And the Goosie Cards winner is, (drumroll please…) Melissa, from Making Things Up. Email me with your mailing address at jennifer (at) jennifergrafgroneberg (dot) com, and I’ll send them out to you. Congratulations!
And thanks everyone, for playing. I wish I had more sets to share! But never fear–this was a lot of fun, so I have a few more Good things giveaways planned…
Bennett: “Who made that? Carter made that?”
Me: “Yes, Carter made that.”
Bennett: “It says, ‘I have a truck.'”
Me: “No, it says, ‘I love you.'”
Bennett: “Yes. I love me.”
A while back, for ParentDish, I wrote a post about a new, mom-owned company called Goosie Cards, that makes custom flash cards. The company is the brainchild of Jennifer Marchetti, who created the cards for her son Zach, who’s nicknamed Goosie.
After I wrote the post, Jennifer sent me samples of Goosie Cards, and I love them! They are all the things I’d hoped they’d be: cute, sturdy, fun, easy-to-use. And because of her generosity, I’m able to share them with you, too.
I have, to give away, a new set of the “Animal Kingdom” cards. If you’d like them, enter your name in the comments below. If there is more than one person interested, I’ll put the names in a hat and have Avery pick a winner.
The twins don’t look like twins, anymore. When they were babies, and I wheeled them around in the InStep double jogger stroller, or as toddlers, when they could still share clothes, denying their twinship was impossible. But lately, as the boys have grown into their own, unique selves, fewer and fewer people stop me to ask, “Twins?” But the bond is there, one I can see. I write about it this week for the Thursday, “A Little More” post at ParentDish.
From Noelle at Jaden’s Journal:
As of last Wednesday, July 18, the Prenatally & Postnatally Diagnosed Condition Awareness Act has been officially Re-introduced into Congress! The last time this Bill was introduced, 2 years ago, it never even got this far! This Bill is the whole reason I started my Petition! So, with this great news comes more responsibility on our part. This Bill has been re-written to include even more rights and services to expecting and new parents and will completely change the way women experience prenatal care in our country. Please read the Bill so you can see all of the fantastic provisions it is asking for. This is the best way to see how monumental a change this will bring. After reading the Bill, please Call your State Senators, and tell them you want The Prenatally & Postnatally Diagnosed Condition Awareness Act passed. The more of us who call, the more this Bill will stick out in their minds. This Bill won’t be up for a vote until early Fall, so we need to call!
Here’s what I am doing. I am continuing to gather signatures on my Petition, because this petition is going to be sent via regular mail to every single Senator with a hand written note. I have personally called all of our state senators to let them know about this petition and they take this very seriously. They all recommend mailing a copy of the petition with all of the comments, so that they have a hard copy of to read. They all agree that petitions really do make a difference when trying to get a bill passed. So, this Petition still needs to gather as many signatures as possible. I will be mailing the petition to the Senator’s at the end of August, as to allow for a maximum signature count. I am also making a video to post on Youtube about this Bill and I am sending it via e-mail to every Senator. Everyone needs to remember that this is a Bi-partisan issue. It is neither a Republican nor a Democrat issue, pro-life or pro-choice. This is about our values, morals, ethics and views on disabilities as a society. We can no longer discard babies simply because something may be “different” with them.
Thank you so much for already being involved and please, forward this e-mail to anyone you know and please continue to pass on the Petition to everyone you can think of!
“You know one thing about life, Mom?”
Me: “What?”
Carter: “There’s no pause button.”
Me: “It’s true. Sometimes, I wish more than anything that there was a pause button.”
Carter: “There’s no rewind, either, and no fast-forward.”
Me: “No.”
Carter: “You just have to take life as it comes.”
go here.
From Melody, of Slurping Life:
Love For Parker is here! July 23 – July 27. Are you all ready to show lots of Love For Parker and have a chance to win one of many unbelievably fantastic prizes?
Parker is an adorable but medically fragile child who requires an extraordinary amount of care. His care is extremely expensive, and his parents’ insurance company leaves a huge portion of the financial burden on the family. His parents have been unable to qualify Parker for other forms of assistance. If this is your first time meeting Parker, take a moment to visit TopBlogMag and get to know him.
Then please remember to GO HERE and donate (see that blue make a donation button up top) which will enter you in the drawing for a chance to win the Hewlett Packard digital camera, printer and accessories package valued at over $400 or one of many other prizes. You know you could give up at least one latte or a couple of donuts or a magazine or that pair of shoes this week, which need you question, and donate. Save the cost of just one vice this week and do a good thing with the money.
Carter: “I’m the king.”
Bennett: “I’m the king.”
Carter: “Mom, who’s the king?”
Me: “You’re both kings. There’s two. It’s good to have two kings so if there’s a battle, no one knows who to get.”
Carter pauses for a moment, seemingly satisfied. Then something occurs to him. He says: “Okay, but who’s the main king?”
Me: “Eat your dinner.”
