Trick or Treat

Trick-or-treat kicks off tonight in our small town. Yes, I know, it isn't officially Halloween yet but someone important decided that they'd confuse half the town and hold trick-or-treat the night before Halloween this year. The upside to this is that I get candy a day early. That's always good right?

Luckily, I found out trick or treating time before it was too late. Otherwise I'd be dealing with two sad little boys and of course mommy guilt for not knowing when trick-or-treat actually was.

Anyway, I've got a few thoughts brewing as to why trick-or-treat is NOT on October 31st this year. Care to join the fun? And, while your here feel free to share with me your (funny or serious, although funny is always preferred on this site) ideas as to why you think trick-or-treat is being celebrated tonight instead of the official holiday.

Three Possible Reasons Why Our Small Town Is Not Trick Or Treating On Halloween

1.) No one wants to miss Private Practice & Dirty Sexy Money! I get it. I don't want to miss DSM either but that's what Tivo is for. Comment if you are DSM fan!! And if your too broke to own Tivo,like myself, then go to ABC.com instead and watch the episode FREE.

2.) People go to church on Wednesday night's so the town scheduled Halloween around certain religions. Since when did Wednesday become Sunday?

3.) We live in a state where basketball fan dedication borders on insanity hence the reschedule of trick-or-treat to a more fan-friendly date seeing as though UK basketball kicks off tomorrow night.

So, what do you think? Should we celebrate holidays on the official day or does it matter as long as the kids have fun? Because, in the end, it's all about them anyway.

Obligatory costume photos to come later...

My 3yr. Old Saw Me Cry Yesterday

So today I've got nothing better than to tell you about how I bit my tongue yesterday while eating a sandwich. I bit it so hard that I started crying in front of my 3 year old. What kind of adult bites their tongue and cries over it? Furthermore, what kind of person bites their tongue, cries over it then blogs about it to the world? Me, apparently.

So as to not scare Baby Picasso, I quit crying and shook uncontrollably instead. That didn't go over so well either.

And if you must know, it' still hurts like a $%*&^# today! Go ahead and laugh!

So have you ever cried in front of your child? How did they react?

If You Don't Already Have Enough Halloween Ideas...

Then I've just solved your problem for the day.

We've been working ALOT and recently added lots of new articles, crafts, activities, and recipes to our Halloween For Moms section here.

Halloween is 7 days away so what are you waiting for?

To make it easy on you I'll list some of our newest and best pages

Easy Halloween Snacks For Kids

Halloween For Toddlers

Frugal Halloween

Cheap Halloween Ghost Craft

Halloween Party Foods

Halloween Recipes for Kids

Chocolate Coated Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

Pumpkin Patch Craft

Ok, I better stop now that is getting to be an awfully long list.

And a reminder that the Amy Grant contest ends this Friday! We will have 3 winners. The Comfy PC contest ends on Nov. 3rd, 2007. Wow, we are up to 110 entries! Also a BIG heartfelt thank you to all of you who have left comments on my latest post. Your words mean alot to me.

Living With Eosinophilic Esophagitis

Our 3 year old son has a rare non-curable food allergy disorder called Eosinophilic Esophagitis in which his immune system attacks the food he eats thereby attacking his body internally. I've wrote about his disorder very briefly before. However, I've never went into full details about how his disorder affects him and our daily lives mainly because I don't want it to seem a bigger issue than it is.

But today, unlike most days, I feel the need to spill my guts.

It breaks my heart daily to see my son go through this but he is a tough little guy. Yes, I'm aware that things could be worse but knowing that doesn't make it any easier. Having a child with EE is not easy. He does not have a normal life. Among other things, he can't eat at most restaurants, he will never have a school cafeteria lunch, and he can't indulge in most birthday party cakes & goodies for fear of getting sick. Our son knows there are many many foods he can't eat and that food list will possibly grow as he gets older.

Most of your kids will probably ask, "What's for dinner?" while our 3 year old son will say, "Will I puke it?".

He is so accustomed to throwing up (he did it several times per day for over a year before his complete diagnosis) that most of the time, unless it comes on suddenly, he will go to the bathroom-puke, flush, repeat, puke flush, repeat. It is again heartbreaking to say the least. Now with the help of a restricted diet and steroids this only happens once or twice a week. Sometimes we will get lucky and he will go for 3 weeks straight without any gastrointestinal sickness.

