After visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, we decided to make our way to Little Italy to get an authentic bite of Italian food.  We had planned out our day the night before which included Lady Liberty and Ellis Island, and figured we would spend the rest of the day visiting that part of Manhattan.  We took the 1 Red line train line from the South Ferry stop up to the Canal St. exit and made our way to Chinatown.

Ever major city has a Chinatown and have to be seen.  We walked down Canal St. and worked our way up to Little Italy.  We found a nice restaurant called Casa Bella Restaurant on Mulberry Street.  Great authentic Italian cuisine, Kristin loved my seafood pasta dish, baby octopus.  After eating we figured we would just walk our way down to Wall Street and then to the former site of the World Trade Center.  This is a picture journey of where we went and just a little of what we saw.  It was fun to journey out in a major city with just my wife.

The buildings I shot to share stood out and in person were awesome to see.  Their size and detail is spectacular and hopefully I can bring some of it out in my pictures.

Statue Of Liberty. Where we left off from...

Lower Wall Street - The George Gustav Heye Center

Kristin was fascinated with this McDonalds in Chinatown. I told her it was probably like every other one inside, plus she does not care for McDonalds.

Our first site of Little Italy. We ate at a little restuarant a block up from here. Too many places to eat from.

Old Firehouse encountered on Lafayette Street while walking from Little Italy to the Brooklyn Bridge and Wall Street. It is now converted into the Downtown Community Television Center aka DCTV.

New York County Clerk's office. Gets some bad reviews on Google.

That is a big courthouse. New York's United States Courthouse.

Smile Kristin. That is the Brooklyn Bridge behind her.

Giant Skyscraper being constructed next to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Manhattan Borough President's Office

Woolworth Building - 95 year old building. Just stood out to me.

Which way to Wall St? Also where is the bull?

The New York Stock Exchange. The guard actually asked us to take his picture.

Nice stores for shopping, someday.

This little building was surrounding by giants.

Fraunces Tavern erected 1719, Chamber of Commerce founded here in 1768, used by George Washington in 1783. Located in Wall Street Area.

Original window sill. Talk about handcrafted.

The Bull. Too many had to grab him by his balls. Whatever floats their boat.

Firehouse across the street from WTC. Memorial plaque for first responders.

'Double Check' Sculpture across from WTC site.

He was approached during 9/11 and asked if help was need, then first responders discovered it was a sculpture.

After the World Trade Center Buildings collapsed he only suffered a couple of gashes. What used to be 2 giant buildings is a new project.

After seeing where the World Trade towers used to stand, we decided our sightseeing was done for the day.  By this time we were tired from our trek of lower Manhattan.  We saw some great sites, and awesome architecture.  New York is a beautiful city, and seeing this part of the city shows off a lot of it.

Do you know what that colorful thing is behind Kaila?

]]> http://www.delthedad.com/2010/09/01/wordless-wednesday-2/feed/ 1 http://www.delthedad.com/2010/09/01/ellis-island-battery-park-new-york/ http://www.delthedad.com/2010/09/01/ellis-island-battery-park-new-york/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:36:55 +0000 Del http://www.delthedad.com/?p=1079

After we visited the Statue of Liberty, we caught the ferry to Ellis Island before our way back to Battery Park in Lower Manhattan.  We visited the entire museum and found it interesting to see the old images captured of when the island was deserted and abandoned.  It was also a good experience to walk around and learn a little history about is original function and later uses.  A memorial and museum is setup to honor Americans of Japanese ancestry and their plight for equality.

It is also fascinating the many different uses that the island has served including being a prison for pirates to its famous use as an immigration port.

We decided to leave right in time as it began to sprinkle and rain.  It only rained till we got back to shore which allowed for it to cool down a little.  Here are some pictures we took while visiting.  This is a must see for anyone interested in American history.  You have to physically visit the island to get the real effect and emotional grasp it takes on you.