For most of my life I’ve had long hair, except for a relatively brief time after the birth of my first son Carter. Then, I felt compelled to cut it short, for reasons that didn’t become clear right away. And lately, I’ve been thinking about cutting my hair short again, which is what I write about this week in “A Little More” at ParentDish.
the second round of voting has begun. A message from NADS reads:
Miraculously AWARENESS CAN BUILD A FAMILY made the cut again in the last round of voting for the American Express Members Project! You all are amazing!!!!
Now the going gets tougher. We need to vote again and fast. We have to rank in the top 5 to stay in for the final round. This next voting period is short Tuesday July 17th to Sunday July 22nd.
Your vote could literally change the world for people with Down syndrome and their families and help stop the discrimination.
Please vote here.
Vicki Forman has another “Special Needs Mama” post up at Literary Mama. This month’s title is “Anniversaries.” I love reading her posts because she writes about moments I recognize; things I can relate to in my life as Avery’s mom.
I don’t remember the date the twins were supposed to be born (I’m sure I’ve blocked it out in denial) but I remember this: pulling the weeds behind the house, stringy vines of pale white Morning Glory in the June heat, wondering if I could make it two more months. The moment is clear in my mind; I even remember the feel of the babies gently moving inside me as I worked.
And then later, when the babies were in the NICU, and I was home, cleaning out the refrigerator, throwing out all my twin-pregnancy foods–the soy shakes and the folic acid tablets and the protein powder. One of the containers of yogurt had an expiration date that was the same as my due date (which I don’t remember now, but I knew it then) and it made me cry. Even the condiments seemed risky. We needed to start over. I cried, and cleaned, until the only thing left was a gallon of milk and a pitcher of water.
So these are my special, unnamed anniversaries: pulling weeds and cleaning out the fridge.
To read Vicki’s, go here.
or 8 Facts About Me, is a meme (or me-me) and Niksmom from Maternal Instincts…Flying by the Seat of my Pants tagged me. Here are the rules:
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
Here are the facts about me (I think last time I did a meme I lied a lot; these facts are all true):
1. I am a little bit afraid of heights. Okay, a lot afraid, which I was reminded of on our vacation to Yellowstone National Park. There is a place called “Artist’s Point” at upper Yellowstone Falls, and I spent most of my time at the scenic overlook pulling my kids and their cousins away from the edge saying, a little shrilly, “Not too close! Don’t get too close!”
2. I’ve walked up the narrow stone steps of a Mayan temple; I’ve sipped hot chocolate under a white featherblanket in a hotel on Lake Lucerne; I’ve snorkeled through a school of pinfish in the Gulf of Mexico. I bought a little bottle of perfume in a duty-free shop on the Dutch side of St. Maarten; I’ve eaten pineapple cut fresh from the field on the big island of Hawaii.
3. I helped a cow deliver her baby by pulling on the calf’s forelegs, so it would slide out faster, and I was present at it’s first, sweet, bewildered breath.
4. At one time, I wore a cowboy hat everyday and was paid to take people on horseback rides through the quaking Aspens of Breckenridge, CO.
5. I don’t like desserts, except chocolate, if you count chocolate as a dessert. I count it as a medical necessity, like vitamins. Did you know dark chocolate is good for you?
6. My favorite time of year is the fall, after the first hard frost, when people in this valley begin using their wood-burning stoves and you can smell wisps of wood smoke in the air.
7. I didn’t think I’d enjoy doing this list, but I actually am.
8. I love reading mysteries. They are my secret indulgence. It began with the Nancy Drews I’d read as a girl in my treefort; then came Agatha Christie. Now it’s Diane Mott Davidson, Tony Hillerman, Sue Grafton, Sarah Paretski, Janet Evanovich, Peter Bowen, Jenny Siler, the Kellermans, and on and on…I don’t know what this says about me?
Now to tag 8 other bloggers, people I’d love to know more about:
Braska Bear; Flip Flop Mama; Gaijin Mama; Mountain Mama; Our Vietnamese Lady Bug; Snippets; Sweetest Cherry in an Apple Pie; and The Ups and Downs of our Life.
If things look newer, fresher, lighter, cleaner around here, that’s because of Rebecca from Just a Little Bit of Something Extra Creations.
I asked her to help make the Pinwheels blog design “less fussy,” and I told her I hoped to add new colors, that were bright and cheerful “like kids’ balloons.” I asked that she keep everything easy for me to manage, so that I could keep writing posts or adding graphics in my usual way.
She did all these things and more…and I can’t speak highly enough of her talents. She has a way of understanding what each person’s dream blog would look like, and then using her skills to translate those dreams onto the computer.
Thank you, Rebecca, for helping me!
It’s Thursday! Which means there’s another feature post up at ParentDish. This week, I’m thinking about the wide gap between what I expected my two experiences with childbirth to be, and what they actually were, and how this gap provided a chance for me to grow as a parent.
