Boden is nearly 4 months old and I am sad to see the newness fall away from him. Thank goodness his head still has that new car baby scent and that his lips, pink and fresh, still glisten with the tiny bubbles of breast milk. I would weep if he was too old to curl his little body into mine, kneading my stomach and thighs with his toes as he searches for that perfectly comfortable spot to drop off to sleep.

Levi and the girls remind me every day how fun it is to have them grow

but there are these moments, these tiny peaceful perfect moments that are just not ever possible to reproduce after they start walking and talking and some that just don’t happen past those first quiet weeks when you are still learning about one another, still searching for your stride as a mother and they are just learning to cope with the world.

Can you believe that was just a month and a half ago? *sobs* my baby is gettin’ so big!

Shower time! (and not because I stink)

The blogosphere is booming with babies and both Kristen and Rebecca are about to contribute to the overwhelming interwebz cuteness population. To celebrate this birth-tastic time, Her Bad Mother, Mother Bumper, Mom-101, and mother goose mouse are throwing them a baby shower! But wait! Don’t run!! We promise there are no cheese games and instead of watching them open gifts for two hours, you have a shot a winning some cool party prizes!! So click on over here and join in the fun!

We are FREE! Free, free, free! 4 years and 1 month of permitting hell completely abolished with one anticlimactic signature. As the door slammed shut behind our exiting inspector we stared bug eyed at one another both thinking “um, that was IT?” and “so what do we do next?” Then we bumbled around in circles, blinking, and mumbling to ourselves about sweet freedom, still stunned that WE DID IT!

Here’s a little look back

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I think we should celebrate!!! I have an idea, let’s have a giveaway! Check out my contest page for details!!

I WIN:

This weekend I almost poo’d myself with excitement. I found out from one of my fave fellowette (she’s not a dude so fellowette I think works nicely) bloggers, Laura of Twinfinite Chaos, that I won a kick butt double stroller (the Chicco Trevi Twin) . Laura, like a lot of us enterprising and product consuming mommies, has a review blog where she yaks about what she likes and sometimes gets to give away awesome prizes (which I WON one of !!). Thanks Laura! OO and if you are a Yo Gabba Gabba lover click over to her other blog and check out the Yo Gabba Gabba insanity she is painting in her kids play room. My kids are envious to the point of whinery “Why can’t we have a Yo Gabba Gabba mural? WHHHHHHYYYYYY?”

You Can Win:

So there’s this website, which I write for. I got the gig shortly after Levi was born when I won maid service from them. They seem to be in the habit of giving away kick ass prizes, which should make me happy, but no- it makes me mad and jealous. Jealous of every one of you out there who is eligible to win one of their giveaways. Like the current one. You can win a $500 shopping spree at Zappos.com just for fessing up. Click on over and join Capessa. Once you are signed in, spill you guts about your not so stellar parenting moments and you could be a winner! And, hey, if you win as a thanks to yours truly, you might consider spending some of that dough on these (in khaki & size 11 - yeah yeah I have mammoth feet. I know!)

(and finally) We all win with the naked rocking horse rodeo:

Because a mother can never have enough black mail photos

The last video for My Lifetime Clean Start Challenge has been posted HERE - nearly 10 minutes of me gesticulating and rambling about this arduous and emotional journey. You may want to go look quickly because I actually APPLIED MAKE UP to make that video! I know not all of you can get the videos to work properly so I am happy to reveal photographic evidence that we tackled THE BEAST and won! Keep in mind we spent less then $200 to make this room happen. The crib, dresser and bookcase were hand me downs. The rug was re purposed from another room as was the giant rocket ship piece. The toddler bed was a gift and so were several smaller accessories like the cool stars pillow case and switch plate cover. You’ll have to click more to see photos as it’s very photo heavy and may blow up those of you on a slower bandwidth.

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Last night Mira worked herself into one of those attacks. It took nearly a solid hour of keening in her room- OVER RAISINS- for her to calm down. Today it’s my turn. This weekend I need to get the boy’s nursery finished for my final video (see all videos up through this week HERE and vote daily, hourly, minutely- HERE ) all while getting everything just right for electrical inspection (we had to make some last minute corrections that pushed it back till Monday- we are seriously cutting it close). In the mean time, all I feel like doing in laying on my bed and having a fit. I may need to work on my stress coping strategies.

There are only a few short weeks left to my Lifetime Television Clean Start Challenge (see my weekly videos HERE and vote for Erin in Oviedo HERE ) Had I tackled it the night the idea came to me, I would most certainly be hanging another Erin original in the nursery but food poisoning and a nasty cold mowed us down one right after another and gave me pause before beginning my project. Then today, I started looking around Etsy.com to see if an old blogging friend was yet selling her robot pillows when I stumbled across this shop and now have to make a decorating decision (Just HOW does Nate Berkus do it?) What would you do?

1) Go with the original plan of painting a large canvas for the wall and praying it comes out like I want it too

2) Buy and frame these oh so retro cool Rocket Prints

3) Buy and frame this nifty series of Robot and Space Prints

I have stated many times how I am trying to do this in a very budget minded manner and I am happy to say that thus far we have really stuck with that! I have only purchased the lamp, a hepa filter, bed sheets, a crib skirt, the curtains (plus decorative patches I added) and the star mobile. Everything else in the room has been re purposed from another place in our home, a used item that has been passed on to us, or a gift. This leaves me with some wiggle room when it comes to these final designing decisions. To help you help me, here are some sneak peek pictures.

