One man stopped a line of tanks.
Once a week I try to submit an illustration of the weekly theme to Illustration Friday.com. This weeks theme is Remember. I always thought it was an odd thing that this man could gain so much fame and yet we still do not know his name or what happened to him after this.
Of course it’s a Monday, and rushing through the morning routine because we woke up late. Head downwards swaying to left and right, looking for another stray shoe. I have just a few minutes to get the children ready for the bus. I don’t want to make the driver wait.
I hear a familiar song being sung , voices that I know but do not often hear. I look up to see my children holding hands, playing “ring around the rosies” . They are led by “Fwen”( that’s how my oldest pronounces his name) the 8 year old that I baby-sit. Aiden and Xavier are trying to follow the lyrics while Marjika is trying to follow the tune.
I dare not laugh. I dare not cry lest I break the spell and end this truly social moment . Not a common occurrence in our home, it only lasted for a minute. Then went their separate ways, content to play beside each other, rather than together.
I am content as well. However short the moment was, it shows progress.
 clipped from news.yahoo.com
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Our youngest,John-John, stood for the first time today, and for( the first time in our family) long enough for me to grab the camera AND take the picture. It will be the first " first steps "in our family album.
It has always been between Daddy and I trying to alert the other without startling the child, yelling "hey lookit, lookit, lookit" which makes the kid drop to the floor, or grabbing the camera just in time to see him plop to a sitting position.
I joke with John -John that he needs to get mobile because he is getting to big to carry. Is he ever a big boy. (Not fat. Chubby, no. More like a linebacker with built in shoulder pads.)
For an 11 month old that came into this world at 7lbs 14oz (which really isn't all that big) he's a pretty big boy. He is almost the same height as his 26month old brother( who was also 7lbs 14 oz at birth) and can wear a 3t (toddler size = to three years of age) tee comfortably.
He's strong too and once he realizes it we are in trouble. He gave me a love pat in the face once and I saw so many stars I thought I was at the Oscars. Daddy works with I-beams all day and even he has trouble pulling something out of John-John's hands when he has a death grip on it.
It won't be long now, he'll be walking soon. Soon I'll be kicking myself for all those mobile jokes as he gets faster and into more things. Soon I'll be watching him and wondering where did time go?
Yet another mother has been harassed for breast feeding in public. The store manager of the South Weymouth iParty walked up to the woman while she was breastfeeding her son in the store and asked her to stop because he did not want the other children to see what she was doing. Quick kids, hide your eyes, as if she was doing something perverted .(news coverage of the story can be found here).
Where has this guy been, under a rock? Does he not watch the news? How many times has this happened this year and the offending company has had to apologize for having an employees with their minds in the gutter? At least three?.( Flash back to those news items here and here. iParty was quick to issue an apology and promises to address the issue in their training of employees. Better late than never I guess.
This is a hot topic for me because I have five children and I breastfed all of them. I won’t bore you with the benefits of breast feeding, if you read, watch or listen to any type of media, you already know. What you may not know is how many awkward situations you run into.
While I was in the hospital for the birth of my twins, the nurse grabbed our camera and snapped some shots of us while I was breastfeeding. Both of them at the same time. Where the is no real way of covering up in those hospital gowns while doing it. On 35mm film. Which has to be taken to a lab to be developed. Which the photo-tech has to look at. Who you have to look at when you pick up your film. Who you want to slap the smirk off his face for being a little perv but can’t . Instead, you call over your 6 foot 1 inch tall built like a brick wall steel worker for a husband. Then ask said perv if he has something to say about your photo’s. No? You sure? Good.
Why is it in our society that women are made to feel awkward while breastfeeding in public and have to suffer through the summer heat with two layers of clothing,(one being a bra which are not made of a light material). This is not a problem in third world countries, that we are ( supposedly) soooo much more advanced than. Yet some people in this country still believe that children have to hide their eyes from the sight of a breastfeeding mother.
Who came up with the bright idea that breasts were sexual organs? Breasts were made for breastfeeding our children. Not for the spreads in X rated magazines. Not to be drooled over , not to be silicon enhanced. They are made to mature , to sag, come in every shape,size,color, and to be used for a purely innocent and beautiful purpose , the feeding and bonding with our infants.
The fact that we actually have to have laws to protect our right to breastfeed in public without harassment, is disheartening. It means that we still have a long way ahead of us before women are no longer considered a sexual object.
By the way , Massachusetts is one of the three remaining states that DOES NOT have a law to allow breastfeeding in public. Politicians , you are being watched as to how this is to be alleviated!
Ladies, forget iParty. Get to the root of the problem. Stage a "Nurse in" at the state house!
