Textiquette

The answer to yesterday's question " what retro driven 2004 film ends with a post credit song in which the first line is I Love Technology" is Napolean Dynamite, when Kip sings to his bride LaFawnduh "I love technology, but not as much as you you see, but I still love technology. Always and Forever."

Today I was using an old mechinical pencil that I found and I wondered if anyone ever uses them anymore. Then I wondered if anyone uses pencils anymore. Or has everything gone paperless? It's certainly seems to be heading in that direction. I can't complain, I have horrible handwriting and pencils are kind of dangerous.

People are typing in place of writing, emailing in place of sending letters, and texting in place of talking.

I've talked about my texting deficiency before, and I am pretty old school when it comes to communication, but I am gradually being sucked in as opportunity arises. Although, I feel like I need an instruction manual in order to get the hang of it. I am not even talking about the technical aspects, I know how to use my phone. It's all the other stuff.

First of all how am I supposed to know what all the acronyms mean? Just when I think I am starting to catch on I text something like "I am in the church nursery today. WTH?"

Which to me would mean "I am in the church nursery today. Want to help? but to those of you who know about these abbreviations, know that that is not how it translates.

Then there is the text etiquette, or textiquette as I like to call it. For example, I am driving a long and I get a text from a client. I AM VEHEMENTLY OPPOSED TO TEXTING WHILE DRIVING! I can not stress that enough, but I had my babysitter in the car and after she read the message I asked if she could text back, because driving or not she's a teenager I know she could get the job done faster than I could. So I told her to reply with

Okay, that all sounds good.

I will see you tomorrow at 6:00 pm.

LUCKILY around the time that I said tomorrow she said "I am just going to put the #2 morrow." and I responded slightly frantic "oh no no, please spell it all out, this is a business exchange."

With a look of surprise she starts dialing like crazy and says "Ohhh, then I need to start all over" Apparently she had typed out,

"OK! That all sounds good. I will C U 2morrow."

I am so glad I caught it, because that would have been humiliating to me, but to each their own maybe the recipient wouldn't have thought anything of it.

Lastly, T9 doesn't know me AT ALL. If it was as good at predicting my life as it was at predicting my text it would probably say that tomorrow I am going to go to the gym. Even when I did have a gym membership that would have been a terrible prediction.

Do you have any texting pet peeves or rules of textiquette that you follow? Or are you like me a part of the endangered species of non texters?

Changing with the times

When I was in High School or even college age I felt like in some ways I was the standard for trends. Not that I was all that cool, but I just went with the flow and didn't even think about what made our culture tick. Now it's like a conscious effort just to find out what the band wagon is and decide whether or not I want to get on it.

This week I plan on exploring what the new norm is for our tech savvy generation. In hopes that through a little research or some helpful comments I can get caught up with what is happening in the world of texting, tweeting, and tumblring.

I like what Drew Barrymore's character says in He's Just Not That Into You

"I had this guy leave me a voicemail at work, so I called him at home, and then he emailed me to my BlackBerry, and so I texted to his cell, and now you just have to go around checking all these different portals just to get rejected by seven different technologies.
It's exhausting."

In the year 2010 we are at the beginning of a decade at the beginning of a new millineum and it can be a bit exhausting, but it's exciting too. Maybe this week will be just what I need to keep my fears of being stuck in the past from becoming a reality.

Speaking of being stuck in the past (and techie stuff) what retro driven 2004 film ends with a post credit song in which the first line is "I Love Technology"? Answer correctly to get a shout out in the next post!

The Stages

This week I have been focusing on the developmental stages of the early years of childhood. There are always pros and cons to every age and stage with children. Babies are so innocent, soft, and cuddly, but they can't interact the way kids can. Kids are such a blast to have around. Their exchanges can be an endless source of entertainment and the more independent they get the less demanding it is on the parent. However, that innocence you had when they were babies is gone and in it's place is a feisty little attitude.

Either way, it's such a delightfully fascinating thing to experience a child learning how to navigate through life.

Z is at the "I can do it by myself" stage

This takes a lot of patience on my end because I know that I could get him out of his car seat so much faster. I could do a much more thorough job at brushing his teeth and there wouldn't be a puddle of water on the floor if he would just let me refill his cup for him! But that's the thing about parenting, it's not about me. I am trying to learn the balance of guiding and intervening.

