more closely at yourself-you're projecting your own insecurities on to me and I simply do not have the time, patience, or desire to deal with it. I deal with more than enough in my own life that I don't need you projecting on to me too.

Now back to your regular scheduled blogging about cute kids, annoying rants on feminism, annnnnd whatever the hell ELSE I feel like talking about :)

Thankful Thursday

I know I say it all the time, but I'm so thankful for my hunky hubby Geo. He's such a hard worker and takes such good care of us. By the time he's done working on Sunday at 3 p.m., he will have put in 76 hours this week-his long weekend for Labor Day will be well deserved, that's for sure. I envision a weekend full of grilling, cold beer, and catching up on True Blood together. I'm a lucky girl indeed, to have married such a great man. Love you HH.

Take Me As I Am-Or Not At All

I am a "take me or leave me" kind of girl; I think I have a personality that you either love absolutely or hate absolutely-I don't know that there's any middle ground whatsoever...and I am okay with that; after thirty odd years of being like this, I'm comfortable in my skin; I'm comfortable with my faults, my quirks, my what have yous.

I am gossipy and nosy and sometimes down right rude. I'm brutally honest to a fault, I judge hard. If you lose my trust, it's hard to gain it back. Sometimes I make snap judgements that turn out to not be correct. I'm hard headed, I have a type "a" personality and it's annoying, and while I can forgive easily, I have a very hard time forgetting.

On the flip side of this though, I am fiercely loyal to those I love. I will bend over backward (and then some) to make sure people have what they need. I am (mostly) a lover, not a fighter. I like things to be peaceful, even and calm. I love to laugh and love to make other people laugh. I try to see the best in everyone whenever possible even if I don't always SAY those things out loud (which I probably should do more of to be honest)

My mom and I had a really interesting chat when I was home; she basically said that her policy on people is "if you don't like me, fine, don't like me, but move along and quit wasting both of our time" and I like that. That's going to be my new policy, if you don't like me, I don't care, but I'm not going to waste ANY more of my time on you and I'm not going to waste my breath, time, and resources TRYING to make you like me or see me for who I really am. It's time that *I* started respecting and loving myself as much as I do other people and stop spending precious time on what others think of me. So, from here on out, if ya don't like me, move on out :) And if you DO like me (there's one or two of you out there lol) it's a safe bet that I like you too :)

Wordless Wednesday (has words): 2nd Grade

Today is Gabe's first day of second grade; getting on the bus this morning he was so confident and self assured. He was ready for whatever this day had to bring and prepared to do battle if need be. He's such a great little guy and it's been such a pleasure watching him grow up.

Darned if you do, darned if you don't.

I feel a rant coming on; a feminist rant actually. A damned if you do, damned if you don't rant. Yesterday an article hit the web entitled Tough Gals: Do They Still Exist. It was an article that basically said women are becoming too "girly". We're too girly because we blog about gardening, knitting, and cooking.

Yes, you read that right, WOMEN are TOO girly.

I'll let that sink in for a second...

It used to be that women were too "manly"; that we were trying too hard to be like men. The backlash over female politicians is just ONE example of women trying too hard to fit into a "man's world". Apparently women are no longer allowed to be girly, we must be tough, except that when we're tough, we're no longer girly and as EVERYONE knows (insert eye roll here) that's just not attractive.

It seems like women just can't do right by ANYONE. You're either too feminine or too masculine, you're either super mom or a horrible mom, you're either an overly devoted and submissive wife or you're the wife who has her husband's testicles in "her purse"

There is no middle ground when it comes to how we're judged; it's always got to be one extreme or the other. We fought for equality, we continue to strive to make this world a friendly place for our daughters, nieces, and sisters and every other woman out there. We don't want to be seen as the "weaker sex" (because honestly, it's not true-what man do you know can squeeze a watermelon out of a lemon hole and be up walking shortly thereafter?) Women before my generation fought so that we could be tough OR girly...or a combination of BOTH. They fought so WE didn't have to fight for these things...and yet, here we are, all these years later STILL fighting for the right to be ourselves...whether we're ball busting politicians, girly cupcake baking bloggers, or somewhere in the middle.

