With TIME magazine’s controversial cover sparking discussions all over the country, via social media, in mommy groups, even at the water cooler, it seems to me that breastfeeding really is, finally, having its day.

Does the cover go too far? Does it hurt the reputation of breastfeeding more than it helps? How old is too old? Should a mother cover up? It’s interesting to me how much time, effort and emotion people devote toward deciding whether what someone else does is right. It’s not just society, it’s even other moms. There’s not a single mother that I know who hasn’t felt judged by another mom because of a choice she’s made as a parent.

My issue with the cover isn’t the photo. It’s the title. “Are you Mom Enough?” My answer is yes. Yes I am mom enough. I might not adhere to all aspects of attachment parenting. I might not have breastfed as long as I could have. I might have covered up while nursing when others thought I shouldn’t, or not covered up when others thought I should. But my daughter loves me, and I love her. And she’s happy, and she’s healthy and growing and she makes me proud of the mother that I am every single day.

I am mom enough- and so are you, Mamas.

Happy Mother’s Day.

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We’re having a Trunk Show

at Firefly Furnishings!

Saturday, May 12

Noon to 4:00 pm

2445 East 3rd Avenue in Denver, CO

Check out all that’s new with Bebe Au Lait,

Ju Ju Be, ERGObaby and orbit baby.

Join us for an afternoon of product demos, gift with purchases,

food and fun! And enter to win one of our fabulous giveaways!

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Store Name: Leloa Baby Collections & Keiki Boutique

Store Owner: Lynette Yi

Address: 1200 Ala Moana Blvd., Ward Centre, Honolulu, HI 96814

Phone: (808) 591-1000

Web Address: www.leloababycollections.com

Store Hours: Mon – Sat:  10am – 9pm; Sun:  10am – 6pm

Store/Customer Service Email: info@leloababycollections.com

Years in Business: We’re in our 1st Year!

What Bebe au Lait products do you carry?: Hooter Hiders, Nursing Covers, Gift Sets, Burp Cloths, Quibs, Lille Collection, Hooded Towels

What are your customers’ favorite prints to purchase?:                                Nest, Sienna, Fleur, Papillon

What is your favorite Bebe au Lait product?: I have two favorites:  the Gift Sets because you get a matching set of necessities and the Quibs because they are a great innovation for both baby and mommy!

What is the best way you’ve found to display the Bebe au Lait line of products?: On my ‘Hot Items’ white lacquer table and in my intimate armoire!

What is the one thing you would like others to know about you?: The one thing I would like others to know about me is that I genuinely care about what my moms want and would love to have. I will always do my best to try and make everyone happy!

Click here to read Leloa’s story and to learn more about the store, the owner and how the Leloa Baby Collections & Keiki Boutique came to be.

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That’s why I’m so excited about the new program that The Bump has going on. They’ve teamed up with AMC Theaters to offer “Bring your Baby Matinees” for some of this Spring and Summer’s top movies! Not only do you get to see that great movie you thought you’d have to wait to see on DVD, but you get to meet other new mommies while doing it! Great movies and new mommy friends are the perfect combination!

These matinees are being offered around the country in the months of May & June. If you’re looking to spend a fun day out with baby, check out the link to find dates and locations near you. Bebe au Lait is proud to partner with The Bump for the showing at the Promenade 16 with IMAX, Tuesday, May 1 @ 12:00PM in Woodland Hills, CA.

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The article was from the Daily Mail, so I had to use the internet for some of the terms that I’m not familiar with (Conkers? Abseiling?) But what really struck me most about it was that the best things about childhood, getting outside, getting dirty, using your imagination, exploring nature, are really things that kids everywhere enjoy. Now that Harper is old enough to really get out and explore with me, I feel like this summer and the summers to come will be a chance to relive my childhood in a way, I’m really excited to get started on this bucket list!

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Details below- all Bebe au Lait fans are invited, and there will be great prizes, not just from us, but from other fabulous brands as well. Even better, the party is being hosted by Spokesmoms- so it’s sure to be a great event!

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The Cribsie Award really means a lot to us. The Cribsie Academy is full of people whom we admire, and we’re thrilled that we were selected as finalists by them. What we’re most flattered by though  is the fact that the final winners were chosen by the public. We’re beyond thrilled that so many out there think so highly of our nursing covers- we love receiving feedback from our customers and we consider this win a giant piece of fan-mail. I’d like to extend a huge ‘Thank You’ to all of our fans who nominated and voted for us- you’re the reason we do what we do!

In honor of our Cribsie win, we’re offering 20% off of any regularly-priced nursing cover on our website through 4/4/12. Use the code CELEBRATE at checkout, and join the celebration!

