This morning Fuller helped me change the calendar in our kitchen. It is a Melissa & Doug magnetic calendar I picked up for very cheap when a local craft store was closing.

I made a big deal out of the changing of the month because October is a bigger deal here due to Fuller. He had known his birthday is October 5th for quite some time. But the concept of October really wasn’t real to him until today. And now he knows his birthday is on Sunday, thanks to the “My Birthday” magnet we placed on the square with the 5 magnet.

I keep looking at Fuller and wondering when he turned into such a big boy. I marvel over how he dresses himself (still needing some help with shirts) and I grin widely every time he rushes to the bathroom to take care of his own business. I know our lives are going to change drastically in February, so enjoying these moments of independence and growth are becoming even more important to me.

And Fuller is looking forward to telling us all he is “Four! Which comes before Five!” starting on Sunday.

We are pleased to see our ebay auction is going strong, and are wondering if the winner will actually share the blessed information or will keep it for a month. Of course, the winner could still be you, if you wanted to get in on the action. The price is holding steady at $85.33, which could buy us some pretty nice cloth diapers or go toward the car seat baby number two needs.

I know most pregnant bloggers have a guessing contest for her readers to choose boy or girl, but I guess I’m not most pregnant bloggers.

Technorati Tags: ebay, pregnancy

When I was pregnant with Fuller, I was unprepared for the questions many people would have about our choices as parents. The one that bugged me the most was “are you going to find out if it is a boy or girl?” It bugged me because at the time our answer was “I’m not sure.”

When the pregnancy began, Damon didn’t want to know and I did. I decided to let Damon decide. If he didn’t want to know, then we wouldn’t find out. And this really bothered many people, specifically some family members. Some family members even told us if we didn’t find out, then we should have the doctor write it down and seal it in an envelope to send to the family member. Then he/she would know, and we wouldn’t.

This angered me (or it could have been hormones), because really, it is only our business if we decide to find out the sex of our baby. Other people should just live with our decision. To me, it was up there with circumcision, breastfeeding, and diapering. We are the parents, we get to make the decisions.

On the day of the actual ultrasound, Damon decided he did want to find out. And Fuller, he decided to be uncooperative. We had several ultrasounds during the pregnancy and we were unsuccessful in determining the gender.

This led to frustration from others. We got accused of knowing and not telling several times. (Just because I wear a pink dress or blouse to my baby shower does not mean I know I’m having a girl!) Someone accused my doctor of not being very good.

When Fuller was born, it was such a surprise to me how nice of a surprise it was find out he was a boy seconds after he arrived. We all had to wait the almost 40 weeks and nothing awful happened. No one died because they didn’t know if our kid was a boy or girl before he arrived. It wasn’t horrible to have to return any gender specific stuff we had (which really wasn’t a lot).

Well, we are thrilled to be expecting our second child in February. I have been grinning and bearing it when people ask if we are going to find out the baby’s sex. And just like last time, I tell them “I don’t know.” Because this time, I don’t care and Damon does. It was a nice surprise last time and I thought maybe we could be surprised again. But, Damon really wants to know, even after I expressed my discomfort with with what I’m sure we’ll have to deal with (from family) on the day of the ultrasound.

And that is when my husband’s brilliance kicked in.

Next Tuesday, September 23rd, we will have the ultrasound and hopefully find out the sex of our baby. But, we are not going to tell anyone except the winner of this ebay auction.

If you win the auction, then you will be the first and only other person to know if we are having a boy or a girl. You can decide what you want to do with this information… because we will not tell another soul for a whole month. If you win the auction and decide to tell others, then it is your right. If you win the auction and decide to savor it for thirty days, then it is your right. We will keep our lips (and blogs) zipped!

Please note: this isn’t about the money. (it isn’t? - dword) Any money from this auction will be used to buy baby stuff and/ or start his/ her college fund. This auction is about our power (bwah-ha-ha!) and hoping people will understand we are the parents and this is our decision. Maybe I have some residual anger from my pregnancy with Fuller. But mainly we thought it would be fun. For us at least.

If no one bids, then we will still hold on to the information for one month. In the event that next Tuesday’s ultrasound is like the ones we had with Fuller, then the winner of the auction will be the first one we call after the baby is born. If we do find out the gender at a later date, the winner will be the first to know.

Groups of people are welcome to get together to bid… but we will only tell the winning ebay account the baby’s sex.

Serious bids only, please!

Technorati Tags: ebay, baby’s sex, pregnancy, family issues

The conference I went to last week was put together by Izea, the people behind the pay to blog company SocialSpark.

I blogged about the conference over on Always, Alli but I wanted to give some props to SocialSpark as a way for Mommy Bloggers like me to earn extra bits of cash. I will never tell you to quit your day job to become a full time blogger by using SocialSpark, but it is nice to be able to build up a paypal account for the extra things you might like. Movies, shoes, camera equipment, trips to Orlando without the family- stuff like that.

