Protect Your Children – Help Pass the Protect Our Children

The other day Oprah’s show was about Child Molesters and sexual abusers.

It was one of the most disturbing shows I have ever seen.

They showed photos of babies as younger than 1 being abused. Along with reading aloud a child abuse pamphlet per se. It was a sheet that dictates ways to sexually abuse children. The first card mentions how to abuse 0-1 year olds.

This is devastating, disgusting, horrific, every other despicable word you can come up with.

We need to Stop this! Help Pass the Protect The Children Act.

The PROTECT Our Children Act will:

* Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.
* Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.
* Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.

Act Now!

Your U.S. senators will be voting on the bill soon, so it is crucial you contact them immediately.

Go to http://www.senate.gov to find contact information for the senators in your state. Search for your senator by name or state by clicking on the arrow from either dropdown menu. Contact information is provided here. To send an e-mail, click on “Web Form” below his or her name, and e-mail your letter to make a difference!

Call Your Senators
If you choose to contact your senators by phone, be sure to tell them, “Vote yes on Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act.”

Write to Your Senators
If you choose to write a letter, fax, telegram or e-mail, you may use the following sample letter—and modify it how you see fit.

Dear Senator:

I know that you believe, like I do, that we must do everything possible to protect children from sexual predators. That is why I am asking for your help.

Last year alone, U.S. law enforcement identified over 300,000 criminals who were trafficking in movies and pictures of young children being raped and tortured. Experts say that one in every three of these criminals has local child victims. Child pornography trafficking over the Internet has given us a trail of evidence that leads straight to their doorsteps, but the vast majority of these children will never be rescued because investigators are overwhelmed, outnumbered and underfunded.

As your constituent, I urge you to do everything in your power to pass the PROTECT Our Children Act (S. 1738, Biden-Hatch). This bipartisan legislation passed the House 415-2, but it is now the victim of petty partisan politics.

Now that we know where these children are and how to protect them, there is no excuse for the Senate to fail to take action this session.

(Your name here)

Instructions for How to Copy and Paste the Letter
To copy and paste the letter into your senator’s web form at http://www.senate.gov, point your mouse arrow at the beginning of the text that you want to copy. Click your left mouse button and hold it down. While holding the left mouse button, drag your arrow to the end of the text that you want to copy. Release the button. The text should be highlighted. Place your mouse arrow over the highlighted text, click your right mouse button once and let go. A new menu should appear. Select Copy from the drop down menu. When you get to the message form field for your senator at http://www.senate.gov, point your arrow at the beginning of the message field that you want to copy your text to and right click with your mouse. Click Paste from this menu. Submit your form and help our children!

Feeding Ducks Is Like A Religious Experience

Feeding the ducks with the Goddess is like a religious experience. Sometimes just being with her is like that for me (tearing up as I write this). I wished for many years for a baby girl. Losing my mom so young really made me hunger for a mother-daughter relationship and I love spending time with her.

Today, on a beautiful fall morning, we went to feed the ducks in town while waiting for Handsome to come out of school, there were none.

She was throwing bread to nothing. The water was still, and empty. I asked her where she thought all the ducks were. She said, “I don’t know, maybe they are home with their mommies (cute).” Then she stood at the deck, put her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Ducks, ducks…where RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?Wouldn’t you know it, they came. Tons of them just started flying across the water towards us. Crazy.

And the rain comes down
There’s no pain and there’s no doubt
It was easy to say
I believed in you everyday
If not for me
Then do it for the world – Stevie Nicks

My Ballerina

Be still my heart. This morning I took my daughter to a free introductory ballet class for little 2-4 year old preschoolers. We went last year but she and her brother got bored when the instructors took too long to get things moving. We were the only people to show up and they kept hoping others would come in. We left and when I saw they were doing it again this year, I left my son home.

She was excited and we dressed in her pink tutu, leotard. She was excited and so was I when we walked in 5 minutes before class and saw 5 little ones already sitting on the floor with an instructor.

She was asked if she wanted to come sit with them; to which she said yes without even looking at me. I took my place against the wall with the other smiling parents. I felt bad that we had dressed up because no one else had. Not bad for my daughter, just bad for the other girls because the instructors made a big deal about her outfit. Thankfully the girls are so young I doubt any of them took it personally.

When the class started she took directions well and proceed to really enjoy herself while I (the only parent with a camera, of course), snapped quiet pictures (no flash to disturb) and some video.

She wants to go back tomorrow, but I told class isn’t for a few weeks and that if she liked it we would see.
I really hope we can afford to send her because she did exactly what I would have wished. She walked right in, took direction, smiled, laughed and sparkled all day. She even dance counted a few times 6, 7, 8.

