The following is a guest post from Cara Terreri.

New moms and moms-to-be have their hands full. Whether they’re in the throes of caring for a new baby or spending days, weeks and months playing incubator while trying to maintain energy, stay healthy and plan for the impending birth-day, suffice to say that motherhood brings with it a whole new set of life challenges (oh, and joys!). Moms are entitled to a ”freebie” every once in a while, which is why Giving Birth with Confidence, the Lamaze blog written for women and by women to support each other during pregnancy, birth and parenthood, is hosting a WEEK OF GIVEAWAYS for moms and babies!

 
Everyday this week, the blog is giving away a new baby, mommy or maternity product. Each giveaway is open until Sunday, August 15. So far, here’s the line-up:
Monday: 4 sets of Lamaze toys and teether bundles
Tuesday: Belle Baby Carrier ($109 value!)
Wednesday: $25 gift card to Maternitique, an online baby and maternity boutique that promotes natural and organic products
Thursday: 2 Discover the Sea Carousel Soothers from the Lamaze toy line ($54.99 value each!)
 

There will be two more giveaways featured on Friday and Saturday. The giveaway is free to enter and open to anyone worldwide and will close on Sunday, August 15 at 11:59 EST. Winners will be announced on Monday, August 16.
 
Are you past the new mommy stage? Then consider entering to win on behalf of a friend, or share the Web link (www.givingbirthwithconfidence.org) with your friends and family. While you’re at the Giving Birth with Confidence blog, check out all that there is to offer… articles, tips and stories covering all topics related to pregnancy, birth and parenting, as well as online discussion forums.
 
 
Cara Terreri is the site administrator and blogger at Giving Birth with Confidence in addition to working with Sherean at New Thought Marketing. She’s a full-time mom to two busy boys and part-time blogger, writer, editor and social media maven extraordinaire.

Our nanny is leaving us in October and so we are looking at our childcare options. We are interviewing a woman next week who also speaks Spanish and wants some flexibility in her schedule. So maybe we’ll put our son in preschool two or three mornings a week and have a nanny the rest of the time. Or maybe I’ll just work part-time the days we have him in preschool and full time the two days we have a nanny.

There are so many factors to consider: finances, the impact it will have on my business if I cut back (which circles back around to finances), whether or not my son is ready for out-of-home care, and of course, whether or not I’m ready to have him go! I work from home now and get to see him as much as I want. Although truthfully, the nanny takes him out for hours and hours every day so I’d probably “see” him just as much.

We’ve been touring preschools in the area, trying to find one that can continue his Spanish language instruction. There are precious few that offer that. The two closest to us are both new (one’s been in business for one year and the other is starting this fall), so they don’t have much of a track record. Should that be a concern?

I know every parent struggles with finding good childcare and worries about whether or not they’re doing the right thing so I suspect I’m in good company.

On another random note, t-shirts are on sale everywhere right now. I know that summer will be over soon (well, maybe not so soon here in Atlanta) but I like to stock up on t-shirts for the winter. I think t-shirts layered over a long-sleeved shirt look really cute and are perfect for our milder climate. So I plan to stock up (buy one size up to allow room for the shirt underneath) on some cute tees now.

Now that we’re more or less settled in the house, we’ve started to cook more. We have a perfect kitchen to cook in and a new grill; it’s been fun to break them in. What’s not been fun about the new house? Cleaning. Too many bathrooms (we tried to get the builder to get rid of one of them but the architect insisted and we caved). Fortunately for us, my husband hates to dust and I like to. But I HATE, HATE, HATE to clean floors and he doesn’t mind that at all. That just leaves the bathrooms (mostly me) and the dishes (always him).

No plans yet for the weekend. What about you?

The guys at FunnyorDie thought it’d be fun/wicked/awesome (!) to send Jewel out to a karaoke bar to sing her own songs.  She’s such a good sport and still seems so down-to-earth. I watched the video while eating breakfast this morning. Now, off to get some work done!

