Welcome to Friday Favorites! If you’re new to the blog, here’s how to play along. Every Friday I devote my post to showcasing awesome blog posts by other bloggers that I’ve read over the past week or two. Then, I invite you to do the same and link up. This is any easy way to share the love and find great new blogs. 

Today I’ve got a short and sweet post. I’m just featuring Kayce of Hearts and Hands. Her post The Unwanted Package is about the formula sample she received this week for her “special preemie” (a son that died at birth several weeks ago) and her thoughts about that, as well as how formula samples harm those of us who have used formula to feed our babies.

Welcome to Friday Favorites! If you’re new to the blog, here’s how to play along. Every Friday I devote my post to showcasing awesome blog posts by other bloggers that I’ve read over the past week or two. Then, I invite you to do the same and link up. This is any easy way to share the love and find great new blogs.

The Guilty Squid is humor blogger. I came across her post Ways To Avoid An Unfortunate Engagement And Probably Also Be Served With A Restraining Order and laughed out loud. How does she even come up with all of these? I wish I was so funny and creative!

I just started talking with Devan of Accustomed Chaos recently; turns out she has celiac just like Mark does. (As an aside, if you’re looking to go gluten free, she’s a great person to chat with!) Devan is also a staunch breastfeeding supporter. In her post WHO Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes And How It Protects Breastfeeding & Formula Feeding, she breaks down the World Health Organization’s rules for formula marketing and why they matter to breastfeeding and formula feeding mamas alike. If you’ve never heard of the code before or aren’t sure why so many of us care about it, make sure to check out this post.

Last but not least, I’m excited to introduce you to Katy of Bird on the Street. She’s written two posts this week that I love. The first, Hope, is about Katrina. Though she was out of state when the hurricane hit, most of her family was there. Katy talks about why they came back to Louisiana post-Katrina. I also loved the post The Boy in the Yellow Chair. In it she writes about her son with special needs, Charlie, and the impact he is already making on those around him.

It’s Friday and that means: FRIDAY FAVORITES TIME! I’ve got a lot of great posts for you to peruse today. So without further ado, in no particular order:

Luschka, Diary of a First Child: I enjoyed her post Whose Baby Is It Anyway? Luschka discusses the idea of parents being the expert about their children. Basically, doctors and other experts might have some great suggestions for us, but they’re not the ones living with our children and so we’re the ones who need to decide what works best for our kids.

Melissa, Confessions of a Dr. Mom: Breastfeeding Broke My Heart is a beautiful piece. Melissa, a pediatrician, was diagnosed with the rare condition Insufficient Glandular Tissue and unable to exclusively breastfeed her children. I admire not only how hard she worked to get out what milk she could, but how willing she is to tell her story to raise awareness about IGT. She also links to pages with more information about IGT if you’re interested in learning more.

Shannon, Three Seven: You may remember me talking about the BlogHer conference a couple of weeks ago. I desperately want to attend next year. Of all the BlogHer recap posts I read, BlogHer ’10 sums up the feeling and meaning of this conference better than all of them. It’s a beautiful thing.

Brandie, ParentCentral.CA: One of the events at BlogHer this year was TuTus for Tanner. Tanner is the nephew of one of my favorite bloggers, Catherine of Her Bad Mother, and he is dying. TuTus for Tanner was just one of a few events that weekend set up to help raise money for Tanner’s mother to redo her basement so that Tanner is able to die at home, surrounded by loved ones, instead of in a hospital. Brandie’s article explains the event and has some beautiful pictures.

Amber Strocel and Crunchy Carpets: I’m linking up this last post to let you know about The Purple Program to help raise awareness of and prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome. They’re on the lookout for knitters and for women (who birthed in Canada) to share their parenthood stories. Please check out these posts and contribute if you can.