SJ is at the changing by the minute stage

She's grabs a hold of anything within reach and examines it with about the same amount of concentration and attention to detail as a forensic scientist! I love watching her take it all in, and although she is on the brink of being mobile I am going to enjoy every last minute of this stage that she is in now.

As I said at the beginning of the week, sometimes you just want to fast forward to the next thing, other times you want to pause and keep your precious little one small and innocent forever. But there is no fast forward, rewind, or pause in life, which only leaves one thing left...

PLAY!

I Love Babies

I love documentaries and I love babies so how could I not love a documentary about babies.
I’ve been wanting to see this film by Thomas Balmès ever since a friend of mine posted this trailer on my facebook back in 2009

and then when it came out I was a little busy having a baby of my own. I kind of forgot about it until they referenced it in the “All Joy No Fun” article that I blogged about recently. So I finally rented it and watched it with my kids the other day and I really enjoyed it!

It takes an artistic uncensored (literally) look at 4 different babies from 4 different countries from birth to first steps. There are no subtitles, very minimal adults, and no captions whatsoever. All we know is the name and location of these babies. I’ll admit there were times I wish it would have been narrated. I had lots of questions like “why do they not show any Namibia men, where are all the fathers?" "Or Why is that woman squirting milk on her baby?" Overall though too much dialogue or even adult presence would have taken away from the movie which was baby centric. It really let you into their world, the way they would experience it.

I finished the movie with a comforted feeling. These babies were so innocent, no biases, no prejudices. Even though the environments were drastically different they were all alike on so many levels. They all had to learn to eat, talk, and walk and all of these milestones were paralleled in the movie. I also loved the fact that they show the babies in some seemingly threatening circumstances that would make some American parents have a heart attack. These situations would include antagonistic older siblings, pets, dirt and sucking on foreign objects, but the babies were all completely happy and healthy in the midst of it all.

Bayar, the baby from Mongolia was my absolute favorite. I just fell in love with him. One last thing before you go gather around the tv with your entire family when I say the movie was uncensored I mean it! There was plenty of nudity (not just babies), although none of it was glamorized or sensual in anyway, it would make for awkward viewing with some audience so be forewarned.

In short, beautiful shots, heartwarming moments, great movie.

10 Fun Products For Ages 0-3

This week I am joining Oh Amanda's Top Ten Tuesday to lists of some of the things the kids AND I have come to love over the past 3 years.

1. Blankets and Beyond

It's a blankie and rattle in one. Soft and fun for the tiniest little new one.

2. Fisher Price 3 in 1 rocking gym

Both of my babies have enjoyed playing with this activity center.

3. Picture Me Book

You add your own photo to this book. This one is personalized Ann Gedes motifs. Z has loved reading this together and it will be a special keepsake as well. I've already put in a request with grandma to get one for SJ too!

4. Leap Frog Learn and Groove

Even from the very first years all kinds of musical instruments are a must have in our home.

5. Hug and Learn Baby Tad

I love this frog! There are lots of great educational songs and features for daytime and a soothing night time setting that plays classical music (I have listened to these songs HUNDREDS of times).

6. Fisher Price 3 in 1 Rocking Gym

Did I already mention this one? Well, it can be converted into a rocking toy when your child gets older and so it's really like two separate items. This particular toy has gone through over 4 different kiddos so it obviously holds up well.

7. Crocs

They aren't a toy or a book, but I can't leave them off the list. Crocs was literally one of my sons first words. They must be comfortable because he would wear them all the time (with or without clothes as shown in #4) They are great indoors, outdoors, in water or mud, and they clean up so easy!


8. Samsonite Penguin Back Pack

This has been the most COMPLIMENTED accessory I have ever known. The beaks squeak and makes carrying your own stuff fun, which means a lighter load for mom and dad!

9. Crayola Tadoodles Paint


I am all about anything that allows children to be artistic and this paint is easy for babies to grasp. It is also easy for mom to clean, it comes off of anything!

10. The Noisy Airplane ride

In 3 years Z has been on 10 airplane rides, and SJ has flown twice. This book helps children learn about the airport, flight, and what to expect along the way.

