Family Life – Page 62 – a hippie with a minivan

Barefoot…

I have always been more comfortable being barefoot… I never wear shows in the houseor the yard and if I visit someone the shoes come off… when I was working as a photographer I would always take my shoes off while I worked… Of course in the front of the store I needed shoes, but the minute no one was in the store the shoes were off again… at school I would always take my shoes off in class and when I was in CEGEP I often left my shoes in my locker… I have always drove barefoot also and I feel like I have so much more control then when I have shoes on (well boots since shoes and sandals come off right away when I drive)
I have been visiting the Society for Barefoot Living‘s Website for quite a long time, at least two years now and recently I have been reading more about barefoot living and when a tribe came up on MDC looking for other barefooters well I had to chime in… and I also got thinking about going barefoot all of the time… So last week I started to go barefoot everywhere… walking to the park, doing the groceries, going to the store etc… I was a bit nervous at first but no one even noticed… or if they did I didn’t see them notice…

When Xavier saw that I was leaving to to go to the store and hadn’t put sandles on he asked me why and I told him that I don’t like shoes and I just reather go barefoot…. so since I went barefoot so has he… He thinks that it is great going into stores barefoot and since it has been raining we have had fun walking through puddles in the parking lots and on the street. I love the textures in the supermarket too… and the cold floor feel really good when you are hot…
We gotten a few looks, especially with Xavier barefoot too and I admit It must be a sight to see… a pregnant barefoot mama with a barefoot toddler in a sling and holding the hand of a barefoot preschooler.. and We did one comment today when Xavier went in front of the cart and an employee said “watch your toes” but that’s it….

Not only do I believe that being barefoot is good for our health, I just love the feeling and my feet finally feel free!!

great weekend…

We had a great weekend… It was a holiday here so Friday Simon didn’t have work…

Friday we lounged around in the morning and then we went to Zellers for some pics and walked around in the mall a bit… I found some shoes that I need for a few weddings that I am going to this summer and they were on special so that was a definate plus…

Saturday was another leisurely day… I talked Simon out of house work and we sat down by the pool, and went swimming with the kids and just had a lot of fun… Our friend Yan came over in the late afternoon and koined us in the pool and then I made a really nice supper… An entree of Mussles and then Steaks on the BBQ with twice baked potatoes… and then we had cheesecake and a fire with roasted marshmallows….

The kids went in the bath and I took advantage of the last bits of sun light to read abook in the Hammock beside the Fire…

On Sunday I enticed Simon out of house work again and we had another fun day with the kids in the back yard….

One of the coolest things was that both boys love the water and Xavier started swimming by himself… At the end of last summer he was starting to swim and now he is pretty much at the same level and probably even a bit better then last summer…

I love weekends like this, weekends that are spent at home, with the family… getting to know the boys even more then I do already… sitting with Simon just enjoying each others company…

Here are a few pics of the boys in the pool…

and of course… so tuckered out after swimming and playing outside… Colin fell asleep while eating his snack….

I have a few videos of the boys swimming that I will get up soon… Gotta show them off of course 😉

Psycho Doc strikes again…

So If you remember I talked about the psycho doc in the past… here and here…

Well… a few times now I have gotten a few phone calls from moms that got really bad advice at the docs… and it was always her… her breastfeeding advice is horrible….
Anyways… A woman called me today and said that she is worried about her dd not gaining enough… the ped has her coming in every 15 days to weight her and is making her freak out… (guess who the ped is…)
Then of course she tells the mom that she has to switch breasts often because all of the protein in in the foremilk ???!!!! Tells the mom that at 10 weeks her dd should be sleeping through the night and should not have to eat at night and to just let her cry! Tells the mom that she is very worried about the weight gain (the baby was born at 6p 4 oz, went down to 5p 9 oz and was back up to birth weight in a week and now at 10 weeks is 9p 10 oz) she has the wet and dirty diapers, she has a good tone and is flourishing and is following her growth curb… nothing is wrong!! She also tells the mom to supplement… not at the end of a feeding of course, but at the beginning!!!
I have heard so many things about her… all from different moms and I experienced her too!! She tells moms that they have to Supplement until milk comes it if not baby will starve, not feeding at night by two months old, they have to use a paci if not the baby WILL die of SIDS etc…

It has gotten to be too much… I have had more then a few moms with problems and I have had the experience myself… so I KNOW that this doc is the problem…

So I called the center I volunteer at and told the secretary the problem and she was flabbergasted (she is part of the governing board at the center and had to get breastfeeding training also) and told me that she would pass the message along to the director and she would call me back… I know that the nurses union have already planned or had a meeting with this doc because of all the bad info and the director meets with them once a month so I know that this will go somewhere… I am just so mad!!! She seems really nice and so many people love her so I can’t imagine how many mom and babies are getting bad info and being made to starve and CIO from 2 months on!!!

* update…

The director at the center called me back and said to call the head nurse in charge of the family unit directly, since it would be easier and more precise (less heresay etc…)…

So I did, and I told her all my concerns and she was great… she took down the list and we talked a bit… she then said how she is going to go about approaching the issue without making a big deal of it so that the doc is not automatically on the defensive… first she is going to hand out the new WHO chart with the breastfeeding growth curb to “remind” her if she hasn’t seen it yet so that breastfed babies are looked at against a chart that is made for them….

Then, in a joking matter, she is going to say something like “can you believe that someone has been telling moms that babies should be sleeping though the night at 2 months” and then talk about how is can be detrimental to the nursing relationship/ mom’s supply etc… and she hope that it will open the way to other conversations about breastfeeding… It also seems that she was with the doc when she gave really bad advice to a new mom… of course since she is “just” a nurse she couldn’t say anything….

It seems that they really like the doc because she is good at finding problems that others seem to miss or can’t find… but her breastfeeding info sucks…
Personnally I think she Sucks!!!

sunny days…

The last few days have been Gorgeous… We were able to do things in the yard, play in the sun, eat outside, go to garage sales (well I did) and we even went swimming Sat, Sun and yesterday… the water was pretty cold on Sat but by Mon it had warmed up quite a bit and was so comfortable and refreshing… it was just one of those perfect days with the perfect temperature…
Of course it had to come to an end and last night we had a big thundershower and of course it was followed by colder air… So now the kids are begging to go swimming cause they had so much fun in the pool (especially yesterday… we spent about 3 hours in the pool between noon and 5…) and it is cool, windy and cloudy and there is no way that I will even get a bathing suit on….

I love being in the pool with the boys.. it is one activity that the boys love equally so neither gets tired of it or wants to leave… and if they do then they just get out and play on the deck… we all laugh and play and just have fun…

I didn’t get any pics of the boys in the pool yesterday since our camera isn’t of the waterproof variety… but here are a few others…

This is our yard….:) (well part of it)

Xavier in the kiddie pool…

Xavier in the Hamac…

Colin eating from the Fruit bowl (1/2 a watermellon cubed, slices of apples and some strawberries)

Colin just being cute… (after taking all of the apple pieces)

Mowing the lawn…

Simon mowed the lawn this weekend when we had a break from the constant rain we have been having the last few days… well more like weeks…

Anyways… Monday he was home and though it was a bit cool we spent most of the day outside and had fun… When Simon started to mow the lawn Colin wanted to go see him. Xavier has understood to stay next to Simon when he is mowing the lawn yet we don’t yet trust Colin… so the safest and happiest place for Colin was on his Daddy’s back… He stayed there for quite a while…

Here of course are a few pics….