I have always loved bananas and my boys do to.

It is the perfect first food.

• I used to mash it up in a bowl with a fork and a little water or breastmilk.
• Then as they got bigger I didnt’ even need a spoon I would just peel and spoon out little chunks.
• Then as they got bigger I would cut pieces and put them on their high chair tray.
• Now Thing 3 likes to either “eat it like a monkey” or practice using his knife and fork while he cuts and eats chunks of bananas.

I got a Chiquita Mom package in the mail this week.

There were some fun recipes in there and a great booklet.  I learned some cool things about bananas.  Like, When is the perfect time to eat a banana?  I loved the tips on freezing bananas and in the package I got some special freezer bags for this.

Chiquita is going to send (5) of YOU an Official “Chiquita Mom Kit” to help you buy, save and use those Chiquita Bananas in your house!

Your Chiquita Mom Kit includes:
• Chiquita Mom’s Flip Book
• Chiquita Banana Recipe Cards
• Chiquita Moms Grocery Tote Bag
• Chiquita Moms Freezer Bags
• A coupon for FREE Chiquita Bananas!

If you want a chance to win one, leave a comment with one thing you love about bananas!

I typically do like to finish the bulk of my shopping before Thanksgiving.  But usually I still have the boys and Rob to shop for.

Well, thanks to some great friends, I 95% finished shopping for everyone by Monday.  Then yesterday another great friend watched B. while  I wrapped everything I have bought.  I didn’t put tags on anything, rather I wrote numbers on them and have a list with what the numbers are and who they are for.  Then I hid them pretty well in my closet, way up high.

All I can say in regards to presents, is it is so much easier to buy things for a 4 year old than an 11 year old.

Not only that, but I have ordered my Christmas Cards and just finished writing our Christmas letter and will print those today.   Maybe I will do the labels for the cards too?

Seriously, I am worried, when will I crash?  What has possessed me?  What am I going to do in December?

Oh, wait!

• I am in charge of designing and printing the family calendar.
• I have 2 doula clients due.
• Singing in Sing Noel.
• Volunteering at the live Nativity, Follow the Star.
• 3 different Book Club Christmas Parties.  (Yes, I belong to 3 book clubs)
• Teaching a Hypnobabies Series.
• Decorating a Gingerbread house and a Gingerbread Train.
• Decorating our real house.

I guess I will stay busy.

I will say that one very inspirational find I have is a new Christmas CD! Every year for Sing Noel Victoria writes a Christmas song for the concert.  They are always my favorite, but when we get the CD of the concert, it is always hard to hear either the singer or the pianist.

So I was THRILLED to hear she produced a CD of her songs. All About the Baby.

I got it on Sunday and I LOVE it.  I haven’t found a Christmas CD I love since Harry Connick Jr Christmas CD, which came out in 1993.   Maybe this new CD is what has inspired my Christmas Preparations?  (Here is a link to my favorite song on the CD)

I think in my Christmas Frenzy I shall do a give away! So if you want to win a copy of All About the Baby leave a comment.  I will pick a winner December 1st.

Laugh and Learn DVD Set

Over at a new blog I am reading!

Great DVD set for expecting and new parents.

Do YOU deserve a medal?  I am sure you do, because you do amazing things!  If you are a new mom, then you definitely deserve a medal!

In my quest to have a fun inexpensive gift for my doula clients, I have created a new website, Moms Deserve Medals with a special medal to give to a Mom!

I am a Hypnobabies Childbirth Educator and am a birth doula. I love working with pregnant and new moms.
Most of the moms I work with are planning for a natural birth.   The original inspiration for this website and these medals is the comment “You don’t get a medal for natural childbirth.”

I started thinking, “Why Not?”

When you run a marathon, you prepare for months ahead of time and then the day of the race you run and run and run and work SO hard! I am sure when you cross the finish line you are just so happy and proud because you DID it, you accomplished your goal! You didn’t run the marathon FOR the medal.  But you do DESERVE a medal!

The comparison between birth and a marathon is not perfect, but after attending a long, challenging home birth of one of my doula clients, I thought, “She DOES deserve a medal!”  She was strong and powerful and worked longer and harder than running a marathon. So I wanted to design a medal for her.

I have a doula client who is an artist and she was kind enough to draw up the design for the medal,  using a few different pictures I had from different moms births.  I found some different options for making the actual medals and started creating my website.

Then while I was in the process of doing all of this, I had a mom who needed a surprise cesarean for a breech baby.   I realized that she deserved a medal just as much as the other mom. I thought about all the sacrifices different moms make and realize ALL moms deserve medals.
Suddenly my idea was so much bigger than what it started as.
But that is how all great things start, with a small idea. So hence Moms Deserve Medals was born.  Because ALL Moms Deserve a Medal!

I would love for you to enter the give away on the Moms Deserve Medals Blog, because you can win a medal.  You know you deserve one!

Are you interested in how to be a Hypno-Doula?  A doula who supports moms using hypnosis for childbirth?

There is a Hypno-Doula Workbook by Hypnobabies which is GREAT!  They are having a give away of one along with the book Labor of Love on the Hypnobabies Blog. 

Hurry over, the give away ends on the 19th!

Give away time.   

www.hypnobabiesblog.org