Enjoy:

That Old Spice Guy was on Ellen and I’m sorry, but he is just TOO funny and cute. I love the ads; one of the few TV commercials to break out of the clutter in recent history. Also one of the few spots that my hubby and I don’t fast forward through.

“Honey, all my girls are good cooks. Therefore, I won’t allow you to become the exception. Love, MamMa” (Christmas, 1986)

So reads the inscription in my Better Homes and Garden cook book. My grandmother, an English teacher, had a way with words. So it was that when we found ourselves with some great ground beef and a downpour (not grilling weather), I said, “hey, let’s make a meatloaf.” The last time I tried, I used a recipe I found online from that Southern fried cook, Paula Deen. Made it. Didn’t like it. It was too . . . mushy. And didn’t use catsup! I wanted a basic meatloaf recipe and MamMa’s cookbook provided one.

It was yummy. I’ll add green pepper next time, but otherwise, perfect. My husband loved it. My friend, Vesatee, is sitting here at the table with me chowing down on some leftovers.

I have a friend, Ruthie, who used to work with me. Our office had a little cafe with a cook named James. Every now and then, he made meatloaf and Ruthie and I swooned. “Is it Meatloaf Monday?” we’d inquire giddily as we ran to the cafe. James’ meatloaf was the good ‘ol basic kind.

What is it about meatloaf? By the time I reached high school, I hated it, along with some of my mom’s other standards, like fried chicken. Once I hit my 30’s, though, I ached for some good ‘ol fried chicken, or Mom’s pot roast, or meatloaf. Incidentally, it’s times like these that I miss her. It’ s always the little things, isn’t it? I really wish I had her pot roast recipe. Lipton’s onion soup mix and all.

Christopher hung our wind chimes the other night. I’m typing in our breakfast nook looking at them, dangling, beautiful and still. It’s hot. No breeze. There are nests that look like gigantic spider webs far, far up in our trees (maybe 50 feet). Not sure if we call a tree company or pest control or just not bother at all. But then I have images of spiders dropping one by one onto the yard, or the house. Or maybe it’s not spiders but some flying insects. Whatever. It’s gross.

My dad, sister and nephew came for a visit last week. Hunter was slow to warm up, as he always is, but by the end of the visit he was happily going to Pop Pop – especially since Pop Pop indulged him in many walks “abide” (outside). My son loves to be outdoors.

But not me. Especially not with 95 degree heat, no breeze and mysterious critters growing in my trees. No thank you very much.

Writing is a habit. The more you do it, the easier it is to do. I find that if I don’t blog for a few days, I start to run out of ideas to write about. Conversely, if I keep blogging, the ideas keep flowing.

I’ve considered myself a writer since I was about six or seven years old and was “published” in the school paper. I wrote an essay on our trip to a bread factory. I also had a poem published. I wrote poetry throughout my childhood and poetry became my personal emotional outlet for most of my life. I stopped writing about ten years ago when I decided to mostly be happy. (Real happy not the pretend happy of my twenties.) I find it difficult to write poetry unless I’m desperately sad and lonely or heartbroken.

I’ll trade happiness for heartbreak and poetry any day!

Even when I was a child, my poetry had a tinge of sadness. Consider this, written when I was around 11 years old and vacationing with my family at the Caspian Sea:

The wind blows
The sea roars
My feet are cold
on the naked floors

The sky hath grown dark
unto the sea
as the wind whispers
and wails at me

The sun has gone down
The moon has come up
My feelings are all mixed
and jumbled in a cup.

Yes, I wrote “hath.” I had just finished reading a biography of the Bronte sisters and was in a hath kind of mood. It really was storming, the floors really were bare and I had pink eye and sand in my butt from earlier in the day. All I remember of the trip was writing the poem. Which makes sense when you consider how much focus and effort it takes to concentrate one’s thoughts and express them in rhyme.

