I had one of my most cherished and proud parenting moments at the cottage recently when Lucy spontaneously lifted up her shirt and pretended to breastfeed her dolls.

(OK, so she used her bellybutton. But the premise was there.)

It’s always bothered me a bit that so many baby dolls come laden with bottles and pacifiers. I suppose it’s hard to package a boob in a box, but I often wondered if it was sending a one-sided message to kids (mostly girls) about feeding options for babies.

I guess this Spanish company thought the same thing, because check this out: Bebe Gloton (Gluttonous Baby)

From The Consumerist:

“A Spanish toy company has a new doll out that allows girls to play-breastfeed. Girls put on a special halter top with daisies over their nipples and draw the doll in when it cries. When the doll’s lips press against the girl’s pink daisies, the baby makes little suckling sounds.

Shockingly, not everyone in the media can appreciate the hilarity of Bebe Gloton. Manny Alvarez, the health editor at FoxNews.com, claims the doll will speed up maternal urges and contribute to unwanted pregnancies:

“Pregnancy has to entail maturity and understanding,” Alvarez said. “It’s like introducing sex education in first grade instead of seventh or eighth grade. Or, it could inadvertently lead little girls to become traumatized. You never know the effects this could have until she’s older.”

Unlike the thousands of dolls that come with little milk bottles.”

Lucy was very interested in breastfeeding, especially at the beginning. She wanted to know where the milk came from, how Alice got it, what it looked like, what it tasted like (she had a few drops off my fingertips, pronounced it “YUK-ee!” and that was the end of that) etc.  She dubbed it “Mumma Milk” and told everyone that’s what SHE drank, too.

But we also taught her that sometimes women can’t breastfeed, or choose not to, so formula works as well. We had Alice on one bottle of it a day from an early age, and she now drinks it exclusively since we’re done breastfeeding.

Hopefully we’ve shown our girls the best of both options.

Today is Lucy’s last day at daycare for the summer.

Our wonderful home provider, Julia, closes down for the summer to spend the school vacation with her three boys (she’s a single mom). So far this has worked for us, with me working from home and getting help from our teenager Shelby and our parents. But we’ve had many conversations the past two years about how much longer we can handle the shut-down.

Certainly next summer — when I plan to be working three days a week — it will not be viable.

But we’re not thinking about that right now. We’re thinking about:

• a) it’s summer!
• b) ohdeargod, it’s summer!
• c) what am I going to do with two kids for nine weeks?
• d) how am I not going to go nutty with two kids?

We’ll be getting various breaks from each other at daycamp, the cottage and help from Shelby again and our parents. But people: There are a ton of loonnnng days ahead. And you can only craft away or hang out in the backyard so much.

So, let’s help each other out. What do you do all summer? Where do you go to play? Splash pad? Park? Trail? Best indoor place on a hot/rainy day? Festivals? Museums?

Leave a comment, and we can build up a fabulous local resource to refer to all summer.

As an added bonus, I’ve got a set of Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Keys to give away to one lucky commenter!

Here are my faves:

• Any and all local fairs (click here for a list of all the fairs in Ontario, including Durham Region)
• Libraries, early year’s centres (full list of Durham’s are on the site here!)
• Brooks Farms (tractor rides!), plus Cooper’s Goat & Veggie Farm, Uxbridge (corn sandbox and…goats!)
• Port Perry’s waterfront — soon to have a splash pad! And they have great restaurants, picnic area and park
• Picnics in the park (there’s something so…summer about doing this)
• Indoor malls on hot days to cool down
• Ditto indoor play centres (see our list here!)
• Kiddie pool in the backyard with friends
• All of Durham’s local festivals and celebrations can be found on the Tourism Durham website, and others — see the local events page

Almost a decade ago, my sister gave me a set of electric hand beaters as a gift.

(It’s not like your husband buying you a vacuum as an anniversary gift — I actually wanted them.)

These beaters have serverd me well over the years, helping to create all matter of deliciousness. But despite listing eight speeds, there really was only one. The first one. Which went REALLY SUPER FAST AND SCREAMED LOUD AND MADE THE ENTIRE APPARATUS BURN UP IN MY HANDS.

Lucy was terrified of them. She still is. When I say we’re going to bake, she immediately cocks her head to the side, holds up her finger, and says, “But no beaters, right?”

I’m not really sure why I waited so long to get a new set, but I finally did today. I used some birthday money* to pick up a set at Lawn-Mart. And tonight I baked a cake. With beaters that did not scream like a when you hit the gas pedal in your car and it’s in park. In fact, they purred. They were smooth and slick. I got a little too excited and couldn’t stop talking about them in the three minutes I had to beat the Starlight Yellow Cake ingredients, until finally Eric’s eyes lodged themselves in the back of his head from rolling them so much, and he fell over.

And now I wonder why the heck I waited so long to spend $19.95, and could have spared my eldest daughter beater fear for the rest of her life.

Mmmmm, cake…

*I originally spent the money on a food processor, but returned it. The noise scared both girls (see beaters, electric, above), it was a ton of work to wash the pieces, and took up way too much valuable counter space in my small kitchen. The $100 instead bought the electric beaters, pink rubber boots (love!), black yoga pants that actually make me look like I have an ass and a new pair of slippers. You know you’ve turned 30 when…

Lucy LOVED this giant piece of plastic monstrosity, and Alice appears to be following in her sister’s footsteps. Well, her padded seat balanced footsteps.

I think babies love these because they’re supported upright and can see everything. Nothing makes Alice pissier than when she’s stuck on the floor in the bouncy seat and is missing the action.

Eric used to call Lucy DJ Drool. I think we need a nickname for Alice…

For her birthday from Jen O. et. al., Lucy received a gift certificate for Build a Bear. So a few weeks ago, off we went to the Oshawa Centre — just the two of us –  for a girly morning with Jen and Eirinn.

Making the animals is quite the thing: There’s a stuffing machine (Lucy was scared of because it makes so much noise) and a big production with sewing a heart inside and kisses. Then a washing/grooming station (which Lucy was also scared of), and TONS of clothes and accessories. The place is a bit of a female-sentimental-pusher, reminding us how much we loved playing and dressing animals as kids. I can’t believe I paid $12.50 for an outfit for a stuffed CAT. I’ve never spent that much on an outfit my own kids! But Lucy loved it. Here is she is with “Pink Star” and Eirinn with “Dorothy Lamby Inch Kinch” (go visit here for the story on that one…).

We ate lunch, shared frozen yogurt (yes, Lucy DID eat an entire small on her own, eating all of us under the table, as they say), then Lucy and I stopped in the bathroom for an impromptu photo shoot.

I’d forgotten, these past months of chaos with Alice, how much fun Lucy and I have on our own. She is such a bright, funny and sensitive little girl. The whole day was just wonderful, from her uninhibited excitement to holding hands in the mall and cracking jokes with Eirinn and Jen. My heart swelled all day.

The end of us did happen. But there’s no reason we can’t recapture it every now and then.