My son, my first born snuggle bear is 4 today!  Where does the time go?  I am excited to see that he is growing into such a neat person.  I love the sparkle of his personality and the fact that he is sensitive, intelligent and witty.

Still… time seems to have slipped by so fast, yet it hasn’t gone unnoticed.  So with a little sadness I say “goodbye” to the baby/toddler part of his life and watch him go into the preschool/schoolage child phase.

Happy birthday little man!  I love you so much and am so proud of you!

I FINALLY have a C-section date!  Woot!  Monday, June 30th!  How cool is that?  The fact that reality inches closer and baby Brody’s arrival within a week makes me extremely ecstatic!  I feel like i’m floating on cloud 9!

My week has been rather good.  We didn’t do a whole heck of a lot other than more baby prep, finishing up my final project for school (which I got an A on!) and spending as much snuggle time/ 1 on 1 as I can with the kids!

On Saturday, my amazing friends threw me the best darn babyshower ever!  Seriously… when one of the prizes is an aqua bra and the other is a squishy bag of fun that looks like a penis, and you laugh so hard that you cry… you know it’s a good one!  Thanks guys!  I love you all so much!  I had a rockin’ good time!  Jodi, I think we’ll need to wear our bras at the next porch party!

Today was both good and not-so-good.  It was relaxing to say the least. I sorted through baby clothes and tomorrow will wash and put them away.  Things seem to be going together nicely so far (with the preparation) and that’s awesome!  It was a little dreary and cooler today so we (husb and I) decided it would be nice to take a family nap!  We all took a 3 hour nap and felt refreshed afterward!

Husb and I are talking about experiencing some Chicago travel later on this summer. I want to visit IKEA and take the kids to the museum of science!

And finally…

This evening, I logged onto myspace and got a message from one of my best friends from high school.  She has recently been diagnosed with bone cancer and has a 40% survival rate according to her doctor.  She has 2 small children at home (ages 4 and 1).  She is not a religious person persay, but is asking for a lot of prayers.  So please, if you read this… pray for her.  She is a good person and deserves to see her children grow up!

Lately I have been trying to search for some good sales on baby items (i.e. clothes and diapers). Is it just me or is everything rising at an alarming rate?  Inflation at its finest, folks.

So I have been shopping for baby B.  We decided to name him Broderick.  I can’t remember whether or not I remembered to mentioned that.  Anyway, I have yet to find a good sale.  You know, the kind where you can stock up to your heart’s content and know that you will be pleasantly rewarded with a discounted bill once everything has been rung up.

No such luck here.  I’m thinking of trying a store called Once Upon a Child.  It is a children’s clothing and accessories consignment shop.  They only take gently used items so you are sure to end up with great clothes at bargain prices.  I am addicted to that store.  I’ll admit it and with no shame.  I plunked down some change a few months ago to outfit my daughter and son for the short spring season.  Now, i’m quite ready to do it again!  Hee!

My friends have been extremely generous in giving me any clothes that their babies have outgrown!  I am so thankful for that!  I seriously have rocking mom friends!

Rambling here… it is amazing to me how frugal I am now as compared to the days when Owiebear was just a little cub.   Of course, the outrageous gas prices don’t help any.

I am forever looking for ways to save money, so here is a question for moms of more than one….

How do you save money when buying clothes, accessories, etc. for your children?

Enlighten me please!

Now that the baby is almost here, I have really been thinking toward the future, especially in regards to my body image and weight.  Post baby weight is hard to lose on it’s own.  Imagine trying to lose post-post-post baby weight!

Admittedly, it is a little scary to think about and maybe just a bit overwhelming.  However, I feel really ready to get my body back and create a better self-image.

I have been tracking commercials about the list of best diet pills for awhile now. I am not really sure if I would go there right away but I have heard some positive things about certain weight loss products on the market!

I have always felt (and maybe it is just me) that we moms lose a certain part of ourselves with every pregnancy.  Mostly because being a mom whether it be to one or more changes everything for us!  I mean really, did you ever think you would care so much about another human being’s bowl movements?  Being a mom means not getting super grossed out when you share a drink with your child even though you know there’s going to be AT LEAST a small amount of backwash.

In any case, I love that i’m a mom.  I love that mom and wife are major parts of my identity now.  However, there’s another part of me that I am trying to connect with.

Does that make sense?

I love watching YouTube. Who doesn’t? Recently, I went in search of parenting advice and tips just to see if anyone was brave enough to put something out there. What I found was a 3 part video of Bill Cosby speaking in front of parents, students, and teachers about parenting and school. He touched on some very important issues in the first of the three videos and I thought I would share it here.

I meant to share this story straight after it happened last week, but it totally slipped my mind in the end.  

On Thursday morning of last week, my son was kicking butt on the potty training.  I had him in underwear for three full days without any mess and not only did he go potty when I requested, he actually TOLD ME that he had to go potty!  I couldn't have been more proud.  That Thursday morning ended our three-day streak.  

I was cleaning the house and heading for the bathroom when I walked in on my son going poop (YAY!). 

Our conversation and the situation that followed went like this:

O:  "I'm going poop mommy!"

Me:  "That's great baby!  Mommy didn't mean to interrupt.  Let me know when you are finished and i'll help you wipe."

O:  "Okay!"

3 minutes later, he came running out of the bathroom

O:  "I went poop on the toilet!  I went poop on the toilet!"

Me:  "YAAAAY!  Good job buddy!  Now for a treat!"

O:  "I want the yellow one."

His words for saying that he wanted the little box of milk duds.  

Me:  "Make sure you eat them and don't let Sophie get ahold of them!"

O:  "Okaay!"  as he ran down the hallway to play in his room.

15 minutes later….  (I was in the kitchen and O in his bedroom playing with Sophie)…

O: "Mommy!  Sophie is eating Pooop!"

Me:  "What the…?"  (while running down the hall).

So there was Soph, lying on her back, munching on something dark brown.  At first, I thought it was a milk dud.  Milk duds kind of look like poop nuggets when you think about it. 

I took it out of her mouth and smelled it.  It smelled… like… poop.  UGH! 

Me:  Owen!!!!

It turns out he had pooped his pants AFTER claiming that he went poop on the potty.  Then dug in and threw some nuggets out because it felt (in his words)… "UCKY".

Thus ended our three-day streak of doing extremely well on potty training.  I hear that going poop on the potty is usually the last thing mastered. In O's case, we now have a story to tell all unsuspecting girlfriends.