In college, a number of professors commented on my papers that I had an “easy, breezy writing style” and similar sentiments. That little bit of unsolicited praise was all it took for me to decide to become a writer. After graduation, I landed a job at an ad agency and within months became their copywriter.

I continued with jobs that required a great deal of writing until my mid-30’s. I found that writing for a living took the pleasure and joy out of writing for me. It became something I had to do instead of something I wanted/needed to do. I was a pretty good copywriter, which is to say I can write short, pithy bits. I tried to write a novel – indeed, I still have several ideas for one – but I’m just not that kind of writer. I remember being VERY excited when I first read “Tales of the City.” The whole book is mostly dialogue and short, short chapters. I thought, “Hmmm, maybe I CAN write a novel if I do it like that.” Of course, I’m not funny enough and so that dream died.

As I advanced in my career, I did less writing for work and seemed to give up writing for pleasure altogether. Until now. Blogging has become my modern-day journal, diary, place to express myself and have some fun. But there are days, like today, when I can’t think of a thing to write about. So I wrote about writing.

Yep, I hath done it.

I had a friend long ago who I knew during a particularly stressful time of my life; I had, in fact, been diagnosed with “generalized anxiety disorder.” Eileen, an absolute angel, told me to pick one day a week and designate it “Worry Day.” If anything came up during the week that was causing me angst, I was to put it away and agree with myself that I would pull it back out and worry my guts out about it on Worry Day (but not a minute before!).

Alas, Eileen died suddenly a couple of months after imparting that advice. (Yeah, can you believe it? Boy did that year of my life SUCK.)

Not to start on a downer but that’s my way of introducing that Tuesday is now my official Worry Day because it is the day I take my son to the OT. Lately, he’s done great during his sessions. Eats and behaves like a perfect angel. I have to bring video in to show Jessica how he is with us, which is to say, not so well behaved. I have video from the weekend where it took 7 or 8 minutes to get him to take ONE BITE of quiche. A dish he’s eaten with no trouble many times before. (To be fair, he does not do this at every meal, just a few times during the week.)

Jessica analyzed the video and suggested a couple of changes to my basic approach. On the video, I can be heard reminding Hunter that he can have some more yogurt after he “takes his bite.” I also encourage him by saying “you can do it.” No more, she says, because that’s still attention. I am to tell him to take his bite and shut the heck up. She taught me a new technique for controlling the waving arms and suggested that if he’s still fussing after about two minutes, I make the bite smaller or dip it in yogurt. Just to get him started.

After that first bite, he’s usually fine. She reminded me again that he has the skills and that this is all behavioral at this point. I asked how long after they “get it” at therapy do they start “getting it” at home consistently. She said typically about a month. So we’re a couple of weeks away. Fingers crossed!

She’s recommending that we have a behavioral psychologist come into the house to observe feeding time and make suggestions. So we’re working on finding one. It’s unlikely that insurance covers this. <sigh> We weaned him off the Prevacid last week and she said to keep an eye on that because reflux can cause them to not want to eat.

But primarily, it’s a behavioral issue. And it’s subtle, small things because from what she’s observing, I am following the proper protocol. He is just super, super stubborn. And no, he didn’t get that from me. (Well, OK, maybe he did.)

How did I get here? Am I that big a pushover? What am I doing wrong? I have no idea but today is my one day a week to stress about it. Today is Worry Day.

Tomorrow, thank goodness, is another day.

We bought some beautiful Father’s Day cards just before we moved. I figured we’d be too busy with unpacking to get to the store so I wanted to plan ahead. I should wipe that pleased look off my place because I can’t find those cards anywhere! <sigh>

I did manage to get my dad and husband a gift, and we have a plan for his dad. So we did cover our bases there. (Thank you, Amazon.)