These are pictures from our vacation taken with our Nikon D90.  Click on them for a high resolution image.  We strive to take some of the greatest pictures that we can.  I am perfectly fine with people wanting to share our work, just give credit where its due “Courtesy of www.DelTheDad.com”.  Thanks for looking and sharing.

To think this used to be run-down and abandoned.

A museum on the plight of American-Japanese people.

These floors have supported many feet. New and Old.

A man who made a difference with his photography, Shirley C. Burden.

"The U.S. Government locked up an innocent people without cause or due process of law." Picture at Ellis Island

"Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry" Quote from Ellis Island

"This was the Happiest day for any soldier."

Eerie glowing shadow, I am sure its from the windows and sun.

Orginal graffiti.

To think the number of people who lived and passed through this hall.

Excellent Restoration.

An experience I will never forget.

]]> http://www.delthedad.com/2010/09/01/ellis-island-battery-park-new-york/feed/ 0 http://www.delthedad.com/2010/08/31/statue-of-liberty-visit-picture-post/ http://www.delthedad.com/2010/08/31/statue-of-liberty-visit-picture-post/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:35:42 +0000 Del http://www.delthedad.com/?p=1054 This was Wednesday, they day after we arrived in NYC.  We decided to spend the late morning, into afternoon time to visit The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  The heat was probably 95 and 105 in the heat.  The humidity was very high, but we worked our way through it and saw some great sights.  We had clear skies which allowed some good shots.  I have decided to split up our visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island for separate posts.

We had been waiting in line for the ferry from Battery Park to visiting Lady Liberty.  We had been waiting for about 40 minutes and struck up a conversation with a couple in front of us.  We were wondering how they were fairing with the heat, and they told us they were from South Carolina and the weather we were experiencing, was nothing new for them.  I have been living in Portland, OR for the past 13 years and have grown accustomed to the cold temps and very few days of 90 plus degree temps.

After waiting for the time we did, when we finally reached the ticket tacker, the couple in front did not have the right tickets.  They had purchased a discount package through a major tour site, and did not realize they had to exchange their voucher for the actually ferry tickets.  They had to make their way to Clinton Castle which is the first picture viewed below.  I will let the pictures do the talking.  It is a magnificent landmark, and maintained very well.

I find the most fascinating thing about the statue is the fact of the use of individual plates that were put together to create the exterior surface.  We did not get to make it inside, because we did not purchase the pre-reserved tickets.  This is a must for the statue tour.  Maybe next time.

The work and talent used to create her are amazing.  The color of the original copper is turning a green color from oxidization which is giving it a unique look.  Imagine what it looked like when it was first put together.

These are pictures from our vacation taken with our Nikon D90.  Click on them for a high resolution image.  We strive to take some of the greatest pictures that we can.  I am perfectly fine with people wanting to share our work, just give credit where its due “Courtesy of www.DelTheDad.com”.  Thanks for looking and sharing.

This is where you need to go to buy your tickets or exchange vouchers.

I did not know the significance of this carving, but they were large carved dockmen or fishers?  They dont look that big, but they are pretty large.  This is what you see waiting to get on the ferry.

There were several banners, but I think this one stuck out best with me.

Great view of lower Manhattan.  This is from the ferry on our way to the island.  We really lucked out on weather and smog.  Great way to start our trip and sightseeing.

The slight breeze from the boat ride was refreshing.  I eventually had to buy and refill to pour on myself for cooling down.  It was a warm one.

Standing tall and Proud, still as she did from when she was created.

I thought this was a cool picture showing the colors and detail.

Hey pretty lady, whats your name?

The couple shot.  The only thing that matters is the time we spent together as a couple.

This is the view of Ellis Island from The Statue of Liberty.  I love photography.

Ellis Island viewed from The Statue of Liberty

I think she is taller Kristin.

Leaving the Island and travelling to Ellis Island.

See you some other time Lady Liberty.

