tag, i'm it!

bokumbop has tagged me for the meme thing, so here goes:

10 shallow things i'm grateful for (in no particular order)
1. metropolis lattes--have saved me from many a potential migraine.
2. chocolate--in any shape or form in mass quantities, preferably of the belgian persuasion.
3. ebay--i am a sinner, what can i say...
4. classmates.com--hey, it's how i reconnected w/ josh, and if i hadn't, he and olarn and connolly wouldn't have been around to save my ass when cadence locked herself in the bathroom. so don't judge me.
5. work-from-home-wednesdays. which is tomorrow, yay!
6. metra--it's the way to really fly cuz everyday can't be #5.
7. my babyhawk mei tai--kicks ASS.
8. trader joes--provides food on the table PLUS employment for the hubby to pay for said food on the table. not to mention all the CHOCOLATE in various shapes and forms in MASS QUANTITIES, many of which are of the belgian persuasion.
9. jane austen novels--i LOVE empire waist dresses with a plunging neckline!
10. babylegs--stylish AND practical.

10 deep things i'm grateful for
1. cadence--if i need to explain this one, you must be a stranger around these here parts.
2. ted--he takes care of our daughter while i'm at work, cooks, cleans, does laundry AND brews some mighty tasty beers!
3. our family--we've got some good ones. esp my mom who comes over to watch cadence every wednesday to make Shallow List #5 possible.
4. our church--the folks there have been so good to us this past year. it's nice to get back to my wesleyan roots.
5. our friends, near and far--you know who you are...
6. music--esp. elizabeth mitchell and all the other music that keeps cadence happy in the car and lulls her to sleep at night.
7. attachment parenting--i really believe that parents can change the world.
8. other bloggers--i believe that bloggers HAVE changed the world.
9. my motherland--she is beautiful and i miss her.
10. the chronicles of narnia--i believe in narnia. i am so not kidding.

and to complete the meme, i am tagging lori, lauren, and da boyds.

cleans up nicely, eh?

...different outfit, same sassy attitude...

what cadence really looks like in the mornings...

...she is totally yelling at me to put my camera down...

this could have been me...

if you've read my post from august 7th, you know how i feel about breastfeeding. i know i've said before i don't consider myself a 'lactivist', but maybe i'm just in denial.

because when i read about this following news story, i got really pissed off:

'A New Mexico woman who was kicked off an airplane departing from Burlington International Airport after she breast-fed her 22-month-old daughter has filed a complaint against two airlines with the Vermont Human Rights Commission...

...Gillette said she was seated in the second-to-last row, next to the window, when she began to breast-feed her daughter. Breast-feeding helps babies with the altitude changes through takeoff and landings, Gillette said. She said she was being discreet -- her husband was seated between her and the aisle -- and no part of her breast was showing.

Gillette said that's when a flight attendant approached her, trying to hand her a blanket and directing her to cover up. Gillette said she told the attendant she was exercising her legal right to breast-feed, declining the blanket. That's when Gillette alleges the attendant told her, 'You are offending me,' and told her to cover up her daughter's head with the blanket.

'I declined,' Gillette said in her complaint.

Moments later, a Delta ticket agent approached the Gillettes and said that the flight attendant was having the family removed from the flight.

Gillette said she didn't raise her voice -- not wanting to make a scene in the current jumpy air travel atmosphere -- and complied with the ticket agent, crying as she exited the plane.' ~Burlington Free Press

you see, that woman could have been me. that family getting kicked off the plane could've been our family. i have nursed cadence on every flight we've ever been on, and there's no way in hell i'm using a blanket to cover up. why? how would YOU like to eat your meal with a blanket smothering your face? when you're nursing, one of the orifices you use for breathing (your mouth) tends to be occupied, and therefore you have mostly your nostrils to depend on for your oxygen intake. even if i WANTED to use a blanket, cadence would just pull it off. even when i try to cover my boob to be discreet while we're in public, if my shirt or sweater covers her nose at all, she'll pull that sucker right up and turn her mommy into an exhibitionist.

...the really stupid thing is that had the mother NOT been nursing her toddler, there is a good chance that toddler would've been crying and fussing and disturbing the other passengers at takeoff, esp. with the pressure changes. that mom was doing those around her a FAVOR by nursing, not to mention doing what was best for her child.

i know i may be boring some of you who cannot relate to the nursing mom's dilemma, but i feel it is important to do my part to let ordinary folks like you (sorry if i offend by calling y'all ordinary...) know what nursing moms experience. until flight attendants like the one on that delta flight are not offended by the sight of a breastfeeding mom and child, until the average jane and joe can look at a nursing mom and child in public and think nothing but positive things about it, until the public can see nursing as being the most natural thing for a mom and child to be doing, i'm gonna keep talking about breastfeeding, lactation, boobs, nipples, sucking, lansinoh, breastpumps, nursing bras, proper latch, let-downs, antibodies, extended nursing and child-led weaning.

