I'm FREE!!!!!

Has anybody else noticed how the "must have" gear list grows over time, and how companies always manage to create "things you can't live without." Yeah, well, maybe life could have been easier (or at least my bank account that much further depleted), but since most of this stuff didn't exist when a) I was a child and b) my own young 'uns were teeny, and somehow we're all still alive, I think the universe is doing fine without the stuff. I mean, we got a perfectly good stroller for half price because the navy fabric on it was LAST YEAR's navy blue. Um...isn't navy blue pretty much "standard?" Whatever. The exception: light-year-caliber strides in breast pump parts. For my last two kids, I have struggled to eek out more than half an ounce at a pumping session. I thought it was the pump, until after three or four different pumps determined it was "me." God bless the engineers at Medela -- they must have gotten a mother of twelve in their department. Who has had her chest expand with each kiddo. Who tried desperately to pump enough to go get her hair colored because her other kids were turning it gray. Who had the brains to say "Let's make parts in multiple sizes. And not just 'average' and 'slightly bigger.' We need one that fits wumbo-boobs." I ordered a pair of pump flanges, in size "wumbo." And when they came, blessed that person for using the brains God gave her, because I got THREE WHOLE OUNCES pumped.

So now that I have the capacity to pump more than three sips of milk, we get a bottle together. Usually we have given first bottles just before baby's Baptism, so we could give a bottle of milk in church if kiddo was really squawking. Jude's Christening was long ago, but hey...he's not starving or anything. Considering he gained 3 pounds in his first month, I think he's not going to starve if I'm stuck in the grocery line for an extra minute. But I'm sure the UPS guy would like me to slow down a little bit. He comes about as often as the US mail...but has to drag bigger boxes. The tradition in our family has the next-youngest giving the first bottle. We settle Damien into Jude's lap, convince Jude the bottle is for Damien, not him, and pop it into Damien's mouth. He slugs down three ounces in about as many minutes. My mother in law proclaims, "You're free!! Leave an extra bottle, and I'll babysit." In case it was a fluke, Luke gave him a bottle in the car one morning on the way to school. Damien drained it before we were out of our driveway. I took a bottle with me to Luke's doctor appointment, and Damien slurped that one down in record time, too. Yahoo!!

In honor of the Mama Engineer...I think I'll go get my roots done.