When trick or treat comes along he won't be eating much candy like most of the kids. I will go through his bag just giving him a few things to sample while his 6 year old brother devours more than his fair share.

Our biggest challenge right now is food restrictions and modifications. I want to change the way our entire family eats just for him. It is something that will take some time. However, I know total restrictions are impossible. For instance, our 3 year old is severely allergic to our 6 year old's favorite foods.

We are very thankful for our son and his health. But today I want people to be made aware of this disease and it's effect on families. Click here to view a video to help you understand more about these disorders. In the near future I'm hoping to organize a fundraiser on this site to support EE and APFED.

If you have a child with a life altering disorder, any of the EE disorders, or food allergies I'd like to hear from you.

October Vacation

Here are a few pictures of our trip. With each vacation that we embark upon and each set of pictures that accompany them, I am reminded of how fast time goes by and of how much our boys have grown. I am so lucky to be able to have this time with the three men (hubs& our 2 boys) in my life that I love the most. Last week at this time we were sitting on our little sandy island on the beach collecting crabs and shells. This week we are thrown back into our everyday routine where we quickly go through the motions and our time is not as focused on each other as it is on vacations. Spending time with those you love the most on vacations have the wonderful effect of clearing your mind and of helping you push forward with goals and dreams. They are my inspiration!

Who or what is yours?

The boys enjoying the sun rise!

The FAM ( all of us together in 1 photo-it's a miracle!)
The babe (er, 3 yr. old) & Me!
Feeding The Seagulls

Thanks to everyone who has entered our 2 contests going on right now. We have over 97 entries on one contest alone! You still have time to enter both of them, Amy Grant's book Mosaic & the Comfy Toddler PC. We have many new contests coming your way over the next few weeks and months so don't forget to stop by.

We also have our annual just for fun Halloween Baby Photo Costume Contest going on.

A Review & Contest From The Beach

I'm at the beach right now on Fall break with my husband, MIL, and our two boys. The weather is perfect here. Today I'm taking a few minutes out of my vacation to bring you a review and a contest for Amy Grant's autobiographical book, Mosaic, courtesy of Waterbrook Press.

To get you up to speed on Amy Grant, she is the best selling Christian music artist of all time and has won several Grammy Awards. It seems fitting to continue on with a book.

Now on to the review...

I first heard of Amy Grant around 1991. Her song "Baby Baby" was playing on the radio. I was a freshman in high school. I loved the song but never knew until now the inspiration for the song came from her daughter, then two year old Millie. It is these little tidbits that make this book what it is. Since that time I haven't kept up with Amy Grant's music or career. Fortunately Mosaic does a great job of letting you get an intimate glimpse of her life. One of my favorite quotes from this book is, "Kids know who they are the minute they are born. As parents, we have the fascinating job of slowly discovering them".

Overall this is a good book for Amy Grant fans, Christian entertainment fans and mothers. Although I'm not immersed in a religion at this point in my life (this does not mean I do not believe in a God) I still recommend this book because it's an honest and refreshing read. This book would make a great gift.

Now for the contest portion. We are giving 3 of you a chance to win this book right here and since I'm on vacation and my birthday is only 2 short days away (Fri. Oct 19th) all you have to do for your chance to win is leave a comment saying "Happy Birthday". You just may get a present for my birthday! If you guess my age correctly you will get 1 extra bonus contest entry.

3 winners will be drawn at random. Deadline to enter is Fri. October 26, 2007. US residents only please. Mosaic retails for $24.95. One entry per person plus 1 additional chance bonus entry.

**Also don't forget about our other Contest going on for the Toddler Comfy PC. Details are on the post below this one.

It's Contest Time Again: Great Toddler Prize

If you haven't heard of the Comfy Easy PC for toddlers then it's time you have. We love this product for toddlers. My 3 year old son really enjoys playing with the Comfy PC and I'm just happy that he loves this educational toy. I have a full review of the Comfy Easy PC over at AMomsReview.com. I hope you will take some time to check it out. I totally recommend the Comfy PC for your toddler and here at Contestformoms.com I am giving one of you a chance to win a complete Comfy Easy PC system with age appropriate software titles included. This prize is worth well over $100.

Now the question is what do you have to do to win it? You will have 2 chances of winning the Comfy Easy PC. The more things you do, the more chances you have at winning!

