We saw a movie called “BABIES” this morning with the twins.  It was playing at 10:50 am and we awoke, nursed, practiced, nursed again and proudly made it to the theatre in time for previews.

When you have 13-week-old babies, you have an awesome sense of “accomplishment” when you do the “simplest” things, like make it to a movie at all—let alone on time.
As my dear friend from Brown (also a Supermom of twins, now 13) said, “I remember feeling so proud that I could ‘pull something off.’”

And that’s how we feel—if we take all five kids to Crystal Lake to swim, make it to a movie, go to our restaurant for a meal (thepranacafe.com)…a wonderful sense of “We DID it!”, which is a high vibration indeed.

Just another of the many gifts that our biggest teachers (our children) give us.

I was sure we’d have the theatre to ourselves this morning (who goes to the movies in the morning?), but, as it turns out, people like going to the theatre in the early hours.

Who knew?  It was my first pre-noon movie.

Moviegoers laughed as we walked in with Dakota and Montana strapped to us in our Baby Bjorns (“Hey!  Are they in the movie?”  “Will they be signing autographs afterward?”), and we laughed as we watched how “tightly wound” the American parents in the movie (with an only child) seemed, juxtaposed to the parents from the other 3 cultures—most markedly the African mother.
We giggled as the scene with the American pediatrician in the sterile Doctor’s office weighing the American baby and talking seriously to the worried American parents about the danger of putting their baby on her tummy—in relation to SIDS—was followed by a cut to the African baby, on her tummy—in 2 inches of water and mud—slurping up the muddy water with glee, alongside her 2 year old brother.

It was interesting to observe that the African baby, without plastic “developmentally appropriate” toys manufactured in a factory and Baby Einstein videos, was joyful in every single scene…and crawled and walked before any of the other children documented.

Indeed, the American baby, surrounded by everything she could possibly want and need, and well-meaning, loving, and over-protective parents (hey, who wasn’t with their first?), seemed to smile and laugh the least of the four babies documented.  Of course it could have been simply her personality…but interesting nonetheless.
It was amazing to note that there was not one line uttered throughout the film (besides cooing and giggles from the babies); yet, this film riveted us, our eyes glued to the screen until the final credits.
During the movie I nursed the twins one at a time (I usually nurse them concurrently at home on a special twin nursing pillow which rocks), and then Philippe and I took turns taking them to the bathroom.

They went potty in the movie theatre bathroom, just like they do at home in our bathroom, and we returned to watch more of “BABIES”—including watching the African Super-mom wiping her baby’s bottom on her leg, and then wiping her leg with a corn cob—without skipping a beat.

Watching four babies raised in four distinctly different cultures provided balance to the never-ending questions we get about raising our twin sons Diaper Free (which we love—bring em on!  Let’s spread the word so that the babies and the earth are happier).

It was beautiful to see how some things are so similar (like the incredible love and joy that babies bring us all—and the fact that “MAMA” is “MAMA” in all of the cultures we watched) and some things so different (the differing “sanitary” conditions in different cultures, traveling protocol for babies—a Mongolian Super-mom carried her newborn baby in her arms on the back of a motorcycle back to her home–and so on).
So diapers, diaper bags, diaper rash creams, and diaper wipes aren’t necessarily “normal,” Super-people…it’s just what we’ve been taught–most of us–from the get go.

I personally had no idea there was “another way.”

So challenge yourself to think differently and contemplate a different way.

A way that some argue is better for our children and everyone agrees is better for our earth.
As one Super-person put it “We train our dogs (puppies), but put diapers on our children.”

Maybe it will work for you and your family.  Maybe it won’t.  But you’ve learned and grown and evolved, Super-people–just by opening your mind, thinking differently, and simply contemplating something new.

And by supporting the many different choices and paths of the many people on this planet.

All of them beautiful in their own way.
Namaste!