Are you watching the new season of So You Think You Can Dance? What do you think of the format featuring previous season “All Stars?” I love seeing some of those dancers (I’m talking to you, Allison!) but I miss the random pairings of contestants. Sometimes awkward, sometimes brilliant, pairing two contestants together to tackle new routines and choreography was always fun and interesting to watch their chemistry.

So I’m not sure I like the new format altogether. I do wish they would have the All Stars perform a group routine on Results Night. That would be cool.

I’ve been taking pictures of the new house and plan to start posting some next week. I decided to go ahead and take the pics even with the rooms half-unpacked. If I wait till everything is unpacked and decorated, it’ll never happen.

They’re still working on the house. The painters were here yesterday doing touch-ups; the flooring guys are coming today to repair some boards. The big deck staining incident continues; they have stripped most of the black stain but can’t get enough off the rails and pickets so they are replacing those next week. And then staining everything the correct color. I hope. There’s more but it’s boring and I just want it all done.

Forget the Target dog; my son LOVES the mannequin dogs at Old Navy. There are two and he likes to traipse back and forth through the store hugging and kissing each in turn. It’s too bad I don’t have videos because his squeals are precious. And a marketing note: I didn’t plan it this way but he is wearing Old Navy from top to toe.

Looking for more great photos? Grab a cup of tea or coffee and check out these sites that host more Wordless Wednesday entries: SevenClownCircus, 5MinutesforMom, and WordlessWednesday.

I cannot believe that three weeks ago, my son was vomiting and screaming bloody murder to eat a bite of fork mashed food and today . . . well, today, he FED HIMSELF banana, broccoli, chocolate doughnut, hot dog, pasta and French toast. With his fingers. He shoved the food in his mouth and I choked back the tears. I couldn’t believe it!

Here’s how it went down: We arrived at OT and I told Jessica he’s doing fine with eating his “big boy” food as long as we feed it to him on a spoon. And by “fine,” I mean he protests for the first few bites but usually eats the rest without fussing. This is a HUGE improvement from a few weeks ago. But the only food he’ll pick up and eat with his own fingers is a cereal bar and occasionally, pieces of a Vanilla wafer (but usually only if it’s in his stroller, not in his high chair). Jessica explained that our fingers are more sensitive than our mouths and it can take a while for kids with feeding disorders to pick food up. Truthfully, I can’t stand it if my hands are sticky so if he is a little “sensory” then he comes by it honestly.

She said this might take a while but we would begin working on it. We know he likes bananas because he will let me hold that in front of his mouth and he takes bites. So we started with a banana. She put her hand over his and showed him how to bring it to his mouth. No resistance. Hmmm . . . She tried again. Easy as pie. She told him to do it and he picked it up and shoved it in his mouth.

Then we cut bits up and put it on his tray and he picked one up after another and kept shoveling them in his mouth. I actually had to tell him to slow down and chew. I never thought I’d get to say those words!

After he had the banana down, we started putting bits of other types of food on his tray. He occasionally protested but we just told him he had to do it (and rewarded him with bites of yogurt). We clapped and praised him.

Honestly, I’m still in a little bit of shock. My husband was choked up, too, when I told him about it. It was like watching some other toddler, merrily putting bits of food in his mouth. We’ll be working on this at home, but if he keeps it up, then WE’RE DONE! He’s 19 months old and finally, off baby food. And this close to being done with feeding therapy. Wow.

He did it!!! And look how pleased he is with himself. Well done, Son. Well done.

Archaeologists have discovered a leather shoe that is 5,500 years old. It’s not fancy but I assume it got the job done back in the cave man days. I read about it in the New York Times.

Also in the Times, I read that folks are beginning to wonder if parents spend too much time on their smartphones and laptops and not enough time interacting with their kid. Well, duh. Actually, it did make me think. I try to not work when I’m alone with my son in the morning but have a hard time not sneaking a peek at my RSS reader while he’s playing with his cars. But I know he looks over at me and he always sees my face buried in my phone (or Kindle). Probably not a good idea.

