Mommas who Inspire me - The How to Mommy

Today I bring you the first of a new series - Mommas who Inspire Me.  This isn't going to be a weekly series or anything (I think I have enough weekly posts haha) but for times when I am on vacation or really busy, I thought it would be nice to share with you some of the blogs I read and love.  We'll start with a friend of mine, The How To Mommy.  I hope you enjoy!



I am The How To Mommy. I am not a professional, just a mom who loves to pass on tips and tricks to make our busy lives a little easier, one post at a time. I frequently blog about saving money, new and favorite recipes, how to get healthy, as well as tips on parenting.

I'm the mom of two little girls and they were very much the inspiration for the post I'm sharing with you.

How To Appreciate The Little Things

Recently, I was reading a Yahoo! article on the Top 50 Things I Love About Being a Mom.

So many of her items really hit home for me.

Along from being well written and humorous, I really loved the article because it made me stop and think about all the little things that happen everyday that make life so wonderful.

I thought I'd share some of my top things I love about being a mom.

• How polite strangers have become once they see you toting around 2 kids
• Free samples at the grocery store (how would we ever get grocery shopping done without them?)
• How a sick toddler, who never sits still for anything, will cuddle on the couch with you for hours
• Being greeted with a huge, toothless grin every morning when you take your baby out of the crib
• Hearing your child learn how to say "mommy"
• Watching your child accomplish something on their own (their first steps, their first time using a utensil, etc.)
• How my kisses make everything better
• Mother's Day
• Drive Thru banks, coffee, restaurants (basically anytime I don't have to haul kids in and out of the car to complete an errand)
• Listening to your newborn breathe as they sleep peacefully on your chest

I'm sure there are a million more, but these came to mind first! What am I missing? What are your favorite things about being a mom?

Thanks for reading! Feel free to check out more at The How To Mommy.

Geeky Find Friday - Baby's First Microbiology Book

Baby's First Microbiology Book by Verdant Violet on Etsy

I was a biology major back in college and really enjoyed my Microbiology class.  Except for the smell in the lab, of course.  Yuck.  I only hope that Carina will share a fervent love of bacteriophages and gram positive cocci.



Here's the description:
Microbiology for babies!

Cover: A microscope
Page 1: Amoeba!
Page 2: Bacteriophage
Page 3: Bacterial cell shapes and arrangements: bacilli (top) and cocci


The bacteriophage is my favorite.  Doesn't it almost look cute?  This shop has a whole bunch of different "Baby's First" subject books.  The molecular genetics one is pretty awesome, too.

7 Months

Carina is 7 months old today!

Milestones: You are rolling over often - but only at night in your crib. We have yet to witness it more than once!  You can sit completely unassisted, and try to do it as often as possible.  Face plants are few and far between, fortunately.  You had your first trip to the supermarket, during which you sat happily in the shopping cart.  Not a single peep until Mommy was paying for groceries.  Perfect timing for a screeching meltdown, don't you think?  We are convinced you have started talking.  Aside from spit up, "Dadada" and "Mamama" are the things that most often come out of your mouth these days.  We both teared up the first time you said each.  Please don't stop, it tugs at my heartstrings to hear you say "Mama".

Loves:  Flying through the air with Daddy, when Mommy comes home from work, grabbing Daddy's chest hair and not letting go, playing with the remote control, and eating Bananas.  The Jumperoo is still a favorite - even more so than before.  You're now exploring the toys surrounding the seat - the little blue bug is your favorite.  He must taste good ;)  Toys you can't get enough of right now include the Fisher Price stacky, baby's first blocks, and the Fisher Price Seahorse.  You enjoy curiously reaching for things - including Mommy's beer and grabbing at everything - including the kitties. Clenching Rufus's fur in your fist is fine, just don't grab a chunk of his skin, too. He's not a fan of that.  Similarly, he also doesn't enjoy when you try to eat him.  You try to stick everything in your mouth these days - including the cats.

Hates:  Pretty much every food other than Bananas.  Also bottles.  You don't want to eat out of them for the Nanny or for your Grammie, and this has been a source of frustration for your Daddy and me this past month.  You used to love getting up on the changing table, but now you hate it!  I lay you down for a diaper change and you immediately start crying.  Are you sad that I'm going to steal your doody?  It'll be okay, I promise.

Weight & height: Mommy was way off on your size in the 6 month post. You were only 16 lbs. and 25.2 inches then, which is why we'll be returning for a weight check on Tuesday.  I blame this on your not wanting to eat out of bottles :(  You've been better lately, and I'm hoping your weight will have shot up when we go in next week.  I will update then!  You are still in size 3 diapers and are comfy in your 6-9 Month and 9 Month size clothes.  Although we have used a few 12 Month things here and there (yikes!)

