Slow down babies!

What's the go with Summer holidays?

It seems to be the time of year when kids do a whole heap of growing up right before our eyes.

Yesterday Sienna lost her fourth tooth - one of the major ones, a front top tooth. And the other is so loose, I'm guessing the tooth fairy may be back again tonight for another visit. But looking back on my own school photos, my teeth (and Boo's) didn't seem to have budged until at least mid through our Grade Two years. Sienna is just about to begin Grade One and it seems a very grown up thing to have so many gaps in her mouth already.

I've also noticed her being a lot more grown up around the house. She's always been pretty good at packing up toys and keeping her room tidy. But these holidays, she's offering to help with so much more like getting the washing in and helping me unload the dishwasher; helping her brother and sister pack up and generally helping them with little things throughout the day too.

Seven years ago, I was feeling like a whale, only halfway through my first pregnancy, eagarly awaiting our first baby, and oh my God, was it a hot Summer that year! And now, here's that little baby girl seeming ever so grown up.

Not just Sienna, Chace and Lex too.

I remember Sienna being a little unsettled before her final year of kinder began, she was just so ready for that extra stimulation and was itching to learn new things. But Chace REALLY needs to go, another week can't come fast enough for him! He's started writing his name and reading really simple words. He's in a mood a lot of days when I can just tell he's bored with the routine at home and has exhausted everything I'm teaching him. He's soooooo ready for kinder to begin!

Same with Lex, she goes off to little kinder next week as one of the younger ones. But there was no way I could hold her back another year! She's toilet trained, the baby-ness evaporated over Summer and she is such a social butterfly. Her bag is packed and ready to go. She tells me stories of what she and her best friend Abby will get up to at kinder.

I've slowly been clearing out the toy cupboard of any baby toys and last week, the last of it all went to the Salvos. It really did tug at my heart strings! I've kept a few favourite little things like Sophie the Giraffe and their favourite rattles. I do love watching them grow up and go through different stages. But I really don't have a baby in the house anymore!

I'm blaming a combination of pool water and sunshine, surely that's what's made my little ones grow up so suddenly over Summer - yes?!

A boob of an issue...

I cannot believe that in the year of 2013, we are still having the old debate of breastfeeding in public. This is one that gets my knickers in a twist!

People! We are not living in the 1950s anymore!

When it came to light last week that a Mummy in Qld was asked to stop breastfeeding at a public pool, I just felt angry for her. It is a mother's God-given right to feed her baby. It's an instinct. When our dear little ones are screaming for a feed, we feed them. Whether it be bottle or breast. And let me tell you - I have nothing against bottle feeding at all, babies need to be fed and however that may be is what works for different families.

BUT! There is no hesitation in whipping a bottle out of the nappy bag and worrying about the condescending stares about being discreet. It just doesn't happen.

I loved breastfeeding my babies. I was very lucky that my three littlies took to the boobies with gusto minutes after they were born and we never had any issues. All of them fed for around 12 months and I was so happy with that. I demand fed - when they wanted a feed, they got it.

I've never used parent feeding rooms, because quite honestly, the one here in this town always smells like poo, literally. I'd always sit down on a bench or at a cafe. I wouldn't make a big song and dance about it. Just sit down quietly to feed. I wasn't always discreet, I rarely threw a blanket over my babies' heads. I just simply DID NOT CARE what anyone thought.

Never once did anyone ever ask me to leave, or suggest a more appropriate place to feed my babies. But God help them if they had! It is a perfectly normal, healthy thing to do - and it is LEGAL! Maybe all the goody-two-shoes in the world need to concentrate more on banning and moving on the countless idiot druggies in our society these days - you know, the ones that are actually participating in something illegal.

Over the past few weeks, to read the comments from such tossers as Kochie and other social media prominents that breastfeeding in public needs to be more discreet is astounding.

Anyone notice what most teenage girls wear these days? Or just women everywhere? There's boobies being flashed everywhere! And not for the reason of breastfeeding! C'mon Kochie - I dare you to address that one!

There are bigger issues out there to be dealt with - breastfeeding in public shouldn't even be one. That simple.