As soon as we got off the monorail we met up with Kristin by “The Seas With Nemo and Friends.”  This was recently put into commission and Kaila is a major Nemo fan.  We figured this would be a good starting point to keep the 4 year old happy.  This ride we figured would be a great way to jump start the adventure.  After the ride, there is a large indoor aquarium which was neat to check out.

We worked our way through Nemo the over to The Land pavilion to try out “Soarin.”  Next we made out way to Imagination! land to see “Honey, I Shrunk The Audience.”  This is a 4D show.  If you do not know what 4D is about, its 3D cinematography with a 4^th dimension.  Not just do you see the and feel immersed in films enviorment, the effects such as water, air, and movement help to bring you that much more into it.  The entire seating arena is active and just when you feel you have experienced as much as you can, the entire stadium shakes and jumps.  An oversized dog sneezes on you, which you feel, then your dissected.  Its was fun.  Kaila was a little anxious and was kept on the edge of her seat.

After being shrunk, we worked our way around the “Reflections of Earth” to check out the rest of the park.  Epcot takes you though a walkaround of many of the world’s different cultures.  We started in Canada to see what it was all a bout.  After checking the lands to our north we made our way over to the United Kingdom.

After the British Isles we visited France.

While in France we sampled some fine cafes and crepes.  Our next journey took us to northern Africa to visit a mosaic adorned fountain.

After Morocco we found ourselves passing the temples of Japan.  Kaila was in awe at the different landscapes that were on display. Kristin was in awe of the giant ball.

The next area to visit is that of colonial America, Italy, and Germany.

After the quick refuel in Germany, we trekked to Italy to see the sites.

We caught some of the Disney cast getting ready for an interview, so we snapped some pictures.

Next we made our way into Asia over to China.

We decided to check out the boat ride which is Maelstrom.  Your taken on a journey of Scandinavian life.  Kaila needed a ride that we could sit and rest in.  So she was OK with it.

Home of the Vikings.

After Norway was Mexico.  We had to skip it and take another break.  It was getting time for dinner and we decided to rest till then.  While waiting we decided to do one last ride and that was the GM Test Track.  Kaila had a blast, but she is a “little car nut in the making” after her Dad.

We had a show to see that was help between the central lake “Reflections fo Earth” and “The Spaceship Earth Pavilion” or known by me as the Epcot ball.

As soon as it became dark we went to attend the Celebrate Volunteers event Disney was hosting.  It was a day wide event where volunteering and helping was on display and in use.  For the evening festivities they put on a live concert with some Disney Youth Group and performers.  Great concert.

We ended up sharing a table with a little girl named Amanda and her family who helps her run Amanda’s Lemonade Stand which is in support for Heart and Stroke research and help.  She actually was one of the key volunteers and had a special dinner prepared for her, so they ended up moving.  If her mother reads this, “Hi” remember us? .  Kaila had fun just as everyone else did.  Kristin;s older sister attended with her family so it was also fun for Kaila to meet her aunt, uncle, and cousin.

The had a firework show just for the concert ending.

After this was over, we ate some dessert and made out way back to the lake in the middle.  It was time for the real fireworks to begin.  They have a huge show with a large watershow that happens.  There is a vast array of lights and effects and a huge lighted Ball that does alot.  This was a great way to end it off.

And here is a picture as we are leaving.  Ohh the giant perfectly geo-metrically and symmetrical, magical looking ball  “Thanks for a great day!”

The Big Epcot Ball - Spaceship Earth

]]> http://www.delthedad.com/2010/08/29/walt-disney-world-epcot-park/feed/ 4 http://www.delthedad.com/2010/08/27/want-to-have-your-own-www-yournamehere-com/ http://www.delthedad.com/2010/08/27/want-to-have-your-own-www-yournamehere-com/#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:38:38 +0000 Del http://www.delthedad.com/?p=911 Kristin and I have been giving some thought and we have finally decided to offer the service of simple and clean website design.  By simple I mean wordpress only.  We have setup sites and designed all her of her graphics.  We have done it right and can now help others do the right thing.  It is important to do everything correctly to avoid future problems down the road.

