Happy birthday Inga and Ivy!

Happy birthday Inga (5) and Ivy (3)!

I don't have any pictures of Inga on her birthday, just videos, but here's her cake. She drew me a pictures of a multi-layered turquoise cake and said "make this cake for me, mama!" The inside was 3 shades of turquoise. 

Ivy just turned 3 yesterday. 

We didn't have wrapping paper, so we used play scarves from the toy shelves.

Ivy has been asking all week for "a crown, a rainbow skirt, some sparkles, and some jewels." I bought her a sparkly rhinestone headband and made her a rainbow skirt, so that takes care of all four, right?

Eric modeling the skirt on his head, to the great hilarity of all the children

She wanted a "rainbow heart cake" so here's what we did:

It's rainbow colored inside!

Two must-reads and some (slightly) relevant puppy cuteness

Okay, serious things first: two must-read pieces.

The first is a fantastic writeup about the hormonal physiology of childbearing, written by Carol Sakala, Amy Romano, and Dr. Sarah J. Buckley. It's written for L&D nurses and gives specific suggestions for how to "promote, support, and protect" hormonal physiology in order to "optimize labor and birth, maternal and newborn transitions, breastfeeding, and mother–infant attachment." There are 1.9 CNE units offered via AWHONN, free for the next 50 days.

The next is a series of photos of an upright vaginal breech home birth, with fantastic explanations by the birth photographer. This is one of the best photo series of a VBB that I have come across: you can see the baby working himself out, step by step!

And last...some fluff. Watch a mama dog be reunited with her puppies. I love how they start crowding around to nurse within just a few moments. I had a moment of this myself today, when Eric and I came home after being away for 8 days at a conference. It was the first time we'd ever left all the kids.