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Good Lord!  Where did the time go?  It’s December already and The Tater Tot is 9 months old.  The weather is getting cooler (finally!), more people are putting up lights and decorations, and Tater is loving it!  And I’m just about to mail our Christmas cards with a cute little picture of the Tater Tot dressed in Christmas clothes.  Of course, to make sure I got this picture in time for these cards and other photo projects I was doing for Christmas presents, I had to dress the squirming Tot in her in Christmas clothes in late October when we had a heat wave.  Have you ever tried to get a child under the age of 1 (or over that age, for that matter!) to sit still (or pose, or smile, or whatever) while dressed in warm clothing on a warm day? 

I actually attempted this feat by myself the first time which resulted in some really-cute-but-not-appropriate-for-Christmas-card pictures that I will save and laugh at often.  The second attempt was with the help of The Daddy and it went much better resulting in the picture we actually used and others that I will still save and laugh at often!

The Slime Face is the face that the Tater Tot made this morning when we started eating mashed bananas instead of pureed bananas.  Eyes crinkled with a look of concern and lips puckered as if to say “Scuse me, Mommy, but did you know that there is something lumpy in here?”  She kind of moved it around with her mouth open and tongue out.  “What do I do with this exactly?” I can only conclude that the slippery, slimy texture of the mashed bananas grossed her out.  And can you really blame her?  All of the sudden her smooth, blended world comes to a screeching halt with this slimy, lumpy excuse for breakfast.  We shall see if this new texture eventually becomes acceptable or if it continues to activate the gag reflex….

Yesterday I read on AOL Entertainment News from People magazine that Jennifer Garner said that her trainer proclaimed her “a disaster” and that Jennifer thinks that her body is “a horror” one year after giving birth to her daughter, Violet.  I should be such a disaster!  I would be quite happy to be that kind of horror. 

I then saw a picture of her at the GQ Man of the Year Awards and Good Lord!  Either she is sporting the maximum strength girdle that is extremely short to fit under the minidress she’s wearing or she’s lyin’ like a rug.  She looks fantabulous!  And not that really young Hollywood starlet just lost all my baby weight and more in 6 weeks rail thin kind of skinny.  Just slim and healthy and beautiful. 

Wouldn’t it be great if our society would honor and respect the changes that a woman’s body goes through in order to nourish and care for a baby?  I have to admit, I’m not quite there yet, either.  But it’s a good goal to shoot for.

Well, we have officially stopped nursing.  We’re done.  Finished.  It’s a wrap.  When the Tater Tot started to get teeth she decided that it was fun to clamp down HARD while nursing.  OUCH! We were only nursing twice a day at that point anyway and it was time.

We had a long struggle to keep nursing and I’m really glad that I was able to nurse her even a little bit for as long as I did.  We weren’t able to nurse exclusively after 4 months because she was having trouble gaining weight and we needed to see if it was a Tater problem or a Mommy problem.  It was a Mommy problem.  And I’m glad.  If it was a Tater problem, the possibilities were MUCH scarier!  It turns out Mommy’s Milk Machine just doesn’t work right.  I tried herbal supplements which did work, just not enough to exclusively nurse.  I pumped after each feeding, ate almonds and stuff with oats in it.  I destressed as much as I could and nursed her almost constantly for a while.  Didn’t work.  So we started supplementing with formula and, voila!  The Tater Tot started to gain weight.  And The Mommy relaxed.  That’s what allowed us to continue to nurse until 8 1/2 months.  Mommy relaxed, Tater relaxed and we nursed 3 times a day for a long time until the milk started to decrease.

There are pros and cons to weaning her at this point.  It’s kind of nice to feel like my body is my own again.  But I do miss the rest and comfort that we both got from nursing even just a couple of times a day.  It was always an option to just have a seat and get a little snack while Mommy rested, too.  But I feel good about the amount of time that I WAS able to nurse her and confident that she (and The Mommy) will be just fine.