and it's not that i'm trying to get y'all to agree with me, per se, but to get y'all merely used to the idea of boobs being used for nourishment and that being perfectly natural. i don't believing in guilt-tripping women into breastfeeding. there are reasons women don't and can't breastfeed. however, i believe strongly that women should make the choice based on correct information, and i believe that the current environment in our society and workplaces does not promote breastfeeding.

alrighty, i'll get off my soapbox now...

reunion-o-rama

...what you see above is my 4th grade class photo. yes, i am old enough to have had a teacher who wore glasses like that. and lucky me—my photo is right next to the teacher’s. it's hard to believe that 25 years have gone by since 4th grade. i still remember coming home from school on the last day of 2nd grade thinking to myself how OLD i felt now that i was entering the 3rd grade. i must have felt ancient by the time i sat for this photo.

i recently got back in touch with my childhood friend jin. she's the cute girl on the very bottom right of the photo. she organized a mini-reunion this saturday night at her place. it was fun to see old faces and to catch up with jin and the others. except for jin, all the others there were parents of teenagers by now, so i couldn't help feeling a little bit behind the curve. then again, i can't imagine parenting a teenager at this point in my life. a two-year old is challenging enough!

we've come a long way since the days of singing along to lionel richie and wham! on B96 and watching duran duran videos on MTV. back then, we couldn't wait to finally be all grown up, while at the same time never believing we'd actually grow OLD. now, we look back on those years with fond memories of our innocence and simpler times mixed with horror at our hair and wardrobe.

...on sunday, we trekked southward to downers grove to attend the open house for auntie becki's mom’s new custom lampshade business called shadygrove lampshades. it's a joint venture between linda (becki's mom) and her friend cheryl. we saw some really pretty lampshades and ate the yummiest cookies EVER (cookie bakers RAWK).

...besides lounging around and eating cookies, cadence got to goof off with uncle dave. for having napped for only about half an hour on the ride down, she was in an unusually good mood. she danced around people's legs singing cheerfully and charming everyone she met. something tells me she's NOT an introvert.

...as long as we were in downers grove, we had plans to meet up w/ some old friends of mine, greg and michele kus, whom i hadn’t seen in like at least 5 years. we still had a bit of time to kill before heading over there, and so we stopped at a school playground we saw while driving. we know how restless cadence gets when she's stuck in a car or indoors all day, so we thought it would be a good idea to let her get some fresh (albeit COLD) air and run around to her heart's content. even ted and i joined in the playground fun on the swings. we froze our butts off, but it was worth it.

...we had a lovely visit w/ greg and michele and their adorable girls anna (3) and emily (9 months). michele is a a cerified Montessori paraprofessional, and we got a lot of great ideas for fun things to do w/ cadence at home to promote play and learning. cadence and anna got along great, and little emily was the sweetest little baby—happy and content and so mellow. greg and michele are also attachment parenters, so it was a treat for us to be able to share stories and talk with folks who have similar parenting philosophies as we do. i love my non-AP mommy friends, but sometimes i can't help feeling like a freak for some of the choices we've made in parenting, such as cosleeping and extended nursing and gentle discipline. ted and i still struggle with being consistent in these choices, and seeing greg and michele and how they interact with their girls gave me the reassurance that these were in fact the right choices for our family. i just wish they didn't live so far away!

earlier in the day, we had happened to pass the new emmett's ale house in downtown downers grove. there's an emmett’s up in west dundee, really close to ted’s parents’ house. emmett's is a brewpub with some award-winning beers and pretty good food. naturally, ted could not resist the opportunity to drink some good beer, so we met up w/ dave and becki and becki's parents cal and linda for dinner there. we happen to really like becki’s parents, so we were quite happy with the arrangement. luckily, cadence was still in an unusually good mood for having barely napped all day. she even ate her green beans and carrots even when she'd asked for peas and corn (which the kitchen didn't have that day). she stayed seated for the entire dinner with minimal whining, even though we were there for a couple of hours, and was generally a delight for most of the evening.

oh, on a side note, some of you know that ted's passion for beer has not yet had much effect on my own tastebuds and aversion to most beers. well, a little while ago, i prayed a silly little prayer asking god to help me like beer because it would mean so much to ted. would you believe that of all the prayers he could have answered (world peace, eradication of poverty, winning the lottery), god chose to answer this one? it may be too early to tell for sure, but i have to say that all the beers i tried last night were downright yummy! from the victory pale ale to the 1A.M. english ale to the dunkel lager, it was all so good i could have guzzled 'em like soda. i don't know if it's just emmett's or if i'm finally acquiring a taste for all things hoppy, but if this continues, it will definitely make ted happy. and that makes me happy too.