Dear Livia,

Even though earlier today I told your Uncle Adam that I just may have the worst job in the world, I was wrong. This photo shows why I have the best job in the world. It may perhaps be the hardest job as well, but smiles like these go a long way in easing the stress of it all. You are in the middle of the toddler testing phase and I can’t even count how many times you were forced onto the Naughty Spot this past week. This discipline gig is not an easy one, especially when you say “I’m sorry” before you even make it to the Spot for two minutes. I still don’t like it when you cry, but I’ve discovered I don’t like it at all when you do things like throw your chicken nuggets on the floor at Burger King (or bite Mommy in unbloggable locations, or chuck your sippy off your highchair, etc etc etc). But the smiles and hugs and sweet caresses you’ve recently been giving, those lovely things make my job the most beautiful one imaginable.

Love,
Mama

Remember this blushing bride of a year ago? Well, today’s her birthday.

The Tredways love you, Nae Nae! Happy birthday!

Blogging is a strange medium that has great potential for allowing misperceptions and miscommunication to run rampant. To put it bluntly, you may not really know me if you only read my blog. Like any other blogger, I pick and choose what I post in this space and my readers get a very skewed version of Rebecca Tredway because of my picking and choosing. Recently I’ve had numerous conversations with close friends about the oddness of blogging. Sometimes a blogger’s voice truly shines through his words, and at other times a blogger’s posts don’t reflect his personality at all. I’ve heard of bloggy crushes that have developed based on a perception that is far removed from reality, and I myself have quit reading blogs because my own perceptions created frustration and irritation with the particular blogger.

All in all, I think there needs to be a lot of grace issued in the blogging world. Grace to understand that messages recorded in print may not tell the full story, that comments listed may not truly reflect one’s heart, and that each item posted simply records a moment in time, that the blogger herself may change her mind on the same topic tomorrow.

Finally, these conversations with friends (in particular, one with my dear friend Sarah late last night) have pushed me to question, why blog? Here’s the best answer I’ve come up with…

I blog for three reasons. One, blogging is a fabulous creative outlet. I’m able to combine two passions — writing and photography — into one small space on the web. Sentences have a way of composing themselves in my head, and if I’m smart enough to record them quickly, I end up having great fun with words. I have loved to twist, turn, manipulate and create with the English language as long as I remember. Most everything I write here is factually true, but I admit I take a writer’s liberty with the telling of it. As a child I’d hear my mom relating a story on the phone and I’d think, Wait! She’s not telling it right!! The truth was that my mother was telling her own story, complete with the nuances important to her. That’s exactly what I do here. Okay, back to my three reasons for blogging. The second reason I blog is that The Prairie Box is my personal Soap Box — it’s my chance to speak my opinion freely on matters like breastfeeding, public schooling, child advocacy and politics. In the same manner, I can give personal opinions on movies, books and television programs. Lastly and most recently, blogging has become my kid’s scrapbook. I am far too perfectionistic to create decent scrapbooks by hand, but the blog allows me to post photos and memories of Livia’s baby years. (Many a time I’ve wanted to retitle the blog, “The Livia Project” since it’s mostly about her!)

Any thoughts on all this? Why do YOU blog?

The only thing worse than stepping on toy cars in the dark is, perhaps, stepping blindly on plastic cookie cutters. The bottoms of my feet have now experienced the piercing pain understood only by a cold blob of sugar cookie dough.

Title makes you a bit squeamish? That’s okay—I experienced a similar reaction when first reading about WBF on Kristen’s blog, This Classical Life.

Today I began leaving a comment on her first blog post this week and I realized it really should be posted on my own space in the WWW. So here ’tis:

I was a breasted baby and grew up around people who breastfed, so honestly I didn’t understand the important of WBF—until now. I recently heard a statistic that went something like this: a majority of the American public thinks it is inappropriate to breastfeed in public and an even larger percentage (71%?) think breastfeeding is indecent when shown on tv. Now, I’m just repeating what I’ve heard/read and I don’t have the proof in front of me, nor do I know what the actual survey stated, but still, the notions behind these statistics are absurd! Breastfeeding is GOOD and DECENT (when a bit of discretion is used, of course) and is a GOD-GIVEN way to feed babies. I find it hard to believe that it’s considered appropriate to show breasts in sexually suggestive ways on television but not as a way of feeding a child (you know, the same child that was carried in the same woman’s womb for nine months). Also, I wonder if the “public” is aware of how often a newborn infant eats…. To say it’s inappropriate for a woman to breastfeed her child in public is like saying this same woman doesn’t deserve to live outside her home for more than an hour or two at a time. Ridiculous.

I will never be a militant supporter of breastfeeding and I do believe some women go overboard in their methods to support it. I do wish that well-intentioned people would quit asking me if I’ve heard about breastfeeding adopted babies (for the record, yes, I have) and I do wish that breastfeeding and bottle-feeding mamas alike would support one another’s choices. There’s way too much judgment flying around women in this arena and it only serves to make someone feel guilty about the choices they’ve made.

Still, I find it hard to believe how uncomfortable the general public is with breastfeeding. I’d be more blunt with my thoughts here, but well, I’m trying to keep this blog rated G. Or, maybe PG-13.