Hello and welcome

Quite a bit of weight hangs on this first post. I must introduce myself and my family, explain our way of life, share my vision for this blog, and do it succinctly! ...all the while attempting to keep you interested. If you're anything like me, you most likely have *way* too much to do during the day and at least one child needing lots of attention. You probably have a list of things that you need to do posted somewhere in your house... or in your head (which is where I keep losing mine). And nowhere, at least not on a prominently-displayed list, is "reading blogs" worthy of a to-do designation! For some reason, however, computer time continues to receive priority over such super-important tasks as prepping dinner, washing laundry and picking up wooden blocks.

Without using up too much brain power (or precious time) trying to understand the above conundrum, let's grab a cup of tea, keep an online banking window open so that we can pretend that we're somewhat productive, and get this blog started.

Who I am
Lindsey, a 25-year-old stay-at-home mother to Braeden, who is rapidly approaching his 2nd birthday, and wife to Joseph, an Army captain. Pre-marriage, I graduated from Washington and Lee University with a degree in Economics. Pre-baby, I briefly worked in the insurance and financial industries. I grew up in a very small town in Massachusetts, the oldest in a family of four children. I was lucky enough to experience the "ideal" childhood-- with a stay-at-home mother and an involved father whose job as a banker granted him a very short workweek. I remember long days playing with the other neighborhood kids, and a very loud house filled with books and toys. I took piano lessons, had a French tutor, and played softball. Please don't hate me yet; I promise my life has had its share of challenges.

Who we are
Our little family now resides in a cozy little home in Killeen, Texas. Joseph, my aforementioned husband, is an Army officer waiting for the day (hopefully just a few months away) that he can separate from the Army. We met in college (he attended Virginia Military Institute, which is across the street from my college) and married less than three months after graduation. We moved to Florida after that, and Joe began his Army career shortly thereafter.

In May of 2004, we were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.
In May of 2005, our son Braeden was born.
In December of 2005, Joe was deployed to Iraq.
In December of 2006, Joe returned to Texas.

We now all live under the same roof again, and we can't wait for our life to eventually settle down in a more progressive area. In the "red" state of Texas and the very mainstream Ft. Hood area, our parenting and lifestyle choices are not the norm. Our son breastfeeds... still. He mainly wears cloth diapers. We sleep in a family bed. We forgo strollers in favor of traditional baby carriers. We stopped vaccinating Braeden when he was 6 months old. We are opposed to hitting children (including "spanking"... I have no idea why there are different terms for it!). We are the freaky people at the grocery store with a stack of bright green, reusable bags shoved under the cart. My husband drives a Prius, and Braeden actually owns a shirt that proclaims: "My daddy drives a hybrid." (Obnoxious, I know, but we have to put out little signals from time to time... who knows how many closeted greenies there are out there?) We eat organic food when we can find it, and we somehow recently became vegetarians. We're politically liberal/progressive (I found out last night that "You're such a... Republican!!" is a really bad insult in this house).

Any questions as to why we don't really fit in in this military town??

Why a blog?
We didn't start out this way-- crunchy. Joe and I were once students at conservative, traditional, southern colleges. We married young, had a traditional, formal wedding, went on a traditional honeymoon to the eastern Caribbean, and worked in very conservative industries. Braeden was born in a hospital, with nurses and a midwife attending (though we fought tooth and nail for a doctor), and we once embraced the tenets of "mainstream" parenting: Braeden slept in his own bassinet/crib, for the most part; up until 6 months, he was vaccinated on schedule; and we regularly used various baby holders such as swings, bouncy seats, the fantastically portable infant carseat, and the Exersaucer.

During Joe's deployment, Braeden and I moved in with my parents in Massachusetts, and we fell in with an "AP" (attachment parenting) crowd. Between observing my new friends, spending way too much time on parenting sites such as www.mothering.com, and going through stacks of books from the library, I started to rethink my views on parenting, as well as my relationship with my son. I wanted to be a gentle, loving mother who trusted my son and my own instincts above what some doctor might tell me we "should" be doing. Joe received my parenting-by-mail course while he was in Iraq, but it has taken some serious work since his return to fine-tune our new family dynamic.

Although things under our roof are now fairly harmonious, it is hard to leave the house without encountering "other" types of parents. I struggle daily with what our son should be exposed to; how to deal with parents who think it's okay to verbally berate their children at all, let alone in front of others' kids. And what about neighborhood kids who run around drinking soda after school? Even worse, how do I teach Braeden that soy nuts and a banana is a healthy and yummy snack when he has clearly seen the half-eaten box of Girl Scout cookies that I left next to the computer? Obviously, the struggle is not just between us and other parents. There are plenty of times that Joe and I get into heated debates over health care, for example: he doesn't believe in chiropractic or homeopathy, and I often don't trust conventional medicine. And then there are the struggles within ourselves, shown most clearly on days when Braeden launches into full-scale, almost-2 mode, and his temper tantrums leave us reeling, questioning every decision that we have ever made as parents.

Long story short: we are trying to navigate the rocky waters of our own take on attachment parenting and natural living. Usually we're pretty satisfied with how we're doing; though sometimes we're over-confident to the point of being smug, and other times we're just trying to keep our heads above water. It's an incredibly humbling journey, and not having many like-minded allies in the real world, I've decided to move our daily triumphs and failures into the realm of cyberspace. I look forward to your comments, whether or not you agree with me. Hopefully, at the very least, this will be an enjoyable read.

Oh, one last thing...
Being almost two years old, Braeden doesn't spend much time in the sling (ring sling, mei tai, pouch, or otherwise) anymore... but it's a cute title, don't you think?