You did not want to look at the camera! Daddy making funny faces behind Mommy was much more interesting...

Wordless Wednesday - all hail, queen of the remote control (and drool)

Carina cannot get enough of the remote control lately. She grabs it, hugs it, and won't give it back!  I usually have to pry it out of her tiny drooly fingers...

My new best friend

Don't even think about trying to take it away

I'm going to leave my mark on it...

Drool drool drool....success!

What?  You don't want it back now?

Canvas 4 Life - Review & Giveaway! CLOSED

As you can probably tell, I absolutely love taking photos!  In my opinion, nothing makes a house feel more like a home than having lots of pictures of friends and family adorning the walls.  I have always wanted to turn some of our special photos into canvas prints, so naturally I was quite excited when Canvas 4 Life contacted me and and gave us the opportunity to create a custom photo canvas.

We searched through folders and folders of pictures, and finally chose one of our favorite photos of M and Carina.  Then it was time to get started!  You begin by uploading your photo onto the website and then the quality detection software checks to make sure that your photo is a good size for a high quality canvas.  Next, you customize your photo on to canvas in real time; as you choose your options (size, finish, and frame depth) you can see what your canvas will look like as you go!  We had so much fun playing with the free design options - including image enhancement and red eye removal.  You can even select to print your canvas in color, sepia, or black and white.  We chose color because we wanted to be able to see Carina's big, beautiful brown eyes.

After we finished creating our canvas, we had some fun with Canvas 4 Life's interactive living room viewer, which let us see what the canvas print would look like in our home.  You can move your canvas around to find the perfect spot on the wall, position furniture, and even change the paint color on the walls.  I may or may not have gone a little overboard with this unique tool...our virtual living room really needed a kitty and lava lamp, right?  This whole process was so easy and enjoyable for both of us.  We can't wait to do it all over again with another favorite photo.

We received our canvas print within a week's time and it was packaged perfectly to ensure a safe arrival.  I was so excited to see it I literally tore the box open (really - M said I looked like a crazy person).  As soon as he saw it he smiled from ear to ear.  It is perfect!  We couldn't be happier with the finished product. It looks just like the photo, but even better!

Canvas 4 Life Canvas Print

How do you think it turned out?  I am absolutely in love with it.  I think I might even bring it to work with me for my last month there, just so I can look at their beautiful faces all day.  Although, I might have to fight Mike for him to let me take it (ha!)  In all, we are just so impressed with Canvas 4 Life and our first canvas printing experience.  I think I know what everyone in our family will be getting for Christmas this year... ;)

Buy! 
You can create your own custom canvas print at the Canvas 4 Life website. They offer a variety of layouts and sizes, an 100% Money Back guarantee, and free shipping!  Coupon code Geekysave10 will get you 10% off of your order.

Win! 
Canvas 4 Life is generously offering one of my readers a $25 gift card towards their own canvas masterpiece.

Mandatory Entry (other entries will not count until you complete this one):
-Become a public follower of Growing Up Geeky via Google Friend Connect and leave a comment telling me what photo you would choose to turn into a canvas print

Additional Entries (leave a separate comment per entry - all currents count):

• "Like" Canvas 4 Life on Facebook
• "Like" Growing Up Geeky on Facebook
• Follow me on Twitter - @growingupgeeky
• Tweet "I just entered to #win a $25 gift card towards a Canvas4Life photo canvas print! via @growingupgeeky http://bit.ly/ojujlU #giveaway" - can be done once daily; leave a new comment each day
• If you think my blog deserves it, vote for me on Picket Fence blogs by clicking this link - can be done once daily; leave a new comment each day

Make sure to leave your e-mail address in your comments so I can contact you if you win :)

This giveaway will run through 9:59 PM CST on Thursday, August 4th.  Giveaway is open to US residents only.  Winner will be randomly chosen by Random.org and notified via email.  Winner will have 48 hours to respond to the e-mail.  I received this product free of charge for reviewing purposes. I was not compensated for this review. All opinions are honest, and my own. 

WonderDads - Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the WonderDads local activity guide giveaway is...

#11 - Kate M! Check your e-mail :)

Thank you everyone for entering!   You can purchase the WonderDads local activity guide books for 37 different cities and metropolitan areas in the WonderDads store for just $14.95.

Toddle Along Tuesday - 7/26/11

Welcome to the Toddle Along Tuesday blog hop! Blog hops are a great way to discover awesome new blogs and gain readers for your blog in the process. This hop is exclusively for baby and pregnancy blogs so please, only link up if you have a baby or pregnancy blog (we will remove your link if it isn't relevant).


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Your hosts for the hop are Mama G at Growing Up Geeky and Kristin at Our Growing Garden.  Each week we'll have a featured blog, randomly selected from the previous week's links. 