One very simple way to enter this contest is to leave a comment right here on this post.
A second way to enter is to link to ContestForMoms.com on your blog or website and let me know in the comments section. Please include a way for me to email you or you can't win.

This contest is open only to US residents ages 18+ who will be giving this gift/prize to a toddler. By the way, this prize will make a perfect holiday gift! The deadline to enter the ContestForMoms.com & Comfy Easy PC contest is November 3rd, 2007.

So what are you waiting for? Enter today!


P.S. The winner of the MyBedBugs Giveaway is nannabee! Congratulations. :)

It's almost time to leave for vacation...

A Different Mommy

This morning as Future Bam was putting on his clothes and getting ready for school he told me that kids in his class thought I was his sister. He then asked me a question I knew he would eventually ask since being around other people forced him to notice that, yes, I am different than most of the other moms. . If you, dear readers, are wondering just exactly how different I am then his next question will answer that. He asked me why I was so much smaller than the other moms. He said a few things that I thought were funny too. He said, "Didn't you eat much when you were growing up?" "Is that why you couldn't grow taller?". He also said something that many people may not think of as nice but coming out of the mouth of a 6 year old it's all he knows and all he has to compare me to. He asked why all the mommies looked like grandmas.

Before school he would have never realized this or even thought of me as different and now he sees me as so different than all the other moms and he wonders why I'm not like them. This is something I have had to deal with my entire life so it's easy for me to shrug it off even though I still deal with it almost everyday. I've also talked about it at length here on this blog. It's also why I named the blog Petite Mommy.

I talked to FB about how everybody is different and we all come in different shapes in sizes. And that although there may not be other mommies that he knows who is as small as me at his school there are mommies like me out there. Have any of you out there experienced anything similar? Did your children think you were different than the other mamas?

One Last Round of Summer

Even though Fall is my most favorite time of the year, I don't like seeing Summer come to an end. It's sad in a way that it means something is ending and there is a new beginning or a new adventure ahead. Fall seems more like a new year/ new beginning to me than the New Year actually does. It may sound weird but that's just how Fall has always felt to me.

Last year we started a tradition with my husband's family to go to the beach in October every year to spend more time with our families. We rent a huge condo on the beach for a month and everyone gets together for one last round of Summer.

We are leaving Friday for our annual Fall beach trip. Luckily, our week coincided with our son's Fall break week. Anyway to get to some sort of point (or not), the last couple of days I have been ungratefully whining about not really feeling like going on this trip even though it has been planned since last year. My whining was partly due to the cooler weather there, the very long drive to get there (10 hours) , my workload that I'm already behind on, and a general uneasy feeling about going of which I have no idea where it is coming from.

And then our 6 year old talked on the phone to his Mamaw about all the sand castles they were going to build and how fun it was going to be. He was nearly screaming with delight. The look on his face and the happiness in his voice made all of my feelings go away. It is amazing how children can change you with one emotion or sometimes even one look. I'm so thankful that I was reminded about how important our vacations are to us. During vacation there is no "wait just a minutes". I am reminded that these vacations will sustain us during the busy times that are to come. These vacations will provide us with so many amazing memories and so much laughter. I can't possibly ever take this time away from our boys because this time is what really matters the most. And spending my birthday on the beach will be fun.

So, my dear readers, I will be absent starting on Friday until at least next Saturday. I'm going to try and get twitter set up on my phone before vacation so I can be followed. LOL. That sounds kind of stalkerish but hey we all do it on twitter, right?

My Own Slice Of Crazy

Most of us that blog on a regular basis and consider ourselves professional bloggers or online business owners keep track of our websites stats. Specifically, each month we review our stats to see how many visitors we had, where they came from and what keyword or keyword phrase brought them to us. I thought a fun(slightly-heck who am I kidding-completely narcisistic) twist would be to tell each of you 5 Google searches that I have done over the past week and have you join in. I guess we can call it my very own meme except that I'm sure somewhere someone has already done this...

Here are five of my latest Google searches. You just need to look in your google bar at the top or in your history. If you can't figure out how to do that then you can go by your memory of what you searched for.

