Start here. Grow far.

Share the Love: Win a Baby Potential Onesie or Tee & Your Friend Wins One Too!

It's time for another fabulous Baby Potential giveaway. But this is no ordinary contest. We want you to help us share the love. Three lucky winners can also pick a onesie or tee to be shipped to an online or real-life friend of their choice.

Our winners and one friend of their choice will choose from these popular Baby Potential onesies and tees (sizes range from 3-6 mo. onesies up to 4T):

 

How can you and your friend outfit your kids in colorful, encouraging Baby Potential gear? Here are the ways in which you can enter to win. For each one you'll receive one entry:

1. Submit a comment to this post telling us which friend you'd choose to receive a onesie or tee with you if you win. Include links to your blog and your friend's blog (if you both have blogs, but if not then link to your favorite blog) to spread the linky love. And be sure to include your valid email address so we can reach you.

2. Submit a comment to any other post on this blog indicating why it's your favorite Baby Potential post. Encourage your friends and readers to do the same so they can enter to win too!

3. Write a post on your blog about our giveaway, being sure to mention Baby Potential and using this post's permalink. Send us the link to your post at startheregrowfar at gmail dot com.

 4. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/babypotential and we'll follow you back. Then Tweet about our giveaway, being sure to reference Baby Potential and using this post's permalink. Send an email to us with a link to your tweet (startheregrowfar at gmail dot com). If you're already following us on Twitter, you obviously rock, so simply tweet about this giveaway and then send an email to us with a link to your tweet (startheregrowfar at gmail dot com).

Deadline to enter is midnight CST on Tuesday, March 3th. Winners will be chosen by random.org and announced on Friday, March 6th. Winners must have a valid email address and both you and your chosen friend must have a mailing address within the United States. Winners will have three days to claim prizes. Good luck and have fun spreading the love!

Thank you to Sweeties Sweeps for listing our blog giveaway

My latest mama gotta-haves

squeaky green™ baby hair + body wash rice milk + mallow Method Baby Wash
I love, love, love this stuff! I'm always on the lookout for a gentle, great-smelling baby wash for my eczema-prone kids. Aquaphor Gentle Wash gets the job done but is fragrance-free, which is OK but don't you love a wash more when it leaves your baby not only clean but sweet-smelling? HUGGIES® Naturally Refreshing Baby Wash works well and smells great but always seems to leave my kids' skin a little dry. But when I found squeaky green baby hair and body wash from Method, I knew we wouldn't ever want to bathe without it. It's heavenly--the scent is understated and gentle not flowery or overpowering. It lathers nicely and gives a great shampoo and it leaves my kids' skin feeling supple and smooth. Since we've been using it I've seen nary an eczema patch and that's something I couldn't say even when we used Aquaphor. Plus, it's from Method so I'm comfortable that the ingredients are natural and it's got their trademark chic and sensible packaging (the top doubles as rinsing cup).

Motts for Tots individual juice boxes
Even though my daughter is almost four I still dilute her juice. Why give her more sugar in her drinks than is absolutely necessary? She gets enough extra sugar from the lollipops I bribe her with (Kidding! Well, sometimes...). So when I pack her lunch for school I'm happy to drop in a box of Motts for Tots. Its 100% juice comes diluted with purified water and has 40% less sugar than other juices. I've sipped a few boxes when I've been on the run and even though it's a mix of juice and water I still find it thirst-quenching and flavorful. And, Delaney's baby brother, Waylon, loves it too.

Wordless Wednesday: Like Mother, Like Daughter, a Starbucks Addiction is Born

More Wordless Wednesday here.

Judgey Wudgey Was a Bear*

Six weeks ago a good friend gave birth to her first child, a boy, on my son's birthday. On that day she became not only a new mother, but a single one as well. She looked to friends and family for support and, because she's amazing, we all chipped in and helped her out as much as we could. She turned to me as her resident breastfeeding "expert" to answer questions about nursing and, being the breastfeeding advocate I am, I was thrilled. I visited her in the hospital when the lactation consultant showed her how to get the perfect latch. I ran down to the lactation center to buy her first nursing bra. I gave her a copy of Breastfeeding Sucks: What to do When Your Mammaries Make You Miserable and told her to call me anytime, even 3:00 a.m., if she needed encouragement or support. By way of inspiration, education, and the occasional side-by-side lactation sessions we chatted through when I visited her I assumed I would foster in her the love of breastfeeding that I had.

