Archive for March, 2009

Spring Chickens

March 29, 2009 at 10:20 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Meet my girls!

Meet my girls!

As happy as I am to see Spring arrive, I know 4 ladies who may be even more excited.  I took this picture of my chickens last week on their first excursion of the year.  After ensuring that my neighbors’ dogs were nowhere to be found, we let our hens out of their coop to peck around the yard for an hour or so.  They were so happy that I was entranced watching them.  I spent the entire hour sitting in a chair and smiling as I watched them scratch and follow each other around the yard. 

 

I want to put in a plug for chickens as pets.  I LOVE my birds.  Best pets I’ve had.  Many towns (including Neenah!) allow you to keep chickens.  They take very little work, even in the winter.  You have to admire tiny animals who are able to weather our Wisconsin winters with no more protection than a small shed full of hay and their own poo.  Somehow, I relate to these birds.  First of all, they are the only other females in the family.  Between my hubby, my sons, my boy cats (well, “boy” cats), and a fish of questionable gender, I was ready for some female companionship.  You wouldn’t think chickens would fulfill my need for female companionship.  But, they do.  Chickens literally put all their energy into producing the next generation.  All they do is lay eggs and sit on them. That’s their mission in life.  They eat, but only to get enough energy to lay eggs.  They peck you if you try to take their eggs.  I respect that.  Chickens are also hilarious (one of the traits I look for in a girlfriend).  Have you ever watched a chicken hold her head high as she scratches around in dry leaves?  Hilarious.  Or watched them chase mosquitos in the air?  Hilarious.  It almost makes you look forward to Lakefly season.

My boys love their chickens too.  All the artwork they bring home from school manages to incorporate our chickens.  We have a lot of drawings, paintings, and collages featuring chickens.  I wonder what their teachers think?  Solon had an assignment where he had to decorate a T-shirt with drawings of his most prize possessions.  Right next to his renditions of his family and his house was a sketch of a taco and a drawing of a chicken.  That’s my boy.  The first thing Solon does when he gets home from school is check on the chickens to see if they need water.  Gage is something of a chicken-whisperer.  When the girls wander off into the neighbor’s yard, Gage can always corral them back to the coop.  If I go after them, they scatter in all 4 directions.  If Gage goes after them, they calmly come back to our yard.  Go figure.

 

So, go get yourself some chickens.  You won’t be sorry.  Or come visit mine.  We can have a cold beer and watch the girls scratch leaves.  There’s nothing like female companionship.

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Working and Pumping

March 12, 2009 at 2:09 pm · Filed under Adria, Breastfeeding

I spent part of last week in Appleton at the WALC conference.  WALC is the Wisconsin Association of Lactation Consultants and every year they host an educational conference for breastfeeding professionals.  I am NOT a Lactation Consultant, but I have attended the conference the last 4 years as a breastfeeding helper and as an exhibitor.  Karla and I set up a booth and talk to people from all over the state about Mom and Pop Place and breastfeeding.  We also sell about 2 million Nursing Nina stuffed animals.  Anyway, I love this conference.  The speakers are always fabulous!  I come home from the conference all energized to apply the incredible new things I learned about helping moms breastfeed.  It’s also like a big reunion.  We get to touch base with all the Lactation Consultants in the area, owners of other breastfeeding-related businesses, friends from across the state.  It was energizing as usual!workingwithoutweaning

My favorite speaker this year was a neuroscientist from Vermont named Kirsten Berggren.  Kirsten is the author of the book Working Without Weaning, an incredible little manual for moms who are working, breastfeeding and pumping.  She was the most enjoyable speaker I’ve ever seen at a breastfeeding conference.  (And I’ve been to more breastfeeding conferences than I care to admit.)  A few highlights from her talk:

1.  Someone asks Kirsten the best way to wash pump parts after every pumping and Kirsten asks “Why would you want to wash them every time?  Just put them back in the cooler until the next pumping.”

2.  Kirsten apologizes that she forgot a long-sleeved shirt to hide the tattoos on her arms.

3.  Kirsten shares her favorite breastfeeding cartoon from a cartoon strip called “Dykes to Watch Out For”

4.  Kirsten apologizes to the breastpump sales rep in the back of the room and then proceeds to “tell it like it is” regarding the problems with that product

5.  Kirsten shares the research she looked up online the night before, but warns us that she had a few glasses of wine before she surfed.

 

 Anyway, I really liked Kirsten’s presentations.  She had so much real-world advice to offer because her wisdom came, not from books and PhD dissertations, but from actually working and pumping herself.  What a concept.  I talk to moms all the time about returning to work and pumping milk.  I feel like I have good, accurate information to share with them.  But, you know what, I have not actually experienced what I am advising them about.  One of the best tings about Mom and Pop Place is that I can steer those parents towards the cafe or a Pop-In group where they can meet other moms who are going through the same experience.  I feel comfortable talking about working and pumping (especially after hearing Kirsten speak), but sometimes you just ned to talk to someone who can say “You know what, I had that same thing happen and here’s how I dealt with it………”.  So, thanks to all of you who come to our cafe and our Pop-Ins and share your wisdom with other parents.  You are the experts.  If they gave PhDs in parenting, you’d all be doctors.