Let me help you

So the time has come to take our experience and invested software and do something with it.  We host our sites and several others.  For this we decided to purchase a private server for large use webhosting.  The benefit is the ability to host a large amount of websites with out bandwidth limitation.  We can host websites for a monthly rate or you can buy your own unlimited personal space year for $140.  The only thing I ask is that you give us the affiliate hookup which will allow us to save you some money on your server space or themes, and provide you with reliable tech support.  We have a selection of popular themes to offer (with full resale rights).

The most important part to having a personal domain

Our web hosting affiliate is a one-click site which allows for easy web control and transferring of any previous database and information.  This simple put means we can transfer over your old blogger or wordpress.org website.   Even if you decide to have us host you on a monthly rate, you could always take your site and move it to your personal space with no cost and no problems.  We offer technical support with the monthly service and limited support with the yearly service.

The other important part to this all is your new site is the wordpress theme.  We have over 20 popular themes to choose from and continue to add to our library.  We can also get other themes that you may be interested in.

Is this for me, can I start my own blog finally?

So you may ask, “whats the benefit of hosting with you?”  The simple fact is technical support.  We cannot not alter and adjust your coding  but we can help with simple color changes and such, and anything more technical would cost extra.  What is most important is keeping your blog up and running with no worries.  Our server is stable and has never had one down day for years now.  This is very important, since I have seen the horror and frustration by people dealing with unreliable servers.

Below our the options I can offer.  You can also contact me with any other suggestions or services you make think of.

2 different personal blog options to have your own personal domain and site:

Monthly server space
One theme fully installed and functioning
Current domain transferred over or new one setup
Technical support
Reliability and integrity

You own yearly server space
One theme funnly installed and functioning
Great and easy service
Tech support for your themes only purchased from us

I also offer other simple services such as themes for purchase at excellent blogger rates.  I provide simple graphics services which include new images and extensive photo editing.  Such ideas include banners, headers, buttons, menu bars, etc.  I also can create images for brand and logo design.  Get in touch and lets talk.

My contact form

twitter : @DelTheDad

email : DelTheDad (at) hotmail (dot) com

This last weekend, lines had finally been crossed.  I have had a problem with an un-named blogger on the blogosphere for some years now.  Actually it initially started as a problem between my wife Kristin and her, but has boiled over to include me.

Dont use racial slurs.

If you know my history on why I even decided to give twitter or blogging a try was out of sympathy for my wife.  You may ask “sympathy” and I say yes.  She is a mom blogger. She has been blogging for years about our kid(s) and the different things she likes.  When people try to hurt her and do, I sympathize with her efforts to continue to blogging.

A little history as of why I was targeted.

With blogging comes ego and free stuff which is not a good mix for bloggers who want to work together especially when they truly don’t know each other.  Many bloggers build fabulous relations within days and weeks, months but the reality is many never even meet each other.  Their only connection being through text communication, camera chat, or other online methods.  I know there is nothing wrong with this, but it doesn’t always work well for everyone.  A good saying goes “never mix friendship and business.”

My wife being the non-confrontational and kind person during and even till now has the ease to trust and deal with anyone.  I being the business type by nature asked her why she trusts people so easily.  I told her speaking from my own experience with dealing with so many people of different lives and backgrounds, that she will soon come to learn that people can be very nasty.  She brushed it off and continued to blog on.  After a very sour relationship with her sister and another blogger, she found out the true nastiness of the online blogger.