My latest Google searches. Be warned, they are terribly boring searches. I'm on a new computer with no history...

pizza without trans fats ( Is that possible?)
petite jeans size 00 (yep, I need that size)
Hilton Atlanta Review ( thinking about staying there)
ayo technology lyrics (obsessed with the song)
aspartame and pregnancy (ingested this while pregnant 6 years ago)

Who wants to join me and reveal to the blogosphere your Google searches? You can leave it in the comments or you can blog about it on your own blog. Let me know if you do so I can read about it. If you link to me and do the meme I will add your blog entry right here. Shall we call it My Own Slice of Crazy meme?

What Do You Think of Me?

I'm forewarning you that today's post is a bunch of rambling... ;)

I often wonder what people (you all who are reading this right now) actually think of me when they come to this blog. Everyday I talk about something different even if it is a mom blog. Yes, for the most part, I journal my children's lives and I post photos but I also post about off the wall stuff like yesterday's post on Marriage & blowjobs ( I know your still laughing, right?). I also talk about TV shows and movies that I like as well as sometimes (actually very rarely) talk about hot button issues. I imagine that if you have clicked through via a search engine and are an occasional reader that you actually have no idea what this blog is about and who I really am. I think about that sometimes. And it makes me wonder what impression people get of me while coming here and reading everyday because you can't possibly "get" who a person really is by reading their blog. All you get is a glimpse into their lives especially if you've only read one post.

For instance, I think I'm funny but do you? ;)

I can tell you what I think of me but does it match up to how others perceive me? And, as a blogger, do you have these thoughts?

*P.S. Tomorow is the last day to enter the MyBedBugs Contest. You can win a Volume 1 DVD and a talking Snoozy doll just by linking to us. Yes, it's THAT easy! Hurry and enter.

Who Comes Up With This Stuff?

I was looking through my sites stats today and came across "Marriage BlowJobs". Looking back in my stats and site pages, this search term actually stemmed from a debate about a book review I did here. Anyway,what I'm wondering is who is searching for this stuff?

I know this is kind of off topic for a mommy blog but since someone clicked over to the mom blog looking for relationship advice( actually I don't know what they were looking for. Heck, they could have been looking for photos-sorry can't help ya there but...), I feel compelled to give them some tried and true advice. You'll either love or hate my answer.

Don't hate me but...


More blow jobs = happy marriages ;) So, marriage blow jobs are a good thing, right LOL? Chime in and tell me your quick solution to a happier marriage. I'd love to hear from you- good or bad!

A Whole New Level Of Freaking Out

The discussion has come up a few times since our son started school several weeks back. However, I never actually thought we'd follow through on it until our son asked about riding the big yellow bus a few days ago.

I want Future Bam to experience going to school on a bus like I did as a kid because it can be fun when your that age. However, getting up an hour early so that you can ride the bus less than 2 miles to school is not ideal. So we will see how that goes. And, of course, being the kind of worrier that I am I can think of all kinds of worst case scenarios about FB riding the bus. Go ahead and call me crazy.

I realize that I'm freaking out over something that some parents don't think twice about.

For those of you that allow your children to ride the bus, do you call the school to make sure they arrived safely or are we just supposed to wait it out and hope that our child is there when we go to pick them up 7 hours later? I'm not sure I can do the latter without losing my mind.


BTW, for those of you looking for Halloween ideas, crafts, cheap homemade costumes, coloring pages and more, how about browsing the Halloween Fun & Ideas pages right here

and, don't forget about the MyBedbugs giveaway! Link to us for your chance to win!

Who Would Have Thought Bed Bugs Would Be Fun?

Our recent contests have been such fun that I thought you'd like another one this week. So, who wants to win the Emmy Award winning My Bedbugs, Vol. 1 + the plush talking Snoozy doll?

Oh, and if you haven't heard about the MyBedbugs and all they have to offer to preschool aged kids then read our review over at AMomsReview.com

To enter this contest, you will need to link specifically to ContestForMoms.com somewhere in a blog entry. That's not too hard, right? Once you get that done please leave a comment where I can find your link. Also, you will need to have a valid email address where I can contact you if you win. However, you do not have to put that in the comment section. One winner will be chosen at random by my 3 year old. This contest will run from today until this Friday October 5, 2007 11:59 EST so everyone has a chance to get their entry in. US residents only. void where prohibited.

*If we don't get atleast 3 entries by Friday the contest will be extended an additional week.


My Bedbugs, Vol. 1