Since losing my mom when I was 12 this was exactly the memory I was hoping to be able to make with my own daughter. I took ballet when I was her age and I hope we can manage it for her.

Go To Bed, School’s A Coming

With back to school around the corner, most of my mommy friends are talking about schedules and mainly how to get their kids back on them.

Have you had a scheduled bedtime?

Have your kids been sleeping until whenever they decide to wake?

Then it might be time to start rescheduling that school time clock again.

If you are letting your kids stay up until whenever, start sending them to bed around an hour earlier than usual. Over the course of the next three weeks move it up until they are back on schedule.

Having a routine at night will make the transition easier for all of you.

Family fun time (game, movie, playing outdoors, taking a walk around the neighborhood, snuggling together on the floor, or whatever your family loves to do that isn’t extremely active.

*A snack

*Bath

*PJ’s

*Tooth brushing

*A story or two

*Hugs and kisses, good-night

In the morning, start setting the clock for an hour or two earlier depending on when your little darlings are waking. Use that extra time to do something together as a family. Make them breakfast, take them to the park, a farm, or the library. The weather is nice and cool in the morning and no one else is there. Walk around and enjoy your last few weeks together before every one’s life becomes more routine.

Starting slowly will make the transition easy for everyone involved and make it a whole lot easier than waiting until the week before school.

Enjoy your kids because they grow out of us a whole lot quicker than we grow out of them.

Mwaaahhhh!

Wordless Wednesday – Daddy Time

Want to participate in Wordless Wednesday come over here.

Manic Monday – Big

This is my favorite clip art for Manic Monday so far. James and the Giant Peach was one of my favorite books when I was a kid.

The first things that come to mind for me are:

My kids are getting so big. How did we get here? Didn’t I just have my son yesterday? Wasn’t I just a first time mom a week ago? Now there are 2 and they are getting bigger every day.

In fact my daughter says that to us at least 3 times a week. “I’m getting bigger every day.” This line comes right after, “what happened to your baby?” Uggghhh.

Unlike a lot of my girlfriends with kids, I am sooooo not rushing to big boy/big girl thing. I love having babies and would have 2 more if my husband was interested and if I was younger.

Hold your babies tight because they grow out of you a whole lot quicker than we grow out of them!!!!

Happy Monday

One Year Ago Today……

One year ago today, was the day I stopped nursing my daughter. (Last Years post)

One year ago today, I sat holding her while she feed from my body.

One year ago today, was the last time I held her like an infant.

One year ago today, she slept with me and nursed off and on all night long.

One year ago today, I was sad that it was over and I would never nurse another baby again.

One year ago today, I was the last time I saw my friend Lori. We went to see a local play Oliver and had the best time.

One year ago today, I was upset that I would get home to late to nurse her.

One year ago today, I was still fielding questions about when I would stop nursing.

One year ago today, my baby grew up with one night out with a friend.

Nursing my kids was something I knew I would do when I was pregnant. My son was such a natural. He was my first and he took to it like a champ. I nursed him for about 8 months which was as long as he would allow. Then I pumped for another 4 until he was 1.

My daughter on the other hand, was not a natural and because she gave me so much resistance, I felt unsupported by the people in my life for the first 4 days of her life. She was hungry and would not latch on. I finally got in touch with Le Leche and through their support (1 phone call), I got the support I needed to relax and try again and it worked. When she finally got it, it was so easy.

I never felt that it was a job, or a commitment, annoying, hard, it just worked. Having a 23 month old be patient enough to watch me nurse ALL DAY is crazy too. Everyone just did their part and it was a piece of cake. In fact. I loved it. It relaxed me and when it finally was over I realized it was the only time I sat down. On the 3rd day after weaning I realized I NEVER sat down during the day. Nursing forced me to sit and just be! Something a mom with a colicky newborn and a late talking 23 month old needed very badly.

Baby Girl,

I will never forget how much I loved holding you and smelling you as you nursed. I used to take my hand and trace your face and play with your hair as you played with my fingers. Your brother used to come over and say, “baby eat” whenever you were nursing. He didn’t say much but he did tell us when you were crying and when you needed to eat.

You used to call it “all done” which I found so cute. You would come up and ask for all done which meant you wanted to be nursed. I guess me asking if you were all done was a bit confusing.

When we were done I was actually very surprised at how easy it was. You asked for it the next night and I said, “You don’t need it.” You probably only asked for it 3 times. On the 4th night you cried for it but I felt that enough nights had gone by and that you were probably more tired than wanting to nurse. Honestly, if you had cried and begged for it on the next evening after missing the first time I would have caved in.

I love you baby and miss our time together but I think our bond more than makes up for that loss of closeness.

God bless you baby. You are everything Mommy wished for and God intended.

See my rant on breast feeding in public.