Friday, July 30, 2010

What Will Baby Look Like? Find Out With the "Baby Morpher"

So I'm not gonna lie - this is a little creepy. But it's also kind of addicting. TheBump.com just launched a new tool called "The Baby Morpher." You upload a picture of yourself, and then your husband/baby daddy, and it somehow combines the two to create an image of what your baby may look like. Like I said - part creepy, part ahhh-mazing! : ) Here are my results...
 

Hmmmmm... No comment? : ) Lucky for us we got this little doll face in real life:

Whether accurate or not, it's still fun! Try it for yourself b clicking here: http://planning.thebump.com/baby-morpher

Thursday, July 29, 2010

How Big is Baby? Forget the Stinkin' Fruit... How About Desserts?

While I was prego, I religiously kept track of how big my baby was using The Bump's "How Big Is Baby?" tool, which charted the baby's weekly growth relevant to fruit. I don't know about you, but personally I didn't have a whole lot of fruit around my house (my prego pics are evidence of that!). At week 10, they say the baby is the size of a prune. And at 21 weeks, the baby is the size of a papaya. Sorry - but I just can't relate. So, I've taken matters into my own hands and created a Week-by-Week list based on what pregos really care about - dessert! : ) Enjoy!

(Note: Average sizes are taken from TheBump.com. Dessert associations are based on my calculations of weight, not length.)


Weeks 3&4
Zygote
Pop Rock












Week 5 
Avg. Size: 0.13 inches
Candy Button












Week 6
Avg. Size: 0.25 inches
Red Hot









Week 7
Avg. Size: 0.51 inches
Tic Tac













Week 8
Avg. Size: 0.63 inches / 0.04 oz
Good & Plenty








Week 9
Avg. Size: 0.9 inches/ 0.07 oz
M&M









Week 10
Avg. Size: 1.2 inches / 0.14 oz
Hershey Kiss













Week 11
Avg. Size: 1.6 inches / 0.25 oz
Roll of Smarties










Week 12
Avg. Size: 2.1 inches / 0.49 oz
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup











Week 13
Avg. Size: 2.9 inches / 0.81 oz
Cadbury Creme Egg










Week 14
Avg. Size: 3.4 inches/ 1.5 oz
Twinkie










Week 15 
Avg. Size: 4.0 inches / 2.5 oz
Pack of Skittles









 Week 16
Avg. Size: 4.6 inches / 3.5 oz
Hostess Sno Balls












Week 17
Avg. Size: 5.1 inches / 5.9 oz
Two Red Velvet Cupcakes










Week 18
Avg. Size: 5.6 inches / 6.7 oz
30 Jolly Ranchers










Week 19
Avg. Size: 6.0 inches / 8.5 oz
Box of Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies













Week 20
Avg. Size: 6.5 inches/ 10.6 oz
One container of Betty Crocker Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting













Week 21
Avg. Size: 10.5 inches / 12.7 oz
Pint of Ben and Jerry's Chubby Hubby Ice Cream













Weeks 21 - 24 (Month 5)
Avg. Size: 10.5 - 11.8 inches / 12.7 - 20.8 oz
Package of Oreos










Weeks 25 - 28 (Month 6)
Avg. Size: 13.6 - 14.8 inches / 1.5 - 2.2 lbs
Two Rolls of Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookie Dough








Weeks 29 - 32 (Month 7)
Avg. Size: 15.2 - 16.7 inches / 2.5 - 3.8 lbs
Sara Lee Cheesecake













Weeks 33 - 36 (Month 8)
Avg. Size: 17.2 - 18.7 inches / 4.2 - 5.8 lbs
Three Dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts










Weeks 37 - Delivery (Month 9)
Avg. Size: 18.9 - 20.9 inches / 6.2 - 9.2 lbs
One Gallon of Ice Cream













YUMMY!!!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Stay-At-Home vs. Working Moms - Is a Cold War Brewing?

I received an interesting comment on Thursday's post "Dear Mattress Firm: A Note From All the Mamas"  Here it is for your reading pleasure:

Anonymous said... Are you serious? How loud is your tv? instead of boycotting a store, why don't you try putting the dog outside during nap time, fast forwarding through the commercials, muting your tv before the commercials start or perhaps you really need to turn off the tv and take a nap. I'm a single mom that works full-time, I also have 2 labrador retrievers and I'm sick and tired of hearing woe is me stories about how lazy some people are. don't blame Mattress Firm, blame yourself for being too lazy to do something that requires effort like - turn the tv off. Seriously! I bet if the doorbell rang on The View every day, you wouldn't be contacting Whoopi to boycott the show.

My first reaction..."What the fuzzball?!" It's the first piece of hate mail I've received since starting my blog one year ago. So I read it again. And my second reaction was still, "What the fuzzball?!" and then, "Wow, this woman has some serious resentment towards stay-at-home moms!" How did my sarcastic rant about a commercial turn into "you are lazy"? I really thought the Cold War between stay-at-home moms and working moms was a thing of the past. I feel like it's a personal choice we each make, and neither is the "right" or "wrong" decision. As mamas, we've gotta do what we've gotta do sometimes. But here is the question: Am I not allowed to take a breather/zone out while my daughter takes a nap because I stay at home? Truth be told, I work my buns off during the day!  I don't think there is anything wrong with actually ENJOYING being home, watching The View, or maybe even eating bon bons (just kidding about the bon bons BTW). We all do what we can to be the best mamas possible. If that means working outside the home, then that's fine! I wouldn't dream of judging someone's decision. Or call them "lazy" becasue of it. I really hope Miss Ananymous is a one-off, angry woman and not the norm.


I found an interesting article in New York Magazine: Mom vs. Mom. Here are a few thought provoking tidbits I pulled out...

  • Motherhood, for all its well-documented joys, has become a flash point for envy, resentment, and guilt. "Everybody struggles, and everybody envies what the other has," says the stay-at-home mother of a 9- and a 14-year-old. "The working mom wishes she had more free time to be available to her child, and maybe have coffee after drop-off. And the nonworking woman would maybe like to have something that's a reflection of her as an individual -- a label that says she's a capable, creative person who knows about more than just baby formula or after-school programs."

  • The working mother's plight is further exacerbated by the fact that they're no longer celebrated as the heroines of feminism they were back in the seventies and the eighties. Who cares about Having It All? Working has become deeply ordinary. "There's status to not working," observes the novelist Dani Shapiro. "In the last generation, there was status to working."
 
  • While their own mothers, who serve as their role models (whether positive or negative makes little difference), were hailed for staying home and raising their kids, their daughters were educated to help run the world. Those who have chosen to make a career of motherhood wonder whether the brilliant life that was dangled as their birthright is passing them by. Conversely, many of those who are running the world worry they're sacrificing their families on the altar of their own ambition.
 
  • If the working moms detect an annoying level of smugness and a lack of self-examination among some of their nonworking sisters, perhaps it's because most stay-at-home mothers don't think of themselves as unemployed. Many have part-time jobs in careers such as real estate, public relations, and interior decorating. Besides, rare is the New York woman these days who didn't once have a job, and probably a rather stressful, responsible job, before she decided to make motherhood her career. In her mind, she's simply on extended sabbatical from the 9-to-5 world.
 After reading the article I came to a very simple conclusion: moms are paranoid. Working moms this stay-at-home moms are judging them, and vice versa! I have a good idea - We are all women! And moms! So why don't we just support each other, no matter what our personal decisions may be?

Amen. : )