Just the Facts

Name: Lynda
Age: 30
Location: near Atlanta, GA, USA
Status: Happily married to Mark since November 2002.
Children: We have two beautiful sons. Elias was born October 1, 2007. Noah was born June 8, 2009. They are twenty months apart in age.
Pets: Teyla, a Maltese and Leah, a cat.

Mark is currently without a job and is staying home full time with Noah. Elias goes to a daycare/preschool three days a week and is home with Mark and Noah on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Writing and Photography

I’ve had a blog or online journal since March 1999. I write for myself and now, to create an online scrapbook of images and words to share with my kids as they grow older. I also hope to improve my writing and photography skills. In 2010 I am participating in Project 365:2010, a Flickr group prompting its members to take a photo a day.

I have a Nikon D50 and currently have only a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens along with a tripod and some filters. If we ever have disposable income again, I’d love to get more gear! But for now, I’m happy learning with what I have!

Babies

I have two kids two or under, therefore the topics of pregnancy, infancy and toddler hood are freshly on my mind. I talk about these things frequently and candidly.

• I am a lactivist and believe it’s every baby’s right to be breastfed. Breastfeeding support and education is severely lacking and formula is used too freely under inappropriate circumstances. Ironically, I was unable to provide a sufficient amount of breastmilk for either Elias or Noah due to chronic low supply. In trying to combat this, I’ve learned an awful lot about breastfeeding and the common mistakes women make through very little fault of their own. With the help of my doctor, an IBCLC and the process of elimination, I believe I have insufficient glandular tissue. Click the link if you want to read more about it. Because subsequent pregnancies build more tissue, Noah gets more than Elias did and any future children should get more than Noah.
• I’m an intactivist which means I believe it’s a baby boy’s human right not to be involuntarily circumcised. Before becoming pregnant with Elias, I had no opinion of the matter. In my research I learned there are no health benefits. It is a cosmetic, elective surgery on an infant sometimes only hours old. In the United States it is primarily performed due to tradition, misinformation and greed. The only arguable health benefit is in preventing issues or diseases that proper hygiene and healthy living can do more to prevent.
• I believe safe bed sharing is beneficial for moms and babies. I shared the bed with Elias until he was nearly 11 months old and we slept in the same room until he was 18 months old. He handled each of these transitions easily and had no problems moving to a toddler bed at 19 months. While I extol the virtues of bed sharing, I realize it is not for every family.
• Babies cannot be spoiled, let alone with love. You cannot hold a baby too much or devote too much time to a baby. Babies are built to be nurtured.

On the not-so-controversial side of things, I babywear and cloth diaper my youngest. I wore Elias almost non-stop during his second and third month of life and he was cloth diapered until shortly after my maternity leave ended because I could not keep up with the laundry. We’re cloth diapering Noah because we already have the stash and disposable diapers are hella expensive. Elias is not yet potty trained, but we are hoping we’ll soon be able to put disposable diapers behind us entirely.

Something other than babies

Mark and I like television. A lot. We don’t really follow any medical, crime or law dramas as they’re all pretty much the same. Here are just some of our favorites:

Lost, Big Brother, The Biggest Loser, Chuck, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Heroes, Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two And A Half Men, Entourage, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Mythbusters, Doctor Who, The Office, 30 Rock, Warehouse 13, Hell’s Kitchen, Glee, and Penn & Teller’s Bullshit.

We also like movies, but two hours is a lot of time to devote to something. It seems lately every time we start a movie, we only get 30-45 minutes into it before moving on to something else.

Once upon a time I loved to read and would read several books a week. Since having babies I’m lucky if I can get through several books a year.

Mark and I are not religious or even very spiritual. I try to be a good person and will raise my children to be good people. I think over the years I’ve become more agnostic than anything else. I was raised believing in God and the Bible, but we weren’t very religious people and didn’t regularly attend any church. (There’s a long story involved where I was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses for a few years. I guess I’ll link to it if I ever write about this in more detail.)

Photos of Me

When I frequent a blog, I like to know what the author looks like. Here are some photos of me over the past several years:

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