Sunday, December 28, 2008

YMCA, I hardly knew ye

We have been paying for the local YMCA for several months and not going. The kids refuse to stay in the free daycare rooms; four times of being pulled out of the pool, or worse yet, the sauna, to return to an inconsolable child in the nursery was enough for me to take a break. In an effort to save money, we've cancelled it. The last few days of our membership coincide with Homestead Mama's vacation, so we've been going a lot as a family. After a couple days without leaving the house, we popped over at 6pm the night my parents left to release energy by running after basketballs. Homestead Mama was on the varsity ball team in high school, even at 5'1". She thrills the kids by lifting them up over her head and pushing the ball out of their hands towards the basket. The kids feel like they're shooting the ball, and they get it in a surprising percentage of the time.

And I am on the varsity nursing team, and did what I do best. In public. The teenaged boys also on the court missed a lot more shots once I started tandem nursing on the sidelines.
I realized recently that I am one of a very few moms still nursing a kid over 2 years old. If anything, Pequita is nursing more now than ever. I nurse both kids on demand, and it isn't unusual for me to be strolling along the main drag with one kid alongside me and the other in my arms nursing away as I walk. Or to pull over the grocery cart and let both kids tank up in the cheese isle. I barely notice, but I suspect everyone else does. I feel a bit like an ambassador for nursing; even if folks think it a bit odd, it is good for them to see it happening. I always knew I wanted to nurse the kids for a long time, but didn't realize I'd be one of a tiny constituency doing so.

2 comments:

Becca said...

Oh how I miss exercise! That looks like tons of fun. Nursing for two years is admirable. Of course from where I stand I would love to ditch it and invite my mother over to take care of Wesley all night long so I can get some sleep, but I vaguely remember it not being such an enormous burden as Charlie approached one year.

Anonymous said...

I am still breastfeeding Pasha. She is 25 months old now. You are not alone, sister! Of course I breastfeed in public too. And if I don't, Pasha starts yelling "Nurse! Nurse!" likes she is a surgeon in need of clamps or something. I get looks ALL the time.