2009 August | Theta Mom®

08.30.09

It’s a Bummas Giveaway Baby!

“Keep diaper rash at bay, the Bummas way.
After the wipe and before the dipe, use a soft kiss of cloth to dry bums off!”

As a Theta Mom, you all know the drama that comes along with the fun process of changing diapers. The million changes, the ever-so-lovely diaper rash, and of course, spending lots of cash on specialized creams and ointments to further prevent that rash.

When my son was in diapers, I tried every “paste” imaginable and believe it or not, the only cream that ever worked for him was Triple Paste (and it was triple the price, believe me!) My children have such sensitive skin and this is just another reason why I love my Bummas! They are small, soft, luxurious baby-sized cloths made especially for drying baby bottoms. You can totally prevent irritating diaper rash without the use of any of those powders, talcs, or ointments. Bummas are eco-friendly, too!

I’ll be the first to say from experience that it’s so important to make sure baby’s bum is completely dry. Bummas help you do an effective job of doing exactly that! I recently started to use my Bummas with my baby girl. I feel confident that before I put her diaper on, her bum is completely dry because I’ve used my Bummas! It washes easily (again and again), it keeps her bum completely dry and I’ve even used them in the tub as a washcloth! Totally multi-functional, and as Theta Moms, we LOVE that!

Bummas were even featured in Pregnancy Magazine’s 120 Best Products for Mom and Baby in 2009!

So what more could you ask for? I love my Bummas and guess what? One of my lucky readers will get a chance to love theirs, too! Bummas is giving away one set to one of my lucky readers! WOO HOO!

How To Enter the Bummas Giveaway:

Go to Bummas and tell me which set you would like to have: The Boys, The Girls, The Calm Ones or The Wild Ones.

Extra Entries:

1. Follow my Blog and tell me you do. (1 entry)
2. Follow me on Twitter and leave me your twitter name. (1 entry)
3. Grab one of my cute buttons and add it to your website. Leave me your link to show the buttons added. (2 entries)
4. Subscribe to my Blog. (1 entry)
5. Tweet this giveaway! Just copy the following: Enter to win a set of Bummas @ThetaMom http://tinyurl.com/lme5rq Please RT (1 entry per daily tweet)

6. Fave my Blog to Technorati (1 entry)

7. Post about this giveaway on your blog and link back to me. Leave me your link to show the post. (2 entries)

Giveaway Rules:

This giveaway begins on August 29th and will end at midnight (ET) on September 13, 2009. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random. The winner will be announced on this blog and must respond within 48 hours to claim with a current email address. Otherwise, another eligible entry will be chosen. This contest is open to US residents only.

Enter as many extra entries as your little bum desires Theta Moms and good luck!

I love my Bummas, do you?

{ 303 Comments }

08.27.09

Time Out for Theta Mom Thursday!!!

I’m so excited to officially launch Time Out for Theta Mom Thursday! For those of you visiting for the first time, the goal is to grab one hour of time within one week to do whatever you want…without the kids. It’s such an amazing proposition, I know! To join us, on Thursday post how you spent your “time out” (add my button from the right side bar or link to me) and then be sure to stop here to link up and meet other Theta Moms to see how they spent their time out!

So, I received a phone call from a really good friend of mine. I’ve known her since I was in 5th grade. We grew up together, went to school together, and stayed friends throughout college and beyond. She lives in Maryland with her husband and adorable little girl. But, we don’t get to see each other that often because we live in different states. So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when she called to tell me she was in New Jersey, spending a week down the Jersey Shore with her family! Can I get a WOOT WOOT?

As we were talking, she asked me to come over to their shore house for the day so we could go to the beach together with the kids.

With the kids.

Mmmmmm, I thought for a moment…..dragging my kids to the beach when it’s 1,000 degrees outside, lugging 50 pounds of their apparatus for one lousy hour at the ocean, calming a screaming baby and running after a wondering toddler, doing this alone because the hubs is working…and, oh yes, I would be breaking the most important “Time Out” rule (no kids) anyway…

Upon thoughtful consideration (that actually lasted a whole five seconds), I immediately explained my dilemma to her. And for the record, going to the beach with the kids without the help of my husband would not have been fun for me, nor appropriate for my time out!

I quickly responded, “Jess, how about you go to the beach with your family and I’ll come for a visit after 7:00 PM or so, when all the kids are in bed.

It was settled. I couldn’t wait to see one of my closest friends to catch up with her and talk for hours without any interruptions!

That evening, I drove down to her shore house, greeted her family and we immediately began chatting over some chips and salsa in the kitchen. It was one of those perfect summer nights. That fresh, salty air was coming in through the open windows, specks of sand from the beach could be found throughout the floor and felt on the bottom of my bare feet, and the idea that summer was still trying to hang on was so evident. Being there was total relaxation. Summer, one of my favorite seasons…

After our initial catching up, we took a bottle of red wine, grabbed a couple of glasses, and headed outside to sit on some rocking chairs on the porch. Ladies, this was pure magic. As a Theta Mom, there’s nothing better than talking with one of your closest girlfriends over some wine without any children to be found. I didn’t have to worry if the baby was crying, if my son needed to go potty or if my husband was hungry.

Nope, it was just me, one of my closest friends, a bottle of wine, and some rocking chairs on the porch overlooking the water at the Jersey Shore…and lots and lots of girl talk.

My time out was perfect. If only this could last forever.

*Don’t forget to link up ladies and show some bloggy love by checking out how other Theta Moms spent their time out! I think I’m totally loving this…

{ 51 Comments }

08.23.09

Rocks in My Jellies

When I was in elementary school, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to get the rocks out of my pink jelly shoes. Remember those jelly shoes? How annoying was that when little rocks would get stuck in holes of the heel? I also worried that I might lose my sparkly matching jelly bracelets, too. I think I had one of those in every color.