It's hard to sift through all of the stuff that you supposedly need for a child to grow and flourish developmentally in the early years. While this list isn't exhaustive, these are some of the things that I've found helpful or enjoyable so far. What about you?

Fairness and the First Born

We all want to be fair when it comes to our children, but lets be honest it isn't always that simple. There aren't quite as many photos and you may not keep every little sentiment for the scrapbook with each subsequent child like you do with the first born. The first one comes along and you watch their every move. Their first drool, first coo, first time to wear brown, you name it it's documented. They color all over the novel you are reading and you tear out the pages to hang on the fridge.

I heard a stand up comedian once (I think it was Jim Gaffigan, but not sure) who talked about this very situation. He described how every move is photographed and filmed with the first baby and then the second one comes along and you are excited because they are taking their first steps. Someone mentions the idea of getting the video camera and when you realize you would have to go ALL THE WAY UPSTAIRS to get it you decide to just take a mental snapshot instead.

Although it may be different with the second one it's not necessarily a bad thing. I was so anxious for the next milestone with Z. Checking for his first tooth, watching and waiting on the edge of my seat for him to crawl and maybe even bribing him at times. I was slightly obsessive and technical about each achievement. I counted how many steps he could take without falling. After several days of this, I was counting up to 63 steps and I finally decided I could officially say he was walking.

With SJ I may not dote over her quite as much as I did with Z, but I am also not as anxious for her to grow up. Sure I get excited when I happen to notice her doing something new. I want her to do all the things she needs to learn to be a healthy thriving baby, but I am perfectly content with the stage she is in. No bribing and obsessing this time because now I know that crawling, walking, and talking, will come soon enough!

Is just me, and the comedian that I mentioned, or does anyone else feel like they may not have reacted to every milestone the same with each child?

52 Weeks

Yesterday I finished up my rhyming recap of the past 52 weeks of blogging. When I began blogging a couple years ago I had no idea what I was getting into, but it sounded like fun. I have always loved writing whether it be journaling, poetry, or school projects. My family can verify that writing has always been a part of me. Although blogging is a wonderful way of connecting with people, I am not going lie, it can be intimidating. Especially when you read a profile that's like

"I am just your average mom. I occasionally model for J. Crew, where I also work as a full time designer. I love to work out, and travel. You can read more about me in my best selling book "Your Average Mom". Thank you for being the One Millionth person to read this today!"

Okay, I've never read that profile, but some are pretty close, and it shouldn't matter, but the ugly, jealous, insecurity in me rears it's head in times of vulnerability. Thankfully I know God is watching out for me and no matter how many times I forget his promises he is patient enough to redirect my steps. One day when I was feeling especially glum about the blog life, a series of coincidental clicks led me to a post called If Blogging Makes You Feel Small and it hit the spot!

Nothing gives me quite the sense of fulfillment and inadequacy all at the same time like blogging does and I love it. Here's to creativity, growth, encouragement, self expression, and memories. Here's to another year of blogging.

2010 Blogiversary Poem Part 5

Previously on messymom.com: 2010 Blogiversary Poem parts 1, 2, 3, & 4

Week 41 I blogged about visiting my family all the way out in northern Kentucky

Then we were hoping to get answers from Lost, but unfortunately were not so lucky

On week 43 I went back to work, after being on maternity leave for quite a while

Then I wrote all about my boy riding horses, going potty, and his brand a new hairstyle

I revealed SJ’s new room on week 45 and we watched a father’s day movie outside

Things were good until the next day when a big hummer decided to bang up my ride.

On my birthday week I won a photo contest.

And I told you all that SJ sucks her thumb

Then I shared 10 trends I am not into, and it was the 4th of July so that was fun

The following week was week 49 time to for the potty training two part series

I wrote a post called the truth about parenting, which had some pretty interesting theories

We discussed what to do with all those awkward photos of exes and opinions varied

On week 52 I linked up a bunch of post just before my blog disappeared (that was scary!)