Her baby is now six weeks old, she returned to work today and...she is no longer breastfeeding. When she told me she weaned my first instinct was to question myself: How had I failed her? Why wasn't I passionate enough about nursing? Should I have visited her more often? What more could I have done? Then I started judging her: Why was she averse to pumping? What mother wouldn't want to give her baby breastmilk and try as hard as she could, even with pumping-at-work issues, to provide her own milk for her baby?

Then it hit me. Her decision had nothing to do with me and everything to do with what's best for her and her son. Even though I'm a card-carrying lactivist I also strongly support a woman's right to choose--breastmilk or formula, whichever is best for you and your baby--and the judgment I passed on my friend meant I was not walking my talk.

My job, as her friend, is to support her decisions as a mother, even if they are not the decisions I would make. That's the best any of us can do for our friends, sisters and fellow mothers. So I'm banishing Judgey Wudgey. That bear, as the menfolk say, don't hunt.

*A free Baby Potential onesie or tee to the first person who emails me at startheregrowfar@gmail.com and knows where that line's from and who said it!

[photo credit: The Delaney & Waylon Diaries]

I'll take Coraline over Hannah Montana any day

I took my almost-four-year-old daughter to see Coraline this weekend. Yes, it's a bit creepy. Sure, it's got a few scary parts. But mostly it's just a story of a brave girl who learns to be happy with what she has. 

But when my sister, who also has a four-year-old-daughter, heard that I was taking Delaney she said, "You know, the fifth graders at my school are reading that book and one of the teachers told me it's not suitable for small children. Are you sure you want to take Delaney?"

Yep. I was sure. I'd read up on Coraline at a great site called Kids in Mind that gives parents the rundown on what they'll expose their children to with any given movie so I knew what to expect. As far as I was concerned, she was far more ready to see Coraline than an episode of Hannah Montana. 

Naturally, parents have differing standards on what's OK for their kids. Some let their kids watch TV as often as they like while others restrict TV to weekends or one hour a day. Some let their kids eat Cheetos and drink Coke while others refrain from feeding their children anything but the most organic of foods. My sister chooses to let her daughter watch Hannah Montana while I choose not to let mine.

It's not that there is, in my opinion, anything inherently wrong with Hannah. I just don't believe my daughter is ready to watch pre-teen/teen TV yet. There'll be plenty of time for that later when she is a pre-teen. 

For now I'm happy to indulge her lust for the creepy (Nightmare Before Christmas), the wicked (Witch of the West, that is, in the Wizard of Oz), the strange (The Grinch That Stole Christmas), and the scary (Coraline) in the hopes of staving off the boy-crazy, fashion-conscious, makeup-laden world of Disney kids for at least another few years.

In the end, Delaney loved Coraline. It's a vivid, visually impressive, fascinating tale. Still, with it's slightly scary premise (an evil witch poses as Coraline's "Other Mother" to win her affections) I can see how it might not be appropriate for some small children. Check out the Kids in Mind's review if you're not sure whether Coraline would be an appropriate film selection for your child.

If only April Wheeler had a mommy blog

I just finished reading a haunting and beautifully-written book called Revolutionary Road. Yesterday I was able to sneak away from the kids to see the movie, based on the book, which stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Kate and Leo play April and Frank Wheeler, a couple coming to terms with the timeless struggle of reconciling the life you have with the life you thought you'd have. 

This novel, written in 1961, still resonates with readers (and film audiences) today because no matter the year when you find yourself married and with children, many of us still ask ourselves the same questions: "How did I get here? Is this all there is? Shouldn't there be more to MY life than this?" Now, before you get all hot and bothered and start shouting at me: "But wait! I like being a wife. I love being a mother!" never fear. So do I.

