Dear Miss C:

Yesterday was your kindergarten awards ceremony on the stage in the school cafeteria and your walking field trip, capped off with lunch at McDonald’s, or as sissy says, “Old MacDonald’s.” You may as well know now that I ate at McDonald’s every week while I was pregnant with you, hence your genetic makeup is intrinsically tied to Ronald McDonald. I could lie and say I ate nothing but free range chicken and organic fruits and vegetables, but I really wanted you to appreciate a good batch of piping hot french fries straight from the fryer, and freshly salted, before you even left the womb.

This week is shaping up to be the equivalent of the best week ever on the 5-year-old level. You played with your cousins Sunday, had a friend over Monday after school to play, and then we went to a soccer party at the local playground Tuesday where you had pizza and cupcakes for dinner. We were talking about the party yesterday and I told you that friends and family are so important in life and that if you have those two things, plus a great place to go like Papa’s Beach, that you have all that you really need.

You looked up at me from the kitchen table and without a beat said, “And God!”

I realize every day what a blessing it is to be your mother and sissy’s mother. I may feel like I don’t know what I’m doing half the time, but you prove to me over and over that your daddy and I must be doing something right.

Love, Mommy

Heading for school in the rain.

This week at Blissfully Domestic, the website better than the latest People magazine, we are featuring all things baby as our fearless, pee in your pants funny founder Alli (aka Mrs. Fussypants) is about to have another baby boy. Her fifth I might add. I bow down to Alli and her amazing mommy skills. She also home schools her boys. Just typing that makes me nervous.

“I’m not worthy…I’m not worthy!”

The fabulously talented Karla organized the Blissfully Domestic baby shower. I promise, there will be no annoying games involving tasting baby food that looks like warmed over poop, but there will be tips and giveaways focusing on all things pregnancy and baby this week. While you’re out and about, visit the Mrs. Fussypants Baby Shower Blog and send good wishes to Alli as she and her family prepare to welcome another Southern gentleman to the fold!

My Monday morning working mom post at Blissfully Domestic is all about versatile maternity wear basics for the office. In the three short years since my pregnancy with Miss A, maternity wear has taken leaps and bounds in the realm of fashion, although I always get a little put out with the maternity models, since most of them look like they’ve gained two pounds and we all know that’s not reality. I think I gained two pounds in my right big toe when I was pregnant with Miss C.

Amy, the last entrant who commented “The monogram necklace is super cute!,” is the winner! Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. This was great fun.

Per usual, I am fashionably late to the party.

Give Simple has graciously offered up one of the pretty, fun, feminine necklaces from Charming Expressions as part of the ginormous Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival taking place this week.

Designed by Shawnell Williams of Fort Worth, Texas, each glass charm is hand-crafted and has its own unique imperfections that add to the loveliness.

To enter, visit the Charming Expressions page at Give Simple and then leave a comment here telling me which of the necklaces is your favorite (it’s hard to choose, trust me.) You’ll then be eligible for the random drawing for the Charming Expressions necklace of your choice.

Entries will be accepted through midnight Saturday, April 26 and then I’ll draw a winner’s name from all eligible comments on Sunday. You don’t need a blog or website to enter, but you do need to leave a valid e-mail address so that I can contact you, should you be the big winnah!

p.s. Don’t forget my earlier announcement — you can take 10% off all purchases at Give Simple through April 30 with the code BLONDEMOM.

Today is the last day to bid on wonderful children’s artwork to benefit the We Can Solve it Project. The Kid Art Auction for Earth Day is the brainchild of Aimee at Greeblemonkey. Visit her blog for details.

Did you know Thursday is national Take Our Sons and Daughters To Work Day? Read what I had to say about it over at Blissfully Domestic.

I’ve got a new blog playground for scintillating product reviews and such, but I haven’t done a darn thing with it yet. I’m working on a header design and because I have creative ADD I keep changing the direction. Should it be funny? Should it be Southern Living-esque? Should it be sassy? Oh decisions, decisions. Be sure to bookmark it, though, and visit when it’s all dressed up and ready to hit the blog town (which, at this point, will be some time in May or maybe June…cough.)

Don’t forget to enter my Metalsgirl bangle giveaway through Saturday.

Isn’t this little sundress cute? Your little girl could wear it in the fall with leggings and a t-shirt. It reminds me of Hanna Anderson, BUT it’s only $4.99 at The Children’s Place! They’re having a big sale and you can use the coupon code S1A48 for 15% off your order. (Hat tip: Want Not.)

I met Colleen, aka Classy Mommy, at Camp Baby earlier this month. As women are wont to do, we were talking about our kids and somehow the topic shifted to boobs. Always the boobs with moms!

Like me, Colleen had a breast cancer scare last year. Her daughter was only 9 weeks old. She ended up having a lumpectomy, just like I did last fall, and thankfully found out that she, too, was cancer free. We both talked about how frightening the experience was and how lucky we are to have our health. Once you’ve gone through any type of cancer scare, you realize how fragile life can be. My mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor as is Miss C’s soccer coach. Every day I notice the familiar “pink ribbon” of someone battling or who has battled breast cancer.

Colleen has put together an amazing prize package for a mom who has or is battling breast cancer as part of a special giveaway in honor of Mother’s Day. The items range from a boutique diaper bag to a Kate Spade purse to toys to CDs to bath and body products and have a total retail value of more than $1,200! She’s accepting nominations via e-mail to giveaways@classymommy.com through May 11 (Mother’s Day).

Visit the Classy Mommy blog for full details about what to include in your nomination e-mail.

This is a wonderful opportunity to help a breast cancer patient, and mom, and make their Mother’s Day a little brighter. I know Colleen would appreciate it if you helped spread the word!

