I guess it's not that strange afterall

I always knew breastfeeding was the best for my children.  I wasn't able to do it as long as I would have liked with Munchkin since she took at bottle at 4 weeks and never looked back.  Pumping once I went back to work was hard since I only had a 10  min break and had to use the managers office in our stockroom.  So she was a formula baby from about 4 months on.  Nothing wrong with that, it happens.  But when I had Squishy, I knew I wanted to make it work, for her and for me.  Saving the $1000 a yr that would have spent on formula was a pretty good motivator too. 

Here we are, one week away from her being 8 months old and we're still going strong.  She's eating some solids, not a lot, but she's still nursing just as much as always.  The one thing that has changed, is that, if needed she will finally drink milk from a sippy cup.  I had been helping out an old manager of mine doing late night store transitions which meant that I was gone from 7pm until usually 1:30am for the last 3 Sunday nights.  So, Squishy HAD to either wait for me to get home or drink what Hubby had for her.  Thankfully she drank the milk he had, in fact she drank more than expected.  I had pumped each night before I left so she had "fresh" milk (rather than the frozen stash).  But she was not only finishing that bottle, but Hubby would have to defrost another bottle which she hungrily ate.

This morning I discovered that my breastfeeding relationship is not only between Squishy and I, it affects Munchkin too.  She's learned that when Mommy is feeding baby, she sometimes has to wait to get what she wants.  It took awhile, but she's OK with that now.  She knows that Squishy eats milk from Mommy's boobs ( I find nicknames for things like this annoying...it is what it is).  As I was talking to Squishy, asking her (with signs) if she wanted milk, Munchkin said to me "Me want milk too!"  So I got up and went into the kitchen to get her a glass of milk, she says "Have milk from boob?"  That stopped me in my tracks as I looked at her standing on the other side of the gate with an expectant look on her face.  I wasn't sure what to say at first.  She hadn't nursed since she was 4 weeks old so I know it's not that she remembers, it's just that she sees her sister doing it, so why can't she? 
While my views on breastfeeding toddlers has changed quite a bit, I still wouldn't start up with a 27 month old who has a full set of teeth and hasnt' nursed in about 2 years.  I do however feel that the "if they can ask for it, they're too old" argument is a bunch of BS.  There are plenty of arguments for both sides, but I think most of them against "extended" breastfeeding are unfounded.  I just read an article about the natural age of weaning and found it to be interesting. 

I still don't know for sure when we're going to be weaning.  My first goal was 6 months, now we're aiming for a year.  After that, who knows.  If both Squishy and I are happy, then who's to tell us we have to stop just because she's getting "too old"??  It's the best thing for her nutrition wise and it's also a comfort to her when she's hurt or upset, nursing calms her down.  It allows us to be close and it's something only we can do together.  I don't see why that has to have an expiration date. 

Lastly on my little rant here...they say breastfed babies are smarter (I haven't read much on that yet) well, if that's the case, I'm worried.  Munchkin is too smart for her own good most days and she was formula fed.  I'm going to have my hands full with Squishy if that's really the case.