But I was also a girl once, a girl with elaborate dreams about the grand promise and tantalizing paths my future held. And those dreams, even the ones with children in the picture, didn't include cleaning up baby barf twelve times in one day or the arguments I'd have with my husband about who should bring in the trash cans. Ah, no. My dreams were about traveling to exotic locales, about the intelligent and thought-provoking chats I'd have with my adult children, about the amazing and renowned work I would accomplish in my profession.

But my life turned out differently than my dreams. Yes, I love my husband. Of course I'd be lost without my kids. But I haven't traveled very much. And while I still hope to have those fascinating conversations with my children one day when they're grown, all my daughter wants to talk about now is whether her birthday party theme should be Princesses or Bolt and my son, well, he's really into one-word conversations these days (Shoes! Juice! Dog! Ball!).

In Revolutionary Road, April Wheeler always appears either with her children, with her husband or, occasionally, alone but doing housework. She doesn't have a life. And the deadened, lifeless expression in her eyes betrays the isolation she feels even within her own seemingly perfect family.

I've had that look in my eyes before. It wasn't something I expected to happen. But shortly after becoming a mother in 2005 I experienced bewildering lows of isolation even as my baby nursed at my breast and my husband typed on his computer while sitting right next to me. If it hadn't been for an article I came across in a parenting magazine describing something called, "mommy blogging," I'm not sure I'd have been able to move beyond that isolation by myself.

That article led me to many now-famous mommy blogs. I became enraptured by the stories these mothers told. Their stories were my own. I immediately started a blog and began writing about my journey as a mother. While I had not actually traveled to a foreign land, there were days when my experience as a new mother felt akin to an Englishman landing in China. I didn't speak the language but I was always looking for chaps who did. Those chaps turned out to be my fellow mommy bloggers.

I was lucky. But, unfortunately, April Wheeler never got that copy of Parenting magazine. She was unable to connect with her tribe--a tribe of mothers like her, a tribe of individuals who also grew up believing their potential was limitless.

Mommy bloggers reach out to each other. We commiserate over sick kids. We make each other laugh about the ups and, mainly, the downs of potty training. We bitch about our husbands, those lovely men we'd rather not live without. We're smart, savvy and entrepreneurial. And, best of all, we encourage each other to keep fighting the good fight.

I don't want to spoil Revolutionary Road for those who haven't read or seen it yet (And by the way, I highly recommend reading the book and all its luscious prose first!) but what I can tell you is this: I'd like to think that if April Wheeler had had an outlet such as mommy blogging, a way of connecting to others who yearned as she did to get more out of life, things would have turned out much differently for her.

[photo credit: Theaipolis People]

My latest mama gotta-haves

Neutrogena's Pink Grapefruit Oil Free Acne Scrub
I used to use Neutrogena's regular Oil Free Acne Wash with fairly good results but when I came across their new scrub I just had to try it. It's amazing. Imagine and massage for your face with the clean scent of grapefruit. The scrubbing microbeads slough off dead skin and leave my face feeling refreshed and baby-smooth. The grapefruit essence gives me a pleasant aromatherapy session every time I wash my face. It's such an all-around exhilarating face scrubbing experience that you'll start inventing reasons to wash more than twice a day.

Philosophy Hope in a Jar
Pregnancy and even the unkind postpartum stretch I endured for a year was not kind to my skin. My poor face was ruddy and oily in some places, dry and flaky in others. I looked way older than my delicate 38 years and so when I turned that lovely number just a few weeks ago I finally gave in and tried this cream Oprah's been touting for years. I noticed improvements in just a few days. My skin tone became more even. The redness and flakiness disappeared. I could actually (gasp!) be seen in public without wearing make up! I now apply this light, almost-air-like cream twice a day now and continue to see improvements. Why, oh, why didn't I start using this stuff years ago? Hopefully it's not too late to play skincare catch up.

Nelle & Lizzy rings
Thanks to Facebook and our family photographer's page there I learned about these beautiful sterling silver rings from Nelle & Lizzy. For my birthday I received the double, two bands that intertwine and continually move around on my finger. Each band has one of my children's names stamped into it. They also offer singles and triples as well birthstone rings, necklaces, bracelets and charms. I'm in love with my new double ring!