2010 Blogiversary Poem Part 4

The next week I shared the birth story and pictures because I just couldn’t wait

Then on week 32 I showed a special video along with a two week old baby update

On week 33 I was still bloggin’ about baby with plenty of photos all throughout

More of this on week 34 when our family began to venture out of the house

Life was good, but a bit of an adjustment thus the reason for only one post this week

But then came Easter, birth announcements, and even a little earth day sneak peek

Week 37 was so very intense I wrote about it in post called my my my…

It was a season full of firsts for SJ like her first dress, and first smile at a very special guy

My credit card numbers had been stolen, and I still had to go swimsuit shopping

Busy Busy Busy, was the story of my life and the craziness showed no signs of stopping


This goes along with part 1, 2, & 3 with one more to come!

2010 Blogiversary Poem Part 3

On week 21 we looked back at the fun, like thanksgiving time, and homemade jam

I recapped all of 2009, which was hard sum up because the year was so slammed

The much anticipated maternity update, natural birth talk, and belly photos galore

I talked about some of the jobs that I’ve had and what they taught me on week 24

On week 25 I put the focus on Z and all of the things that we know him for best

Then a month before I had my baby I announced that I would start blogging less

Week 27 I got REALLY REALLY SICK. And we also had record breaking snow

This was probably the worst I have ever felt and I was miserable for 2 weeks in a row

By this time my due date was right around the corner

and Z was learning to baby sit

I wrote a post about preparing for the birth while I was in labor but didn’t know it

2010 Blogiversary Poem Part 2

See Part 1 here

The week eleven topic was body image it’s hard to feel good about yourself in this world

By this time I was half way through the pregnancy and found out I was having a girl

Week Thirteen was all about drama such as the terrifying moment when I lost my son!

Then we celebrated being married nine years, for richer or poorer he’s still the one.

Week fifteen was all about autumn,

Oktoberfest, and pumpkins, and trunk or treating

Then we drove all the way to Nashville and barely stopped for sleeping and eating

Ho ho ho. It’s already December where posting about Christmas never gets old

Week 18 we were decorating for Christmas 100 winter penguins is still my goal

I created home made Christmas labels and gave an unappreciated Tae Bo gift

Then came the week of Christmas itself

where even us Texas were all snowed in


Check back tomorrow for part 3.

2nd Annual Blogiversary Poem Part 1

For my newer readers you may not even know that I built this blog by writing on a different topic each week. This concept fell to the wayside when my newborn came into the picture, but I am ready to get it going again. Last year I wrote a 5 part poem with each line reflecting the topic for all 52 weeks that I had been blogging and it was such a hit! Okay, fine it was actually a huge pain in the butt to pull off and only one person commented (thank you very much Becky). But what can I say, I am a gluten for punishment and I've decided to make it an annual tradition. So here is a rhyming recap of the past 52 weeks of blogging.

On week one I wrote a long poem, a lot like what I am doing right now

Then I wrote about hospitality and all of the people that came to our house

Week 3 was a pregnancy update, when I shared the first photo of my new baby!

The next topic was kid’s movies. Do I watch too many of these? Well, maybe.

Week 5 was all about Z turning 2, He got his first haircut courtesy of mama

Week 6 I talked about TV like the whole Taylor Swift and Kanye West drama

I then read a book called belly laughs, and used pregnancy as an excuse to be lazy

On Week 8 we were recovering from Z surgery and life was just a little bit crazy

It was week 9 when we guessed the baby’s sex even though most of us were wrong

The next week I shared my mom life crisis and some of things I do all day long


To Be Continued...

New Site, New Look

This time last week I found out that my blog had disappeared and I haven't written much since then other than a couple of woe is me posts. I have been doing a lot behind the scenes though and I think I just about ready to go. Here are some of the changes that have transpired-

I purchased a new domain name
I purchased the old blog name and I am still working on getting an automatic redirect (thank you Crystal)
I made minor modifications like changing my profile and the logo (or header) shown above
I added new static pages, like about me, about the messies, and blogroll! My old about me page had this supposedly current photo,

but a lot has changed since then,

so it was definitely time for an update.

In January of 2009 I changed my background and said that it was "very temporary"

a year and a half later I went ahead and finally changed it.

I had bookmarked this background sometime ago. Green is my favorite color, plus I love "vintagey" stuff. The 75 cents tickets represents my frugality, and the tattered edges represent my messiness, so I thought it was a good fit.