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Store Name:  Annerley – maternity and early childhood professionals

Years in business:  Since 1995

Store Location: 17th Floor, Tak Woo House, Wo On Lane, 17 D’aguilar Street, Central , Hong Kong

Online at: http://www.annerley.com.hk/index.php

Store/Customer Service Email:  info@annerley.com.hk

Hours: 10 am to 6 pm weekdays

What Bebe au Lait products do you carry and why?  All different patterns of the breastfeeding covers and some gift sets.  We carry these because most of our clients are breastfeeding mothers, and in Hong Kong these are very popular so that feeding when you are out and about is easier.  The covers are a very popular baby shower gift also.

What are your customer’s favorite prints to purchase?   Capri, Mint Chocolate, Marmont

What is your favorite Bebe au Lait product?  The Hooters Hiders covers, as they are light and suit our climate well.  We like various different colors, personally I have 3 different favorites. 

What do you think Bebe au Lait should develop next?  Beautiful nursing tops!

What is the one thing you would like others to know about you? We are a well established maternity and baby clinic with a special shop that we have hand picked all our products for, based on our professional expertise and experience in working with parents.  We are a team of 10 nurses and midwives that support mums and in our centre we hold many different classes for parents.

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Harper’s outbursts have been steadily increasing in frequency and fury. She used to just cry uncontrollably. Those broke my heart to watch, but they’re nothing compared to the screaming fits that she’s been unleashing lately. Last night, it was over changing into her pajamas. A seemingly routine act, that happens literally every night ended up becoming the last thing in the world that she wanted to do- and she let us know it. Screams that echoed throughout our apartment, that probably woke up neighbors and had our cat running for cover. Flailing arms and legs. She was literally uncontrollable.

Of course, in these moments, I feel like I should be mentally going back to the articles that I’ve read about how to respond and react accordingly. Most of the time though, I’m standing there a bit paralyzed, in shock that my sweet tiny baby has already become a screaming toddler. I try to hug her and calm her down- she pushes me away. If I walk away to try to give her space, she seems to cry more. I’m still trying to figure out the right way to help her through these episodes. I hope it doesn’t take too long to figure it out.

How have you handled your toddler’s tantrums?

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My daughter Harper is a bit of a comedian. When we’re running low on time, it always seems like that’s when she decides that she’s going to do nothing but joke around at the table. At first, I found it difficult to keep her focused, but I’ve developed some skills in the toddler mealtime department- so below are my top 5 tips for feeding a toddler.

1) Offer Choices. I had heard this one before- mainly just in reference to vegetables (and it amazingly, DOES really work for vegetables! See the original article I read on babble here). But when I say offer choices, I mean from meal planning “Harper, do you want waffles with blueberries today or bananas and cheerios?” “Do you want chicken and broccoli or soup (anything even remotely liquid-y is “soup” at this point) to sitting at the table deciding what to eat first (or even which piece of chicken to eat).

I’ve noticed that by actively engaging with her, and making the meal about her choices, she’s more likely to eat than goof around. Of course, not every meal plan is based on Harper’s decisions (I’m not a short-order cook!) and that’s ok- even when the choices are small (like which fork to use today), it works!

2) Allow them to experiment. Yes, as adults, we KNOW that broccoli dipped in ketchup MUST taste awful. But for a toddler who’s just learning about food, this combination seems perfectly reasonable, and potentially delicious. I had read somewhere that allowing your kids to be adventurous with their food early makes them more open to trying new things later- so when my daughter decided to dip her broccoli into her ketchup, I decided to let her go for it. To my surprise, she kept doing it… and finished her broccoli. So my new motto is, as long as its not dangerous- go ahead and try it!

3) Hold the milk. My daughter is obsessed with milk. I’m pretty sure she would drink a gallon a day if I let her, so its become increasingly important to only serve water with dinner. If I give her milk, she WILL drink it all before touching her food and she WILL request more because she’s used to having a beverage with her meal. Offering water allows her to focus on the food while still having something to wash down her ketchup-covered broccoli with.

4) Make Healthy Foods fun. We’ve embraced the smoothie bandwagon at our house. We’ve worked everything from kale to soy milk, to blueberries to spinach into our smoothies, and refer to them as ‘milkshakes’. Harper loves them.

Are we lying to her? No. There’s milk in there (soy milk). So they’re sort of “milkshakes”. But the point is, she’s enjoying a treat and we know that she’s getting the vitamins she needs. Its a win-win.

Along the same lines, but another great discovery: it really does help to refer to broccoli as “trees” and play a game where your kiddo pretends to be a dinosaur eating the “trees”. Whoever came up with that is brilliant!

5) The classics are still good. Does every meal time need to be well thought-out and restaurant-quality? No. Don’t put pressure on yourself to win Top Chef at every meal. Sometimes, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich really is the perfect lunch. And sometimes, grilled cheese and chicken soup is just what the doctor ordered. In my opinion, these old standards are necessities in the mealtime rotation- both for my sanity, as well as in the name of being a kid!

Got anything to add? What makes mealtimes work in your house? Do you have any great toddler-friendly recipes to share?

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