It seems like it's a never ending battle; as women we'll never please anyone...so we might as well please ourselves, huh? So keep on you cupcake bloggers, you kick ass front line military women, and you somewhere in the middle ladies going about your day to day business. You don't have to live up to anyone's standards and expectations than your own-that's what generations of women before us have fought for-the right to be ourselves-don't let small minded people take that away from you.

It's Not Fair

Gabe is in the "it's not fair" phase of his life (the first of many, I'm sure) Dr. Montessori made a point to mention (more than once, I might add) that when a child hits six or seven, they suddenly have a sense of justice, mostly pertaining to themselves, but eventually pertaining to other people and other situations as well. Once a day or so, Gabriel will tell me something isn't fair. Today it wasn't fair that he had to wear socks with his shoes, it also wasn't fair that he wasn't allowed to sit on his sister. While it's annoying to hear him whine "it's not faaaaair" twenty two thousand times a day about insignificant things, I know it's normal and he will eventually grow out it (at least for a little bit, I expect that around sixteen it will start up again, ha ha)

What I can't deal with is grown people continually lamenting about how unfair something is. We all have things in our lives that aren't particularly "fair" however, at some point you need to quit yer bitchin' as they say and DO something about it and if you chose to do nothing about whatever it is you think is so unfair, then shush your lips. Put up or shut up as they say :)

Here are a few things I've recently heard/seen/experienced people saying weren't "fair":
It's not fair that my spouse is working long hours, I never see them.
It's not fair that I have to be up all night with a new baby.
It's not fair that the neighbors have a new car and we make more money than them and don't have one.
It's not fair that I am not able to go on vacation when so-and-so was able to go.

Really people? REALLY? These things aren't fair? How about some examples of things that REALLY are not fair. It's not fair that 200 people were recently let go by our local Lowe's store with NO notice; it's not fair that a friend of mine is dealing with the reality of having a disabled son and has no real life support system to help her deal with it, it's not fair that some people have no vehicle at all and walk or bike everywhere like many people in our apartment complex do. It's not fair that young men and women are coming home in body bags because they're fighting overseas. It's not fair that small children are dying of cancer. Do you get my point?

There's a newish phrase to describe the pissing and moaning people do about trivial things; it's called "first world problems" and really, let's be realistic; if we're pissing and moaning that we can't get a NEW car or take a vacation, are we really THAT bad off? There are people right in your neighborhood who can't afford a SINGLE car let alone a new one, there are people in your neighborhood who would love a single DAY off of work but can't for fear of not having a job when they get back or losing that income.

To be fair, I'm guilty of complaining about stupid things too; I'm guilty of complaining that things aren't fair; in fact, one time I was complaining loudly to my mother about the fact that it's NOT FAIR that Gabe has a disability (and really, it's not...but bear with me here) My mom, who by the way is a cancer survivor, said "you know Chris, I used to feel that way about my cancer, I used to scream at God 'why me? why me? this isn't FAIR' and one day I just realized, 'why NOT me? SOMEONE has to make up the statistics' and yes, it sucks, but it's life and we deal with it. Yes it sucks that Gabe is disabled, however SOMEONE has to be that number and maybe you didn't plan it that way, but it is what it is and now you deal with it"

And that's kind of been my motto since that day. No it's not fair, but why NOT me? In all reality, our lives are GOOD. Even if we can't buy a second car right now; even if we can't go to the Dells for Labor Day, even if I do NOT see Geo much because of 60 hour work weeks. How can I, in good conscience, complain about these things when there are so many people who are so much worse off?

Geo's grandparents have a quote they shared with us that they love and we've come to love it as well:
"Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have." I'm finding that as time goes by, this is truer and truer. Be happy, be grateful, be CONTENT, you'll be much richer for it...and there's NOTHING unfair about that!
 