There are still lots of little things I am working on, but it will have to do for now. This whole blog loss fiasco has been an unwanted challenge, but I believe all things happen for a reason and it's caused me to do a lot of cleaning up around here, and needless to say cleaning up does not come naturally for me. Hence the NAME!

What's In A Name?

If you haven't heard about what happened to my domain name read yesterday's post, although today I have a lot more information on how it all went down. I took a crash coarse on what my rights are as a website owner and learned a lot in one day. You generally have a 30 day grace period after a website expires before it is allowed to be turned over to a 3rd party. In my case with Enom it is 19 days, either way I knew I should have a right to my blog name!

My domain name was purchased through Google apps, and although it was next to impossible to figure out how to get a hold of someone, when I did (via googleclients@enom.com) they were helpful and it turns out I can still get my name back. In fact it was never "as gone" as I thought. So now I own messymom and themessymom and somehow feel like I am playing a game of real life monopoly. The question is where do I go from here?

After consulting a team of experts (my dad and husband), I think I am just going to use this name (messy mom) and try and redirect traffic for the next year with themessymom.com. The damage has already been done, so I might as well just ride the wave all the way through. Like I said yesterday messy mom is the original name I wanted anyway and it could be a valuable piece of property some day. Remember bloggers and business owners your domain name is an investment, learn from my mistake and stay on top of it. For information about poaching and domain expiration policies read this article from ecomputerlaw.com it was very helpful to me.

The good news is I am not a successful blogger (what an ironic sentence). What I mean is that it could have been a lot worse if there had been money or a massive following involved. Although this whole experience has been a bit disheartening I think that in the end I am going to come out knowing more about the internet. Yea! Just what I always wanted! Ha. Not really.



If you follow through blogger you should still be following me if you use another method you may want to change your subscription to www.messymom.com

Blogiversary Nightmare!

Last night I went through my blog emails to try to find out how to renew my domain name since it was about to expire, but I didn't see any email notifications and I wasn't sure how to even do it. Then this morning when I went to check my blog I found this hellacious image

Okay so maybe the image isn't that bad, but it says welcome to the messy mom and it is not the messy mom! I feel so violated. I panicked a little and eventually found out that some poachers had a way to get my domain name at midnight when it expired and want $50 for me to get it back. It's really wrong what happened. I have been building my blog and readership for 2 years now. I have poured my heart and soul into it, and although it may not be the most amazing or popular blog ever it's the one thing I do for myself. It's my little time to sit down and write and unwind and it was taken right out from under me by people that don't care about the name AT ALL! As tears are streaming down my face my little boy asks me what's wrong and I tell him that I lost my domain name. I didn't have the energy to explain it to him in his terms. Later on he looked at me with his big brown eyes and said "You sad mommy. I'm sorry you lost your name. Can I make you happy?" He gave me a kiss and asked if that made me happy. I said "yes, of course that makes mommy very happy." He sure can be a little monster, but his heart even at 2 years old is enormous. It keeps me grounded in moments like these.

Anyway, in all of this I lost my "THE" and so instead the messy mom I am just messy mom, which actually is the name I wanted when I started 2 years ago, but it wasn't up for grabs back then. Obviously as you other bloggers know there are some severe ramifications to all of this. Through site meter and followers I estimate I have at least 50 regular readers. Not an earth shattering amount, but more than the zero readers I have as I write this. Most of the people I know personally do NOT read my blog so I can't just send out an email or something. I had big plans for my blogiversary poem this week, but I am going to hold off on that and take a week to hopefully find these little lost sheep and redirect traffic as best as I can. I also need to change my header and signature, and BLAH I am dreading it already. Any tips are greatly appreciated. Sorry to inconvenience everyone. Thanks for your support and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave me a comment and let me know that you have found the new site. Thanks.

Pumped About Breastfeeding

I have a few things going on this week that I have had to pump milk for so you will have to excuse the pun. In case you haven't heard it's world breastfeeding week and it's gotten me all revved up. I even went to a breastfeeding brunch at the local WIC office. They gave out prizes and goodie bags and they had these little cards inside which gave some info about nursing in public which I thought was encouraging.