It isn’t instant money (it takes 30 days to be paid and then you have to have $20 in your account in order to cash out) and some days there are no opportunities available to take, but I would suggest signing up so you at least have the option to use SocialSpark. And here is some information to chew on: the more quality Mommy Bloggers in the SocialSpark system there are, the better the chances are for Izea to get the advertisers we want to blog about. I would love to blog (and be paid) about companies like Little Tykes, Baby Bjorn, Lego, Leapfrog, Matchbox, and Cranium… but they aren’t in the SocialSpark system of advertisers. If Izea approached them and showed how interested Mommy Bloggers are in writing about them, then possibly the deal could be closed.

Being consistently active in SocialSpark hasn’t been my forte lately, but after attending Izeafest, I seem to be refreshed in my blogging state of mind. Hopefully I’ll be benefiting from SS more and more and then I won’t stress about buying maternity cloths in the cooler months.

I’d be happy to respond to comments about SocialSpark if you leave me a comment.

Technorati Tags: Izea, SocialSpark, Mommy Bloggers, sponsored blogging

About a month and a half ago I received the book The Joy of Pregnancy to read and give my review. As a pregnant person, it would seem this book would be a perfect match for me.

First a tiny background: when I was pregnant with Fuller I had a copy of What to Expect when you are Expecting. Actually, I had two. It was the current “it” book of the pregnancy world and a friend handed me down her copy and the HR department of my employer gave it to pregnant employees who had been hounding them regarding short term disability. I gave away the new copy to another friend and kept the second hand copy around, but had to eventually hide. I felt the book was really full of scary scenarios and I couldn’t keep the bad thoughts at bay. I quit reading the book and suddenly my anxiety was lessened. I got my pregnancy knowledge from friends, the internet, and my doctor (in that order).

Now I am pregnant with baby number two and I get this book to read and review. I wondered if I would be able to read it without scaring up bogeymen of my anxious past, or would I find the book helpful? Would it be clinical (it was written by a nurse) or would the Tori Kroop, the author, pretend to be my BFF?

I’ll interrupt here and tell you I do recommend this book. However, I don’t recommend reading it all in one sitting. In my opinion, it is a reference book to be referred to as you get to each stage in your pregnancy.

The chapters are divided up by four week increments, giving an overview of development of baby and mom, interjecting the author’s personal experience (she’s a nurse and a mom), and letting the reader in on different choices to be made during the nine month journey. Each chapter has information geared toward the partners of the pregnant women, giving a male perspective on the miracle of life.

I didn’t think the book was too clinical, but then again I am reading the book during my second pregnancy. I felt like I had the answer key to the final exam as I read the study guide. I would still recommend the book, especially for first time moms.

My favorite part of the book were the sections where the Tori Kroop answers real life questions from her website Stork Site. It gave the personal touch I like, without the false sense of her trying to be my best friend. The questions were relevant and the answers candid and easy to understand.

Again, this is a book I would recommend to keep on hand as a reference during any pregnancy. And if it helps you even a little bit, then you can thank me by naming your child after me.

Technorati Tags: The Joy of Pregnancy, Tori Kroop, Stork Site

I haven’t really blogged much about this pregnancy here on this blog. I put most of those updates on my personal blog, Always, Alli.

Overall, the pregnancy is doing well. I’ve moved into the second trimester and am finally starting to find an even keel. I’m still tired, but not feeling very ill anymore. My carpal tunnel has cleared up due to the cooler weather, but I’m still being cautious. Last week I managed to make dinner most nights, and I have a whole week of menus planned for this week.

But the pregnancy does affect the entire family in some ways. Damon said I was in a foul mood, which I think came from my caffeine cut backs, and Fuller has unfortunately watched a bit too much TV due to my inability to function most afternoons.

We talk about the baby with Fuller and he understands the baby is in my tummy. He also thinks he can take the baby out via my bellybutton and then put it back again. When we were in Ohio, he was talking about the baby and calling it a “he.” So I asked him, “Fuller, are you going to have a brother or a sister?” He responded, “A brother.” I then asked him what the brother’s name was and Fuller said, “I don’t know!”

I would repeat this series of questions almost every other day and the answers were always the same.

When we were able to visit with Tia, Tio, and Genevieve, Fuller really enjoyed playing with Genevieve. A few days after they left, I asked Fuller again, “Fuller, are you going to have a brother or a sister?” And this time he said, “A sister.” I then asked him what the sister’s name was and Fuller said, “Genevieve!” I explained Genevieve was his cousin, so we wouldn’t name a sister that. So Fuller said, “Then I’m going to have a cousin!”

Since then Fuller has declared he is having a sister. Then yesterday it went back to being a brother. Tonight he told a stranger he was having a sister.

Who knows. We have a 50/50 chance. I’ll take either.