She has always noticed with some of her “online friends” will shun her if she didn’t or doesn’t try to cater and bend over backwards to them. She has noticed things such as they may stop commenting on her blog or stop supporting her, retweeting links, and just distancing them.  I reinforce her by telling her that she is a Mom to 2 little children, and it requires a lot of attention on her behalf and also the fact she has college to focus on, and taking care of her blog and interests.  I said if people are really your friend, they will understand and notice this.  She shares a lot with people so I would think they would understand this.  I know she wants to do everything she can for others, but she has to do something’s for herself too.  As soon as she cant get people to move past they problems for her, then she may be able to really shine.

When you respect time, things change.  With having 2 small children and busy life, in my opinion time is just as valuable as money…which depends on the amount of money of course.  I have also told her she may want to keep her business a little more confidential.  Privacy and trust is important when operating a business, at least I think so.  This is hard to a person who wants to share everything with everyone, but she has began to understand.

After time passed, so did the past.  The blogger who she had brushed off came back with a vengeance.  This blogger said and did everything she could.  This lasted throughout last summer and even ended in a snafu at BlogHer 2009 and some other hurtful blog posts and comments.

Now its time to insult my wife.

We finally ware able to escape it by the beginning of 2010.  Another associate of Kristin was a lady by the name of Karie.  Karie had met Kristin, while the whole momdot issue happened last year.  For some reason many thought I was some ring leader.  I had nothing to do with any others actions.  Yes I stated my opinion, but it was clear that Trisha from momdot.com had pissed off a lot of other people.  Karie came around thinking that Kristin had this hate for Trisha, which really wasn’t even the case.

During this whole ordeal and problem an anonymous twitter account sprang up to bash my wife and my family.  We eventually threatened the person we suspected, and in that same day of her receiving our orders / settlement proposal, the account was deleted.  We didn’t get a chance to obtain the IP from a subpoena, because it was deleted too quickly.  Regardless it is good that the site has been removed period, but not before it went as far as dragging Karie into it.

Now I am getting blackmailed?

So around this time, Karie and Kristin’s friendship was running thin.  Karie was mad at Kristin for trying to mend her ruined relationship with her sister (the one ruined over a blogger) and wanted to try and work with her again and work on their sisterhood.  Karie didn’t take this lightly because Amanda never stood up for Kristin to the past blogger (Amanda and Kristin are very different in personalities, but they are sisters and you can tell ) which is understandable, but they are sisters and if Amanda can realize that Kristin is not doing what this blogger stated, and in reality this blogger was picking on her sister, it’s all good.  Kristin had also helped out Karie to get a free cell phone by putting a PR rep in contact with Karie since Karie had the service the company offered.  She also helped Karie with some blogsite assistance and other things and never once got a “thank you” or anything.  So Karie said fuck you to Kristin.  I wonder if Karie blames Kristin for that anonymous website that shared some of Karie’s private details.

Moving on quickly, I guess Karie thought the best way to hurt Kristin would to become friends with this old blogger.  So they have been friends and sometimes they like to talk in between the lines, nonchalantly about us.  Sometimes they even talk about it openly on twitter and I may catch wind.  I have caught wind more than twice now and asked them to both just stop and leave us alone.  But that’s not in people like theirs nature.  They pick and pick, and think it does something.  What they don’t realize is to many it does very little.  But on a social media site like twitter, things can come off looking like a wild forest fire in Southern California.

To the end of this, over this past weekend Karie was talking shit about Kristin and I, while her new BFF was egging her on.  I thought the best way to have her just stop is to bring attention to it.  Then we can see why she feels the need to act the way she does, and settle it.  Instead of be civil she decided that it wasn’t even worth her time and called me an “uneducated wetback from the sticks” because I have a “non-traditional white Anglo Saxon name” and my skin is Brown.  And yes my dad was born in Mexico, but came over here legally before I was born.  He has lived in Mexico for the past 10 years and I haven’t seen or even really talked to him since.  And my mom is almost pale white if she didn’t tan, and my family on her end has red hair, Scandinavian, French, Polish, that area.  I was born in Oregon.  That is a state in the United State of America located above California and below Washington looking from a bird’s eye view of a flat traditional map.