I used to be a little freaked out about breastfeeding. My mom breastfed all 4 of us kids, but I don't remember and was never really exposed to it at all. In fact one of my first encounters with breastfeeding that I can remember was with my friend Amy. She breastfed both of her kids. We were playing games one night with a bunch of people from church and she asked if anyone in the room would be offended if she fed her baby. A young man who was about to go into the marines almost fainted and ran out of the room. Years later Amy was talking about breastfeeding with some other moms and expressed her affection towards her children and how it was such a tender wonderful act that she has fond memories of. As a young newlywed I almost reacted the same as the marine. I kind of knew that breastfeeding was good nutrition, but I thought of it as an act of duty that I would do as little as possible and for her to describe it as sweet was GROSS to me.

I currently exclusively breastfeed my 5 month old, and my son was breastfed until 15 months and skipping over all the disclaimers I can say that it is a beautiful wonderful thing. Thank you Amy for being a positive example. I hope that in the future nourishing our babies will not be so controversial and that I can be a part of that movement.


This week I have come across so many great resources on breastfeeding here are a few-

Amy (a different one than mentioned above) did a whole series this week
www.amysfinerthings.com

Amanda was a reluctant breastfeeder. I related to her story SO much.
www.ohamanda.com

Every Ounce Counts is an awesome campaign and there are some cool resources on this page, like a free lullaby music!
www.breastmilkcounts.com

Even I posted about breastfeeding not that long ago.
www.themessymom.com/breastfeeding

and with all these links I am going to link up once more to Its Come 2 This.com Saturday Stumbles. Check it out!

I Was Wrong About You

My little 2 year old has quite the vocabulary, but sometimes he gets ahead of himself with phrases that he doesn't completely understand, like "Just in case." For example he says "Let's watch Ice Age just in case".

Just in case!?

Just in case you break the DVD and you never get to watch it again?

I don't understand.

Or he'll say "I want a banana just in case." His other one is "I was wrong about you." I think they say this in one of the Toy Story movies, but regardless he says it to me all the time in his squeaky nasally little voice "Mama, I was wrong about you."

What I am beginning to learn is that I was wrong about me too.

When I was a little girl I said I would never get married. No one believed me and they would tell me someday you will meet a guy, fall in love, and you'll change your mind. At 5 years old I was disgusted by the idea and DETERMINED to prove them all wrong.
Fast forward 13 years. I got married about as quick as I possibly could. So I was wrong about me, but what did I know, I was only 5.

I used to think that photography was not an art and would say that photographers were wannabe artists that couldn't draw. Now I am one, but I said that in High School so what did I know.

About 10 years ago I would have told you that I was not interested in cloth diapers, or home birth, and was on the fence about epidurals.

Anyone that knows me knows that 2 kids later I am a cloth diapering fool, and natural birth junkie. So I was wrong again. But still, I wasn't a mom yet, so what did I know.

I have always said I would never homeschool. I have dear friends that do and do it well, but I don't think I ever could. Then again, what do I know? Although, seriously, I don't plan on it.

Tomorrow I will be posting about how I was wrong about breastfeeding. Lets just say I guess I don't know myself that well.
So maybe next time I hear that little voice say "Mama, I was wrong about you" I can just say, "yeah, me too" just in case.



This post is linked up with Mary at Giving Up On Perfect She used to think blogging about your life was egotistical and not something she would ever get into, but as it turns out she was wrong too!

Baby Gift Bouquet

For my sister-in-law's baby shower everyone went crazy over this adorable baby gift, and I knew I just had to copy it.

She said it was a Martha Stewart craft, so I looked up the video on youtube and made one for a friend of mine who is about to have a baby.

Each little rosette is a baby item. Suggested items are little onesies, socks, and bibs.

I had a bouquet of 7 flowers. Here is a view from above with each item labeled.

Here are the materials I used

-silk flowers
-clay pot
-floral foam
-floral tape
-decorative spanish moss
-ribbon
-safety pins
-baby items

Then I just removed the silk buds from each rose and replaced it with a tightly rolled baby item. You are supposed to use floral tape to keep them in place, but unfortunately I had to use a safety pin on some. There are so many ways you could change it up and get creative with this craft. It's cute, it's practical, and it's sure to be a hit.

This was my first time to link up with Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff Thursday. You should check it out. All the stuff is so awesome I almost didn't participate, but I did, and I managed to slip in at entry #300.