This week's featured blog is The Froggy and the Mouse. Tottums has two adorable little boys in one little house! Hop on over and see for yourself :)
 Join in!   Here's how:
-Follow Mama G, Kristin, and this week's featured blog at least one way (Google Friend Connect, RSS, Twitter).   Don't forget to let us know you did so by leaving a comment on our blogs.   We will return all follows as soon as we can.  You will only have to link up on one of our sites and your link will appear on both.

-Add a main link to your blog to the linky list below. Come back every week, too: the linky will open Monday nights at 8 PM EST!

-After you follow the hosts, visit other blogs and follow as many as you are willing! Please leave a comment letting them know you are following, and that you found them through Toddle Along Tuesday. The more blogs you visit, the more visits you will likely gain in return.

-We would love for you to grab our button and post it on your blog, but it is not required. Feel free to share the hop on Facebook or Twitter as well. Have fun!

Time to be honest with you (and myself)

Since going back to work full time 6 weeks ago, I have been completely overwhelmed.  There just aren't enough hours in the day to work, play with Carina, cook dinner, keep up with housework, spend some quality time with M, blog, and sleep.  Sleeping usually gets the shaft. 

Before Carina was born, I savored my ~9 hours of sleep a night.  Lately, with Carina waking around 5:30, I am lucky if I get 6 hours of sleep a night (I realize that this is probably a lot more than many Moms get, and I sympathize).  I think my body really needs more than I have been getting, because right now I'm a walking trainwreck.  I'm clumsy, I'm forgetful, I have no energy for anything (ANYTHING - sorry, M), and I feel like I'm just getting through the day.  There isn't much enjoyment; I'm just trying to make it through.  This is not how I wanted to spend part of Carina's first year of life.

Only one more month of work to go - and then I am done indefinitely.  I am counting down the days.  I just wish we had more of a solid plan in place for our move.  M has his post-doctoral fellowship lined up (with a flexible start date) and we are moving, but that's about all we know.  We don't know when, we don't know where we'll live, and we don't know how we'll get ourselves, Carina, two skittish cats, and our mountains of stuff there in one piece - safely and sanely.  These uncertainties are driving this type-A uberplanner crazy.

Fortunately, my Mother-in-law is arriving tomorrow and staying for a week and a half. She is going to help cook, clean, take care of Carina, and pretty much help me regain my sanity. After she leaves, my Mom is coming out for a long weekend. I am tearing up right now thinking about how grateful I am that they are both visiting because I honestly think I would be having a nervous breakdown if they weren't. ::breathe::

I can do this, right?

P.S. While the Moms are here I won't be blogging quite as often, so I have asked a few Mommy bloggers who inspire me to guest post in my absence.  I hope you enjoy :)

Geeky Find Friday - the force is strong with this one!

Baby Yoda Hat by Chaos & Love on Etsy

For those who love Star Wars, even if they can't actually watch the movie yet ;)

Here's the description:
Made to order Yoda hat. These hats are made from 100% acrylic yarn and polyester fiberfill.

If we had done professional newborn photos, I would probably have looked for a geeky prop like this.  Such a photo would definitely be one to show future boyfriends or girlfriends!

Moms - it would be better if we stopped at "Yes" or "No"

Moms, I think we do ourselves a disservice by always feeling the need to justify our decisions.  I have been thinking about this a lot since my post regarding my love of breastfeeding. 

If someone asks me if I am choosing to be a stay-at-home-Mom, my response could be as simple as "Yes" or "No".  Why elaborate? 

Even the most well intentioned, "I love being home with my kids" could make the questioner feel as though I am insinuating that she doesn't have a strong bond with her children.  Similarly, if a working Mom responds, "well, I am educated and think that working makes me a good role model for my kids" could come across as implying that only the uneducated would ever stay-at-home, and that they could not be good role models for their children.

This applies to so many of our parenting decisions and might really help ameliorate the "Mommy Wars" tension that seems to make so many of us feel guilty inadequate on a daily basis.


Breastfeeding? No. 
vs. 
Breastfeeding? No, eww.  Boobs are toys not tools.

Cloth diapers? Yes.
vs.
Cloth diapers? Yes, I would never fill a landfill with hundreds of tons of crap.

Do you let your baby cry it out? No.
vs. 
Do you let your baby cry it out? No, I want my baby to be securely attached to me.

Staying at home? Yes.
vs.
Staying at home? Yes, I don't want my baby to reach for the Nanny when she is upset.


Yes or No.  Easy as that.  No smugness, no chance of misinterpretation...just the truth, free of judgment or implications.

Let's try this, Moms!  Maybe we can help each other feel better about ourselves and our parenting decisions with simple Yes/No answers.  What do you think?