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.