I guess she thought she was going to make the racist punches and I would go down.  I have been dealing with racists bigots for 24 years out of my 29 years.  I have dealt with friends and even family making racist jokes about Mexicans and people with brown skin from the south.  And of course they felt the same about anyone not white, they had some comment to make.  That’s a typical sign of a racist, they come in all forms, not just extremist like neo-Nazis and the KKK.  I have always said something and made many people aware of what they say.  If you don’t like it, walk away.  I would never attack someone for no reason, not in my nature, spirit, or blood.

So after trying to talk with her like an adult, I was finally insulted.  Her friend mommy goggle was right there trying to fuel the problem.  She knows our long history, and thinks it’s going to cause more of a problem.  I would hope it only proves my point even more, but many on twitter act like its just drama.  Some people on twitter make me wonder about what they really stand for.  But then again, anyone can get into this game.  I did right?  I have met some really fascinating and great people, but have encountered the dark side too.  It just seems like the people out there to hurt others and create problems.

Anyways I hope people can learn something from all of what I have experienced.  And

Stop using racist names of any type, especially on a large public forum.  All you do is condone the behavior and attitude.  You perpetuate its intent and goal to cause a divide.  It may be funny, but it gets old to those they are used against.

Some ideas to consider:

1. Make sure that you really get to know someone before you call them your BFF.

2. Treat everyone with respect, it will get you further

3.If you don’t have anything nice to say, just type

4. If you don’t like someone, walk away and leave them alone

5. If you see someone getting picked on online and don’t like it, say something to both parties

6. If you see friends acting like this, tell them to stop treating each other badly

7. If you have to insult someone and really are genuinely sorry, tell them, and not the people you pissed off saying what you did.

Pickles, Strawberry Jam, Salsa, Peaches

We believe that food and its origin are important.  It is good to now what’s going into items that we eat.  I can’t find pickles that are not as salty as the sea, and one of the best salsas I’ve tried lately came from Costco, was organic, and comes in a large container.  My wife talks about our journey with strawberry jam.

So we decided to give pickles and salsa a try.  Kristin also had a dire need to make strawberry jam, and for some reason I thought the ultimate feat in canning would be to make peaches.  We’ve gathered the right tools for the task.  There are 2 different options for canning which include pressure and water boiling.  We decided on  boiling and this is what is required:

• Canner or large deep stockpot (we chose a non-stick 16qt, non-enamel due to having a glasstop)
• Canning accessory kit which includes tongs & a magnetic rod
• Jars (we prefer thicker glass like those from Ball or Mason)
• Pack of wide mouth and regular lids
• Jar rack for canner (we purchased a plastic drop-in type one for $10)

The point of this post is to show my current success.  I included one of each of our projects which include peaches, strawberry jam, dill spiced pickles, and medium spiced salsa.  We made about 2-3 jars of each, except we only did one jar of peaches.  Whats great is we made them all by hand.  I could do the calculations, but everything we made is nutritionally better than anything you could find in a store , and taste just as good if not better.  My peaches taste different than store fruits (which I don’t really care for anymore) but this may be due to the simple fact of using real cane sugar instead of some type of sweetener which may constitute the difference in taste over the traditionally canned store bought fruits.

I couldn’t help myself, and had to try the peaches, which came out great.  We are currently use the jelly every day and its excellent.   We will give the salsa a try tomorrow, which by tasting it before we processed (technical term for canning), it tasted great.  The pickles have a week minimum, and I may give them several more days to a week after.  I am curious how those will come out.  While in Manhattan, New York recently we came across a little pickle stand located on the NW side of Central Park near St. Johns Cathedral.  They had pickles on a stick, and I had a horse radish one, the best I have ever had.  They are called Kormans from New York.  I talked with a fellow tweeter, and after discussing them she found out they only ship out 10 lb buckets.  So my mission is to make me some horse radish pickles.  I will try here in a few days.

