positive reinforcement

The baby and I went to the shuk today, to pick up a few necessities and a few non-necessities. One of the first stops we made was to buy me some juice. The guy was selling half a litre of carrot and orange juice for 7 shekels, so I asked what that amount looked like. He pointed out a cup and said “there, 500ml, but you would know all about mls!”; I said that I wasn’t really in the bottle business, at which he said “much better, he’s getting the original thing” … and went on to lecture me about his daughter-in-law’s lack of breastfeeding and told me not to ask about the illnesses and allergies that were surely the result of her bottlefeeding, and that people don’t feed because they don’t know … and so on and so forth. And it was very nice.

Our last stop was to buy some delicious chocolatey-cheesy snacks that are called ‘fingers’, but that doesn’t begin to describe them. As I was waiting in line, I noticed that the woman in front of me was wearing a Bravado bra – which from advertisements I knew was a breastfeeding bra. She saw my naturessway sling and asked where I got it, but I only had the bad news that my sister sent it to me. I commented on her bra, we wished each other luck, and each went our separate ways.

Somewhere in between the juice and the chocolatey-cheesy treat, on our way to the olive stand, a random fruit-seller asked “doesn’t he take a dummy?”. I told him that he does, but if it falls out, there’s always the thumb stand-by. Because that’s a new-ish thing, in the last week – he’s properly sucking his thumb instead of his middle fingers. He started by chomping on it, but now he’s discovered its true use. And for now, it really doesn’t bother me. And although I didn’t get any positive reinforcement in particular at the olive stand, the last time I was there he was very impressed with the sling and said that it must be just like being back in the belly.