Oooh, fun. I've discovered polls.

Today we rode the bikes over to a La Leche League festival out at a local park-- my friend Peace had a booth there to drum up new students for her baby sign language business, and so we went to show off a real-live signing baby and to enjoy some baby-oriented fun. You might (or might not) know that today is a big nurse-in day to raise awareness of the legal right to breastfeed in public. First of all, I don't think anyone gets their jollies by feeding a baby in public. It's a bit awkward, but if you've ever spent much time with a baby, you know that when they're hungry, they have to be fed. Funny thing about babies. And it's ridiculous that women are thrown out of public places all the time for breastfeeding, even though most states protect them legally. That makes no difference to the flunkie manager who is asking her to stop feeding her baby or to cover it up (and, um, yeah-- just you try to feed a baby while its head is under a blanket). Once in awhile someone is able to raise some publicity about it, but usually, these moms just go home, humiliated. It makes me sick. Anyway, back to the LLLI festival.

There were tons of families there and some interesting vendors. I ordered a new baby sling that my mom will be SO excited to try out (it's stylish and comfortable! and no baby-butt-slippage!), and the LLLI ladies had planned a little kiddie parade that, at first, had more the feel of a march than a parade. The kids made posters about how great breastfeeding is, and then they were lined up to parade around the park and play musical instruments and wave signs and it was all starting to get a little weird, when one of the leaders asked Peace if she'd like to be in the parade. She politely declined, but the woman said they needed someone to lead a song. Peace agreed to lead a sign-language sing-along for the parade. Since I know two of her songs, I decided to help out and we sang/signed "The More We Get Together" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" around the park as the kids shook their maracas and waved signs about the wonders of breastmilk. Somehow the music managed to cancel out the vaguely protest-march-feel that the whole thing was starting to have.

I mean, if the LLLI ladies want to protest, then let's march the kids around in the local Applebee's parking lot or in front of Delta's ticket counter or at Target's headquarters or something. I'd be happy to whip out a boob to make a point in the face of some jerk who wants to call it indecent exposure. At the park, I don't think anyone was going to be offended anyway. Still, if they were, they'd have been faced down by a formidable crew of ankle biters wielding percussion instruments.

It was surreal. E-baby slept through the whole thing. After the parade, she woke up and saw her favorite pal (Peace) and jumped straight into her arms. We all had a lovely time.

On a related note, Dianaverse went to a march for dogs today. They walked dogs and had a contest for cutest dog and she saw a boxer from a rescue organization. Maybe the dogs had posters extolling the wonders of clicker-training and vendors selling organic dog-treat mix and signing people up for doggie day care. I hope that the mommy dogs were allowed to nurse their puppies in public and didn't have to cover their fuzzy little heads with blankets. Those bitches get really defensive about their pups. (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun. I hope nobody is offended. If you are, I can put a blanket over the computer screen.)