The large wall that the star mobile is hanging in front of, is the wall I will be hanging something from the above selections on. So, what are your thoughts? Which would be the best choice? Money wise, the canvas size I would use to create something would cost about the same amount of money as purchasing the above linked prints, making the budget less of a deciding factor.

And because of that food poisoning thing I mentioned, we ended up taking an unscheduled peek at one of the people inspiring this whole project:

aww he’s yawning and looks like the wittle spawn of a cartoon tryst! Then, they also confirmed that it’s not my imagination, there actually is something impeding my breathing

I hope he decides to bend his knees sometime soon.

This was taken a few days ago at 23 weeks and 3 days when the timer miraculously started working on my camera again. Previous timer attempts included a myriad of shots ranging from my belly button to a blur of my backside as I ran into position. Apparently, The problem could have been fixed months ago had I just let Levi hurl it across the room onto the tile.

Thank you for all the kind emails and inquiries about mine and the baby’s health. Monday I had an ultrasound but I have no pictures to share with you as little Thumper has turned head down and has decided that his feet belong on his face. My ultrasound was at 23 weeks 1 day and his legs were measuring over 26 weeks, his belly was in the 24.5 week range but good news for my vajayjay, his noggin is still comparitively pinhead-ish coming in at 22.5 weeks.

Sunday is when I officially reach viability so to celebrate I pulled out the bitty baby clothes to assess what we have verse what we need. Um, BIG CRY. Like Levi moving to his own room wasn’t overwhelming enough, but sitting there with his stacks of teeny tinys just made me ugly cry- snotty honking ugly cry. I am such a ridiculous mess. All this looking back makes me think more about the future and over the past two weeks Ive been reading my way through a really interesting book: Your Child’s Strengths. You can check out my other blog (click here) to read a review.

This week we also let the lab vampires loose on Mira and they drained away 6 viles of her blood. She was amazingly calm while they did it, especially considering that she LOST HER MIND the morning we were preparing to go in- think rabid raccoon in an elevator. Siblings were pushed and choked, closets hidden in, ear splitting screams spilled across the house… and yet in the end all she did was jump a little bit and ask for a toy for being brave.

Whilst out toy shopping I purchased a few nursery items. There are only a few short weeks left in my Lifetime Clean Start Challenge and I need to make up for some lost time (check out my week 6 video HERE and remember to vote vote vote! and hey, if you can, drop me a comment there too! ). OO and you can also check me out on the online version of my local paper- they did a story about my Lifetime Clean Start Challenge! I’m trying really hard not to let the fame go to my head, but the other day a reader (hi Jill!) recognized me at Whole Foods (ok, so she recognized Levi first then put two and two together but ya know, I’m still getting a swelled head)!

The local reporter and photographer both stopped by Friday and we tidied up the nursery work zone for the occasion- Hung some art, pushed the dresser to where it will be living once we are done with it, tossed down the rug and hung some curtains. What do you think so far?

I made the artwork hanging over the dresser. Here’s a closer picture of it in poor lighting because you know I aim to please

Here’s our HUGE NASA rocket piece

and a little snippet of the curtains.

have I mentioned how much I adore iron on patches? I may hate to iron but my sewing skillz blow pretty hard right now so ironing is less daunting.

Don’t forget to vote vote vote HERE for Erin in Oviedo, and especially don’t forget to enter yourself to win that spa vacation (after you vote for me about 90 bazillion times in a row of course).

and other times you should pay for quality and craftsmanship. Today I paid for that and I don’t feel ill or panicky like I normally do when I pay full price for a shirt or god forbid buy a friggin throw pillow. I happily plunked down some cash-o-lah so that this could come live in my nursery and make my babies smile

This wondrous and beautiful mobile came from here and I CAN NOT WAIT until it arrives!! I may even need to get one or two to hang over MY bed.

Today I also picked up some supplies to make artwork for the walls and poo’d my pants after finding out a local newspaper wants to do a story about me and the Clean Start Challenge which means they will be in my house and my house.. well you SAW the laundry pile!! *gulp*.

Nameless baby boy at 20 weeks and 1 day

Levi at 1 yr old with anchorman hair

Dear Baby Bruddah,

You are not even here yet and already trying to steal my thunder. Stop it. If we are going to harmoniously share a room, you’re going to have to let me be the cute one, oh and let me be the boss of everything all the time. You see dear Bruddah, I’m a pretty laid back dude until you cross me, then I’m heck in Luvs to deal with. I’ve been practicing my hitting skillz and my screeching has reached an all time high decibel. Now that I’ve got this walking thing down and have been demonstrating freakish strength, I’ll be ready to pick you up and put you outside for the UPS man if you will not comply. In closing, I offer this advice as an olive branch of friendship - stop getting cuter.Ii will not play second fiddle, nor will I share first one with the likes of you! Nahnee Nahnee boo boo.

Your Big Bruddah,

Levi

ps Even though you are cute, I still love you. Check out the room Mim mim and Daddy are making for us. Dude, it’s yellow and is going to have a huge rocket on the wall! Mim mim’s new weekly video went live today. If you”ve got internet in there you should spend all day voting for her.