“No, the world is not blogging…the world is listening to bloggers.”

-Tina Sharkey, Chairman and Global President, BabyCenter LLC.

I think Camp Baby was an overall success from both the standpoint of the attendees and the Johnson & Johnson representatives. I was impressed with all the extra details, from GM providing transportation during the event to the bag of Neutrogena products we received upon arrival at the Heldrich, which was a fabulous place to stay. There was a feedback session Thursday and there seemed to be genuine interest in our concerns about how products are made, the ingredients that are used, and what influences our purchasing decisions. I think an overriding message from the bloggers to J&J was, “do not underestimate the influence and intelligence of moms.”

I had the chance to meet great women like Erika from Plain Jane Mom, Stacy DeBroff from Mom Central (I joked with her about being her groupie as I love her book) Amy and Susan from Working Moms Without Guilt, Christine from Dates to Diapers, Jill from Silicon Valley Moms, Kari from Karianna Spectrum, Liz from This Full House, Carmen from Mom to the Screaming Masses, Socal Mom, Susan from Friday Playdate, Dawn from Because I Said So, Jenn from Jenn’s Journal, Devra and Aviva from Parentopia, Y from Joy Unexpected, and Sarah from Sarah and the Goon Squad, just to name a few. I ate breakfast on Thursday with Colleen from Classy Mommy, Amy from The Ladybug and Her Blogging Mama, and Amy from MomAdvice.

Lori Dolginoff, Global Director of Communications, oversaw the event and got a big round of applause from all of us. Everything went smoothly, although I had a meltdown at the airport in front of Belinda (God bless her soul) Friday when a Continental agent told me my return flight had been canceled and there wasn’t an available flight for another 24 hours. Thankfully a 6 a.m. flight opened up and J&J is reimbursing me for my hotel room.

The dinner at The Frog and the Peach was awesome and I had a foodgasm over the chocolate cake. Nintendo was the official gaming sponsor and we all left with DS game systems, which I am graciously hiding for Santa. Ahem.

Sleep expert Dr. Jodi Mindell opened the sessions on Thursday and told us the keys to sleep success are sleep schedule, bedtime routine, and teaching babies to fall asleep independently (she is a proponent of the paci/binki/foofie…as mother to a former paci addict, I silently shouted hurrah at that nugget of advice.)

We also heard from germ expert Dr. Charles Gerba, a professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Arizona. Dr. Germ won me over when he quipped, “To me the only good germs are the ones that make beer, wine, and alcohol.” Luckily Johnson & Johnson makes Purell and I grabbed a few bottles at the product expo Friday since I will never see hotel TV remotes or my kitchen sink quite the same way after this presentation.

The most “interesting” afternoon session was entitled, “What’s Happening Down There?” which was led by two women urogynecologists. Most memorable quote? “Imagine this room is a vagina” or something like that. Who knew the trauma the female bladder and other female parts must endure post-childbirth! I did leave with two small light up compact mirrors for the girls, although they are imprinted with “What’s Happening Down There?” so I’m not sure I want them toting them to school. I mean do I really want to flaunt the state of my pelvic floor?

Tina Sharkey, chairman and global president of BabyCenter, LLC, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson, gave a fabulous presentation. A pioneer in new media, she was a a founder of Village, served as group president of Sesame Workshop’s Online Services, and helped rebuild AIM.

Some highlights of her session:

• Blog readers and bloggers are part of the Mom 2.0 Tribe
• 86% of U.S. moms access the Internet regularly
• 88% of moms use a broadband connection
• 70% of moms participate in online communities
• Moms and moms-to-be have on average 109 conversations in a week that are marketing relevant.

Whether you get 50 hits or 500 hits or 5,000 hits on your blog or website, you are part of an online “conversation renaissance,” Sharkey said.

Camp Baby links and resources:

• Online sleep tool for parents
• Information about cosmetic product ingredients
• InfantSEE, which provides no-cost access to an optometrist
• Kilmer House (J&J’s corporate history blog)
• J&J blog (Hanging With the Mommy Bloggers)
• J&J blog (We’ve Come a Long Way - Camp Baby)
• Belinda/Ninja Poodles’ Arkansas Times post about J&J
• Sleep Deprived No More, by Dr. Jodi Mindell, giveaway at MomAdvice

Ted Allen and Me, originally uploaded by blondemom.

I’m working on a wrap-up post about Johnson & Johnson’s Camp Baby and struggling to not make it a novella, but thought I’d throw out a little tidbit of miscellaneous celebrity trivia since my brushes with fame and fortune are so few and far between. Even though I live in Nashville, it’s not like I regularly attend wine tastings led by Emmy Award winning foodies. I once sold socks years ago to Reba McEntire, but somehow that doesn’t seem quite as glamorous.

Ted Allen, who is probably best known for transforming men one makeover at a time on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and who has a regular appearance as a judge on Top Chef, led a wine tasting during the welcoming social. He didn’t flinch at all when he walked into a room of more than 50 chatty women ready to talk wine (and pick his brain about his next TV career moves.)

Ted is a spokesperson for Robert Mondavi wines, so he was a perfect choice. He couldn’t have been more down to Earth and mingled amongst the mommy bloggers and agreeably posed for photos. After the wine tasting I was talking to one of the PR reps helping run Camp Baby and she told me he had requested a certain kind of mango for the wine tasting. Not only did he end up bringing his own mangoes, but he cut them and brought them in Tupperware after the hotel had offered to prep them. What a guy!

So, if I ever lose my day job, I just might apply to be Ted’s mango girl. It wouldn’t hurt to get free wine, either.

p.s. Speaking of local celebrities, I had lunch today with the lovely Busy Mom and Amy from Milkbreath and Margaritas.