Friday Five: What Goes In

1. What goes into your coffee or tea? (no coffee, gross!) sugar or honey and an ice cube or two
   
2. What goes into a good omelet? Cheese and ham
   
3. What goes into your ears on a good morning? Sarah McLachlan of course!
   
4. What goes into a healthy but yummy lunch? chicken, lettuce, veggies, cheese, and a bit of salad dressing
   
5. What goes into a productive evening? uh, hard work and hand grenades?!

Thankful Thursday...two things

Today I'm especially thankful for two things; the first is the wisdom and perspective that comes with age and the second is my kiddos imaginations and senses of humor. I have two seriously imaginative and hilarious children and it makes my days (and nights) much more interesting and fun.

What are you thankful for today?

Wordless Wednesday Vacation Edition

Hello!

Well hello there from sunny St. Charles! The kiddos and I are home at long last from our beach vacation in Michigan. I can honestly say that these last ten days have been some of the most relaxing days I've had in YEARS. Here's a quick run down of what we did:

We saw "pirate" ships (replicas of the Pinta and Santa Maria ships), we watched sailboats, we took long walks, went to the beach, worked in the garden, and ate what we picked from the garden. I learned how to use a riding lawn mower (be afraid, be very afraid) as well as learning my dad's "famous" pickled beet recipe-right down to the burning myself on the lids as I got ready to seal them up-whoops. I read seven books, I went yard saling with my mom, we took an emergency trip to the dentist for Bitsy (whoops-she's fine but it was a bit of a pain to have to do) we stayed up late watching crappy tv, I learned a LOT about my mom's family by not only asking questions BUT by listening to the answers. I played with my niece and nephews, I visited with friends, I looked at old photo albums and I enjoyed not having a well working cell phone and limited internet access.

One of my favorite things to do as a kid growing up on the beach was pick up beach glass; my prize piece was a piece of lavender glass (though I'm not sure where it is now) and this week while at my parents, I searched through rocks and weeds and grass for beach glass...and found some. My prize piece this week was a cobalt blue piece that was so soft and worn, I couldn't stop rubbing it. I think there's a lesson somewhere in the beach glass; if I'd have to guess I'd say that the lesson is that we all have sharp edges and sometimes just have to go with the flow to smooth them off and become something beautiful...or maybe there's no lesson at all and I'm having a post vacation hangover; either way, we're home and we're gearing up for our last week of summer vacation before school starts...I'll post a few pics in the next day or so of the kiddos on the beach :)

So I Guess This is Growing Up?

Whenever we go to Michigan for a trip, the kiddos both choose a few items to put in their backpacks for the ride up and for comfort items, if they need them. Without fail, Gabriel ALWAYS puts Sam, his faithful scruffy puppy in his backpack (and he usually ends up on Gabe's lap about ten minutes into the trip and stays there till we get where we're going)

Today I told them to go get their bags and pack em up so we could get ready to go. Both of them packed their bags and Gabe came out and started telling me what he'd brought: books (big surprise, eh?) a batmobile, a decepticon toy, and a yo yo. What was absent? Sam! I asked, "what about Sam? Is he staying here? Are you sure you'll be ok?" He looked at me and said "I'll be fine, I'm 7, I don't need Sam to go everywhere with me anymore Mom" I told him that was fine and went to take a shower, wondering why how he grew up so quickly.

I snuck a peek into the kiddos bedroom as I walked past and sitting front and center of the bed was Sam. I swear he looked like he was going to cry (or maybe that was ME wanting to cry??) Sam still hasn't been packed and I'm not sure he will be packed...and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

New Web Address

Hi all! Just to let you know (in case you hadn't noticed) I've changed our web address to something that's a bit easier remember and find. The address is now www.witkowskifamilyhappenings.blogspot.com

If you google "Witkowski Family Happenings" you'll probably get the old address and it'll show up as a missing blog. No worries though, just type in the above web address and you'll find us! You can also find us on Facebook at this link.

Just wanted you all to know that the kiddos and I are going on an extended vacation to my parents house in Michigan and I will not have any internet access til at least the 16th (after Friday that is) Unless HH decides to blog, we'll be on vacation :) See you when we get back!

Wordless Wednesday: Lactavist

Wordless Wednesday has words today because August is one of my favorite "activist" months; August is Breastfeeding month!! (a subject near and dear to my heart and not just literally!)