Finally, I think this quick read from Real Simple on how to tell when eggs go bad is useful and worth bookmarking. I always forget the drop-it-in-water test (if it sinks, it’s probably OK) and go digging around for some Hints from Heloise printout I have that’s probably 20 years old. Next time I forget, I’ll just search my blog!

Hope you all have a great weekend! We’re heading to a soft launch of a new farmer’s market in our area and have plans to hang out with some friends. Oh, and maybe we’ll unpack a few more boxes, clear out the garage so we can get our cars in, and hang some pictures. Or maybe not. We’ll see what the munchkin wants to do. He’s such a cutie and so much fun. He’s really our favorite thing to “do.” Much funnier than any TV show (well, except maybe “Modern Family,” which is pretty darn hysterical.)

This close to closing, that is. Tomorrow is the Big Day. We were supposed to close a few weeks ago but the bank we were working with was not answering our simple questions so we started the process all over again with another bank. Our builder kindly let us go ahead and move in. So we’re in the house but it won’t be officially ours until tomorrow.

This is my first time owning a home. Chris bought our last house before we had even met. I bopped around the country so much with jobs that I never felt settled in any one place long enough to buy. So tomorrow will be my first time experiencing the sign-your-life-away phenomenon that my friends have told me about. I hope it goes smoothly. And I hope my husband took the whole day off because maybe we could go to a matinee movie or a nice lunch after the closing to celebrate.

It’s funny, as we’re getting paperwork together for the bank and are in the midst of the mortgage process, I am reading “The Big Short” by Michael Lewis, which is all about the mortgage meltdown, credit default swaps and CDOs (which sadly, I have forgotten what that stands for). It’s a compelling book (he wrote “The Blind Side”) that absolutely reads like fiction – not just because what happened is UNBELIEVABLE but also because Lewis is a gifted writer. I’m about 39% done (haha – joke for you Kindle people) and so far, I’d recommend it without hesitation. I was afraid it was going to be one of those books I “needed” to read and would be a slog, but I promise you, the author breathes so much life into his characters (er, real people) and explains the technical stuff really well that it is practically a page-turner.

Everything made him giggle. Good times.

Looking for more great photos? Grab a cup of tea or coffee and check out these sites that host more Wordless Wednesday entries: SevenClownCircus, 5MinutesforMom, and WordlessWednesday.

Tuesday, dreaded Tuesday. I have a love/hate thing going on with our weekly OT sessions. Love that we have professionals working with him and helping him along; hate that he has such a tough time. Much crying ensues. And after last week’s HELLACIOUS setback, I thought today’s session was going to suck. So I am VERY happy to report that we had a GREAT session today!

Hunter huddled and hid on my lap at first. He protested when we put him in the high chair. But hey, I’ll take protest over the full-on scream fest we had last week. I fed him bites of fruit, black beans, ham, dehydrated corn and peas, steamed broccoli and carrots, fruit cereal bar, and yogurt as a reward in between. He took all his bites and barely fussed.

Basically, he made a liar out of me. I had been emailing Jessica (his OT) and started the session off showing her a video of just how awful it was last week. And then he proceeded to have one of his best sessions ever.

To top it off, Jessica had asked for Liz, the social worker to sit in and give us tips on how to handle his regressive behavior. And lo and behold! He behaved great. Thank goodness I had the Flip video so I could prove I wasn’t a crazy lady.

Liz did give me some other behavioral tips and told me that they should have done a better job of informing me of the ebbs and flows of therapy. Two steps forward, one step back (OK, one mile back last week).

After the OT, we went to Buster Brown (there’s an old Buster Brown shoe store at Lenox Square; Buster Brown shoes don’t exist any more but the guy opened the store way back in the day and just kept the name). Marcel, the 86-year old sales woman, measured my son’s foot and he now has his first properly-fitting pair of shoes! And now Mommy knows what size to look for online on sale.

Great morning.