My Jodie Grace turned 21 months on Valentine's Day. With that in mind I was thinking about why I love nursing my active toddler....

I love how she now can tell me she wants milk. We still have our non verbal cues (clicking her tongue and patting my chest) but now she can tell me with words! She will climb up on my lap, assume the position and say, "I want milk, please."

I love how grateful she is for her mommy milk. She always gets the giggles. When she is done she now says, "Thank you mommy."

I love the fact that we now need to nurse in privacy. Jodie has become very easily distracted if someone is in the room. She even will try to talk while she has my nipple in her mouth. LOL Believe me, it is definitely not polite to talk when one has food in their mouth! Because she is so busy and easily distracted, we now retire to my room with the shades drawn. Aaaaaahhhhh!!! I get peace and quiet for about 15 minutes. That is a very hot commodity when you are mother to four children!

I love her midnight nursings and early am nursings. She doesn't consistently do this every day now...maybe four or five days a week...but when she does, I really enjoy snuggling with her under my down comforter. She talks in her sleep as she starts or finishes her feeding. It is so funny. Dad gets a kick out of it because he says that I talk in my sleep too.

I love how our breastfeeding relationship influences my family. My other daughters all see how good it is to nourish a baby and now a toddler this way. When my oldest daughter, age 11, saw Titanic she pointed out to me the pencil drawing the character Jack Dawson had drawn of a mother nursing her baby. Some young girls (about 15 or so) sitting in front of us were commenting out loud about how gross that was. Hollie, being the outspoken young lady that she is shot right back, "That is not gross! that is what they are for, right mom?" LOL Where does she get this from? "Yes, Hollie. That is exactly what they are for."

Until next month....

Happily nursing,

Jodie and Laura †

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