I don't think I've ever shared my entire breastfeeding story on my blog so here we go (and I'm cross posting over at the new blog I'm a writer for as well which you can find here)

Gabriel was born three weeks early so he could have surgery on his back; the odds were stacked against us for breastfeeding from day one. I wasn't allowed to see Gabriel until after his surgery and couldn't hold him for eight days. Obviously, if I couldn't hold him there was no way I was going to be able to nurse him. I pumped round the clock for the first eight days so that I could be sure he was getting as much of my breast milk as possible. We tried and tried...and tried and tried and tried some more to nurse once he came home. We made it to about six weeks and then had to start on formula. Even though I knew it wasn't something I could control, not nursing Gabriel is one of my major regrets when it comes to his first year. I vowed then that if I had another child, I would not only nurse successfully, but I'd do it at least a year.

A few years later Miss Bits came along. The odds, again, were stacked against us. I had a repeat c-section (strike one) along with a tubal (strike two) and I had a rather large benign tumor removed from one breast a year before having her (strike three) She was jaundiced (strike four) my nipples were cracked and bleeding (strike five) and she began to lose weight (strike six) This was all within the first three days of her life, I felt like the universe was trying to tell me something...but it didn't work. I persevered and made it over those bumps. I pumped round the clock after nursing to be make sure she was getting what she needed. I cried on the phone to my gf Kelly who was my biggest cheerleader (other than Geo) I cried to my mom, I cried in the shower all the while vowing I'd do right by SarahAnne.

And a funny thing happened...even though my milk supply on the side where I had the tumor removed was virtually non existent and I was sore and exhausted, Bits began to gain weight and lots of it. In her first month alone she gained FIVE pounds on nothing but momma's milk. By six weeks we BOTH knew what we were doing and there was no stopping us. Growth spurts? No problem. Teething? No problem. Nursing strike? No problem. Sixty two thousand different allergies and a strict diet for momma? No problem. One year came and went and I wasn't ready to be done yet and neither was Bits. Eighteen months came and went without any visible end in sight either, but by 22 months we were both ready to be done. Our weaning was completely child led and bittersweet for me. She gradually stopped nursing and one day patted my breasts and said "Empty momma, no more nurse Bits" and that was that. I had set out to nurse her a year and went above and beyond that. I worked full time off and on throughout the time she nursed, I had emergency surgery (during a blizzard no less!) and nursed the whole time. I had a disabled toddler, a husband to take care of and a house to keep clean...and nursed the whole time.

I'm incredibly proud of my accomplishment; I often have to remind myself that other women simply do not have the same drive and determination I do when it comes to nursing, though it still makes me sad when I still hear the same tired excuses over and over. Women need to be more supportive of one another and teach one another not only HOW to nurse, but how to stick with it. Back in days of "old" (ha ha) formula wasn't an option; you either nursed or your child died-plain and simple. There was no "oh my milk didn't come in" or "it's too hard, so I gave up" it was nurse or die and women nursed. As medicine "advanced" and formula came on the market, we forgot how to nurse; it used to be that mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts were there when you gave birth to get you off to a good start nursing. You'd be able to go to your neighbors house and get advice on nursing and in turn, as you became more experienced, you'd be able to give advice too. Formula came on the scene and women turned to it first because it was "better" than breast milk...as a result we have whole generations of women who never nursed and in turn had daughters, nieces, and grand daughters who didn't nurse.

Thankfully that's changing; nursing is coming "en vogue" (gag me) again and more and more women are at least TRYING nursing. As I always tell the women I help with nursing "Any milk is better than none, let's see if we can get you through the day...week...two weeks, etc" If a woman can get to six weeks they can usually go as long as they'd like. It's just a matter of getting to that point and having the proper support to do so. Education and support can and DO make all the difference for a woman who is attempting to nurse.

And now for the wordless part; this is one of my favorite pictures of Bits and I. We were at the zoo when she was about 10 months old. It was a gorgeous day and she got hungry, so we sat down and she had a bite to eat and a picture was snapped of us.

Teaser Pic

Here's a teaser pic for the whole Witkowski family from this weekend's festivities!! More to come!