 

I really encourage you to check out Kirsten Berggren’s website, www.workandpump.com.  It’s a great source of information from a passionate breastfeeding advocate and a link to a truly funny woman. 

 

Adria

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Thrift

March 6, 2009 at 4:15 am · Filed under Breastfeeding, Diapering, Parenting

Everybody is thinking of ways to save money these days.  Being thrifty is smart in any economy, especially for young families.  We’ve noticed our customers saving money in some smart ways.

 1.  Use Cloth Diapers

Disposable diapers cost about $1500-$2000 per child.  Yikes.  You can cloth diaper all your babies for under $500.  And you can use the same diapers for more than one child.  Even with the cost of water and detergent, you WILL save a ton of money.  We’re seeing an increasing number of parents going to cloth simply because of the cost-savings. 

 

2. Breastfeed Your Baby (and Toddler!)

Obviously, parents who breastfeed don’t have to spend a fortune on formula.  But, there are more intangible benefits to breastfeeding.  Breastfed babies are healthier.  That saves money on doctor visits, medicine, and missed work.  The health benefits of breastmilk will continue as long as you nurse your child.  Why not continue to save money and your child’s health as long as you can?

 

3.  Buy Better Stuff

Kids require a lot of stuff.  Make that stuff count.  Buy products that will last and that give you value for your money.  Cheaper stuff is not a better value if it needs to be replaced every week.  Toys should not be disposible.  They should be tough enough to stand up to your kids.  Actually, they should be tough enough to stand up to several of your kids and your grandkids.  A solidly built, quality toy will give you years of play value.

 

4.  Go Outside

Fresh air is free.  Go for a walk, play in the snow, listen for birds, color with chalk.  You don’t need expensive equipment or registration fees to kill some time outdoors.  And kids who spend time outside spend less time watching TV and playing video games.  Think of the money you’ll save on cable and game systems!

 

5.  Come to Storytime

Spend a Friday morning with us and enjoy free stories, crafts, and camaraderie.  You might even be able to find other Storytimes at local libraries.  But, we wouldn’t know anything about that……

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Baby Trust

March 1, 2009 at 5:07 pm · Filed under Adria, Parenting

Someone (and by “someone”, I mean my sister.  (Hi Sis!  I’m bloggin’ about you!)) asked me today what I thought was the single most important piece of advice I would offer for a new mom.  It’s tough to think of just one, singlularly important piece of advice.  I can think of lots of important things I didn’t learn until I became a Mom:

1.  Your cats really aren’t as loveable as you thought they were.  They’re just animals.  That we let poop in our house.

2.  You won’t be able to wear jewelery for about 1 to 2 years.  Unless it’s made of Cheerios and has a break-away clasp.

3.  You don’t even know what “tired” means until you have a baby.  People who use the phrase “sleeping like a baby” have no idea what they’re talking about.

 

But if I had to boil down all the things I have learned about parenting into one piece wisdom, I would offer this advice: Trust your child.  He will only ask for what he needs.   He needs to be near his mom.  He needs to nurse all the time.  He needs to be held and loved .   Often, he needs all these things in the middle of the night.  These are not things he does to manipulate you.  You can trust that these are things he asks for because he needs them.  Don’t be afraid to give your baby what he asks for.  I firmly believe that what a baby wants is what a baby needs.  If he cries to nurse, it’s because he needs to feed.  Even if he just nursed 30 minutes ago.  If he cries to be picked up, it’s because he needs to be held close and reassured for some reason.  Trust him.  Trust him that he knows what he needs. 

After I offered her this gem of advice, the “someone” I was speaking to (Hi sis!) gazed over at our collective, school-aged children fighting with each other and asked me with a laugh how we know when to STOP trusting our children.  Good question.  A baby is not capable of manipulation, but a second-grader most certainly is.  (Let me tell you.) Where do you draw the line?  I maintain that, as you learn to trust your baby, you really get to know your child.    You get to know what they really need when they are asking for something.  If a baby cries to nurse, he needs to eat.   As that same baby gets older, he may still cry to nurse, but his needs may change.  He still needs milk, but he also needs love and reassurance and comfort.  That is what he is truly asking for.  He’s telling you what he needs (comfort), by crying for what he wants (milk).  Since you got to know you baby so well by responding to his needs, you are able to interpret his needs.  Fast forward 7 years and that same “baby” is crying for a new Lego set.  (Just a random example, of course, this example baby is in no way modeled after a real 7-year-old in my life.)  You know he wants something, but he doesn’t actually need new Legos.   Since you are so tuned in to him, you can see that what he really wants is

A) a new, novel toy 

B) a sign of your love in material form

C) something to make his classmates jealous

D) something fun to play with when he’s soooooooo bored

 

Of course, you are not obligated to give him any of these things.  (He’s not the boss of you!)  But, once you realize what he really wants, you can meet his needs.  You could have him count his money and buy himself a new toy at the second-hand shop.  You could sit down together and write each other love notes.    You could help him make a cool craft he could bring to school for show-and-tell.  Because you trusted his as a baby and got to know him, you learned to interpret his wants and understand his needs.  You learned how to meet his needs without buying a new $50 toy.

 

So, in conclusion,  trusting your baby will save you $50.  You’re welcome.

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