If anyone out there is considering canning, I would highly recommend it.  It’s a great way to spend time with the family, and teach them some valuable lessons, such as how food is made.  Its great to let the kids get experience and their hands on food, plus they make great gifts.  Don’t forget to teach hygiene.

I have the process down, but obviously am on the lookout and adventure to come across and discover some tasty treats and recipes of my own. Good luck to any who try and good luck to those who attempt from my inspirational words, or pictures of tastiness.  Also thanks to @BackpackingDad on twitter who gave me the inspiration to take the dive…get it dive…nevermind.

My Thoughts on Breast Feeding

My experience with breastfeeding

Our Decision

My wife Kristin and I decided to take Brooklin off of the boobs about 3.5 weeks ago.  At her year mark we took her into the Doctors office and her doctor mentioned that we should consider getting Brooklin off of the boob and onto real food.  We had actually started Brooklin on whole mashed foods at 9 months starting with such things as avocados, bananas, and steamed carrots.  We used some Gerber foods such as the organic jarred fruits and veggies and the little crunchy snacks.  We always had the poofy snacks around and found a wide variety of organic ones.   We had avoided the boxed meals and non-organic foods just because we want to allow our kids the benefit of not growing up with non-modified foods.  Regardless of all it was not too much of a big deal since Brooklin was still breastfed.  We continued this food and breast milk trend while introducing harder and different textured foods.

Was it time?

As her 1 year birthday was approaching, we decided that it would be easier to just wean her off completely for several reasons.  She has the equipment to eat and process food, so its there for a purpose and by this time Brooklin had her 2 upper and lower middle teeth.  She had always been good on her mom and never really used those teeth on Kristin’s nipples.  Maybe like 2 or 3 times, not chew toy action.

We had a trip to New York and Washington DC for 10 days, and the plan was to leave the kids with family, mainly their grandmother.  We had Brooklin weaned completely and she did well for her grandma.  Lucky for us all.

Some moms may say, well I breastfeed till the age of 2 and later.  We thought about maybe keeping Brooklin on the boob or breast milk while gone, but Kristin actually developed a somewhat common infection called Mastitis that many breastfeeding moms do and can get.  She described it has razors baldes slicing at her nipples…ouch.  There was not much to do for her except antibiotics so we took this as a sign to start the weaning.  We got to work and switched out the breast milk to whole organic milk.  They actually have an organic brand called Horizon that has a whole milk with DHA added in.  It’s pretty good.

We both thought it would be a good time

We justified this very emotional period because Kristin was in a lot of pain, we were leaving in a week, and to top it all the doctor had suggested we start weaning anyways.  We decided that we would move forward and not look back.  Luckily Brooklin was easy on us.  Maybe a few nights of confusion from her, but she became accustomed.  We did have to warm the bottles for those first days, but eventually she was OK with a cold one.

I remember when Kristin was tweeting during that time.  I guess some lady said she unfollowed Kristin impart to “her ceasing to breastfeed because of our then upcoming trip.”  We told her it was #BlogHer10 … jk.  I guess that could be a typical response, but our kids will be introduced to a variety of foods all throughout their lives.  We don’t want picky eaters.  They will develop a diverse palette for different cuisines or so I hope.  I guess time will only tell but they are both good eaters for the most part, just messy.  Brooklin eats anything and Kaila is getting better.  I think Brooklin is rubbing off on Kaila.  Its good how sisters can work like that.

Final Thoughts

We had an easy experience, and I would recommend having a low level of stress, because things can get hectic.  Try it, and give it a full week before you give up.  Don’t let people tell you the benefits THEY see, think and educate yourself, there is a lot of information on benefits and possible reasons you may not want to Breastfeed, and always talk to your Doc.  Its one of those kind of things you may look back on and say, I wish we would have tried.  Good luck to all future wean’ers.  Haha.