By the time I got to high school, I worried that my hair wasn’t perfectly sculpted everyday (yes, about five inches from my forehead using about one gallon of hairspray with each application). I worried about wearing the right clothes, applying the appropriate make-up, and hanging out with the right “clique.”

How silly do those worries seem to me now?

Back then, that was my whole world. But now that I am a mother, my worries are far more real than rocks in my jellies.

As a mother, I worry that my son might choke. We are talking about a life-threatening situation. To this day, I don’t let him eat small hard candies. He will be like 18 before he does and even then, he better not do it in front of me. Hotdogs? Forget it. I get heart palpitations. Those things need to be cut length-wise and I still panic every time he eats one.

As a mother, I worry that my kids could potentially drown in our pool. Do I have issues? Am I over-reacting? Maybe, but even though my son wears his vest and my daughter uses her little float, they still cannot swim on their own. I worry that one false move and we’re in deep water…literally.

As a mother, I worry that my son may go into anaphylactic shock. He has a severe nut allergy, so I must read every label on every package of every piece of food he consumes. And Theta Moms, if you remember from a previous post, I am the queen of cutting and dumping, so you better believe that I need to read the fine print on every single package without fail or else it’s Epi-Pen city and I am dialing 9-1-1.

As a mother, I worry as my children grow older that I did a good enough job, raising honest and caring human beings, making the world a better place than the way they entered it. I hope that one day they may get into the college of their choice, that they find the love of their life, and are able to create a family of their own.

As a mother, I worry and hope that they fulfill all of their wildest dreams….every single one. I worry and hope that when they leave this earth, they lived a full and blessed life.

As a mother, I worry about so many things…more than I could ever possibly express here in this little blog of mine.

Rocks in my jellies, well, they don’t quite make the list anymore.

{ 89 Comments }

08.19.09

Are You In?

Alright ladies, it’s time to get serious. I mean, really.

Many of you will remember the drama that began with two little words: Transition Time. If you missed that post, you can find it here.

So the question of the day (or shall I say year) is, “Where is MY transition time?” When do I get the opportunity to decompress, relax, and have some precious moments to myself? Folding the laundry, taking out the garbage and cleaning out closets does not count as transition time. I mean, seriously!

Having said that, there is no better time for me to properly launch, “Time Out for Theta Mom Thursday!” This is my master plan to get some QT all to myself!

So here’s the deal: I am inviting you to join me in this brigade…yes, you. I know your wheels are turning…it’s such a tempting proposition, isn’t it?

Ladies, we need to find ONE measly hour within one week to do something that we find enjoyable. The hitch? It must be time spent without the kids! Mmmm, that thought is quite magical. Are you excited yet?

Well, there’s more…

Not only do you find this one hour to do whatever the hell you want {get a manicure, read a book, sit in silence, run on the treadmill, have lunch with a friend, blog-blog-blog, go shopping in peace, text endlessly without interruptions, twitter the night away, pound a bottle of wine} whatever floats your boat…

You also get to grab my cute button!

How Theta awesome is that?!

The goal is to use this time out to regroup and recharge…because as Theta Moms, we so need this!!! After my discussion with the hubs recently, you know I desperately need it!

But wait, there’s one more thing…

What would make this even more super F-U-N is to see how YOU spent your one hour! You already know that I will be posting how I spent my time (or the drama of how I didn’t get the chance to take my one lousy hour…that will make for a very interesting post), but it would be so fabulous to hear what you’ve been up to! So you’ll have the opportunity to meet some new bloggy friends and link up. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that!

Especially with the kids going back to school, the drama of everyday, and the endless list of tasks we complete for everyone else, we so deserve this time!

Go grab my cute Thursday button (or link my site), begin to think about how you’re going to use the time (I can feel the excitement already) and then post how you’ve spent your one hour (or lack thereof… trust me, I know how the story goes) for next Thursday (not tomorrow silly…you’re a mom, you need like a full week to get an hour, right?) and let the games begin!

This time out is SO ON!

Are you in?

{ 85 Comments }

08.16.09

June Cleaver Didn’t…But I Do

Alright, you already know I am a Theta Mom. I am the real deal. When it comes to the reality of motherhood, I’m ready to dish the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is the true essence of a Theta Mom.

So, keeping this blog truly authentic, if you haven’t read in a previous post, I’ll tell you again that I hate to cook. In fact, I loathe cooking.

I do it because if I don’t, we die. It’s really that simple.

When I think of the “perfect” mother, June Cleaver comes to mind. I have this fixed image of her in the kitchen where she spent most of her time. Fresh baked cookies coming out of the oven daily; preparing all home cooked meals with a smile on her face… Hey, she was a “good” mother, so naturally she was a good cook, right?

Image: Oneaccordfilmers

I am what you would call a slow cooker. I like to add ingredients to one pot and call it a day. Yes ladies, I prefer to “cut and dump.”

Rachel Ray made a career out of making 30 Minute Meals. I am still convinced one day I will have my own cooking show called Cut and Dump for mothers exactly like me. Cut open the package and just dump it in. Yes, dinner is now served.

So, you can imagine my sheer happiness when I met Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. This is the ultimate cut and dump. A meal in a box, but the bonus is that my kids absolutely love it.

But Thetas, it gets even better…

I recently discovered that Kraft came out with self-serving portions called Easy Mac. Yes, this is one slice of heaven for me!

Just add water.

Microwave: 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Cut.

Dump.

Stir.

Serve.