UPDATE:  Sorry it took me so long to post the winner of the Besitos Flirty Onesie - March Blog Give-Away. Jorge is out of town so I am flying solo tonight. It took me longer than expected to get Ilan bathed and in bed. Anyway, enough of the chit chat. The winner is…Leticia Caballero! Congratulations!!

Thank you all for participating in our first blog give-away. We appreciate all of the great comments! Check back with us soon, as we intend to post blog give-aways on a regular bases.

There’s a new favorite in town…Baby Besos loves these Besitos Flirty Onesies!! We recently received raving comments from customers who have purchased this onesie and decided, “Why not give one away?”. So, here is your chance to win a Besitos Flirty Onesie. The winner of this blog give-away will have their choice of size, color, and face applique. These onesies are adorable in pink or white and are so unique in that you can choose the face that looks most similar to the baby girl in your life!

How can you win?! All you need to do is post a comment to this blog post. Tell us what your favorite Baby Besos Online Store item is and why, and your name will be entered into the drawing. One entry per person, per day, and this give-away applies to US residents only.

Contest ends Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at 5:00 pm CST. Winner will be selected by a random drawing and will be announced after the contest deadline.  Don’t forget to leave us your email address in your comment so we know how to conact you, should you be the lucky winner.

Good Luck!!

-Clarissa and Victoria

Only one short week from today we have to decide if we want to know the gender of baby #2. I am still torn. My heart says “You don’t need to know” and my mind says “Yes, why wouldn’t you!”. All this back and forth in my mind and heart got me thinking about past generations. Our parents and grandparents didn’t have any way to tell what they were having. They did it the old fashioned way and waited it out…AND (this is a big AND) they came up with their own theories on how to tell the gender of the baby.

So this past weekend I began my own research, just like they did in the good-ole-days. Below are some of my favorite “Old Wives Tales” on how to tell the gender of your baby, and the results of my studies. Drum roll please….

If your face looks rounder, the baby will be a girl.  If you gain weight on your rear end, the baby will be a boy. Result: I am having 2 girls AND a boy! I estimate my face has more than doubled in size and my rear end (mainly hip area that now spills over into the rear end area) has expanded. Therefore, I have concluded that based on the actual size and spillage area I am having not 1, but 3 babies.

Tie a red string to the mother’s wedding band and suspend it above her belly. If the ring goes around in circles, the baby will be a girl. If it sways from side to side, the baby will be a boy. Results: It’s a he-she! First the ring swayed from side to side. Then it abruptly stopped swaying from side to side and started going in a circle. Eek!

If your linea nigra is straight, the baby will be a boy. If the linea nigra is curvy, the baby will be a girl. Results: Inconclusive. I don’t have a linea nigra yet so I have to wait this one out a little. If you are pregnant or know someone who is, PLEASE ask them about their linea nigra for me and don’t forget to post the results. This is one “Old Wives Tale” that I am itching to know more about.

-Victoria

I am stuck and don’t know what to do. Ilan used to be a great eater. He would eat everything, literally. And he loved what he was eating too! We used to joke that he was going to be a food critic when he grew up because of all the food he ate. Actually, we said he would be a very BAD food critic because he thought EVERYTHING was good! Needless to say, it made things easy for me. Over the last two months he has turned into not such a great eater. He is picky and refuses almost everything we give him. I always said I was never going to be “that” mother that made different meals each night to appease the different palates of her children. “You eat what is put in front of you” was my motto.

To avoid making a liar of myself (I can sometimes be a teensy bit stubborn) I realized that he WILL eat what I put in front of him just as long as what I put in front of his is what he likes. Easy, right? That would be true if he were the only one in the house. But he’s not. Jorge and I are kind of getting tired of eating Macaroni, Peas, and Chicken Nuggets for dinner.  Anyway, I found these Food Faces plates made by Fred.

My first reaction when I saw them was, “oh, give me a break!” and I continued surfing the web. Now, two days later I still think about these plates. Although I know using these plates would be sending a message to Ilan that meal time is play time, I can’t help but wonder if they would keep him entertained long enough for him to actually TRY the food we are offering him. Should I buy one and try it out?

-Victoria

I love Salma Hayek! Salma (we are secretly friends and she has demanded that I refer to her by her first name) recently visited Sierra Leone on a humanitarian effort with UNICEF and Pampers. If you didn’t see her on Oprah about a year ago, let me fill you in. Salma is the spokeswoman for the Pampers “One Pack = One Vaccine” campaign which supports UNICEF’s efforts to eliminate tetanus. For each pack of specially marked Pampers diapers sold, parent company Proctor and Gamble donates the cost of one tetanus vaccine to UNICEF.

To be honest, up until seeing this video I didn’t pay much attention to the diapers I was buying. I buy Pampers brand regularly but never made an effort to grab the package with the special UNICEF sticker on it. I watched the Oprah episode with Salma but at the time I unconsciously, and perhaps selfishly, decided that this effort wasn’t “close to home”. I have now changed my ways…Sorry Big O, but Cynthia McFadden beat you on this one!

Click on the link below titled, “Salma in Sierra Leone” to watch this video and you will see why. The video is both heartbreaking and inspiring all at the same time. I hope you get as much out of it as I did. Keep the Kleenex handy and when you are done crying let me know what you think…

Salma In Sierra Leone

-Victoria

Proudly, I can say that I have coached the Antonian High School Cheerleaders for eight years.  Every year the dynamics of our program have grown and changed, I started with around 15 girls and now have a team of 33.  As the number of girls grew so have the challenges.  But the most challenging year has been this past one, not because of any “drama” of attempting to make 33 high school girls work together for a whole year, but because of my own family drama.   Before my son was born I was able to put my cheerleaders first and devote so much to them.  Now my son comes first and soon my baby girl will also. 

Two weekends ago I was unable to go to a competition with my girls because my family for the first time had to come first.  My son and I were both sick and unable to leave the house for a week.  I missed  a week of practice and the competition.  Of course my son was priority, but knowing that I was sending my 33 girls off to compete without me didn’t sit well with me.  Not so much because I was worried, I knew they were in good hands, but because I felt like I wasn’t doing my job.  I wasn’t able to be a devoted coach and mother.    

As it is, my mother watches my son when I have practice and other cheer events.  I could not do this without her, believe me I’ve tried.  Picture my seventeen month old running on to the floor as the girls are trying to tumble or stunt and me very pregnant trying to run after him.  It is not a pretty picture, perhaps more comical than anything.  Well when my son got sick my mother was out of town, leaving no one to help me, no one to make it easier.  I questioned whether or not I should continue to coach.  I only have one child now, what happens after next month when my daughter will join the equation? 

I find myself feeling selfish for continuing to coach, I can’t say I do it for the money, I lose out on a lot of time with my family and friends, and it is a stressful job.  So why stay?  I can say that it would be terribly difficult to walk away from these girls, and I do enjoy coaching (most days at least), but secretly it is my break.  It is time to focus on something else besides being a mother and wife and even a co-owner of a wonderful online baby boutique.  I get to go to practice for a couple of hours a day and work on something other than changing diapers, picking up toys and so many more motherly chores. 

Somedays I wish I did not have the added stress of being a cheerleading coach, but then I think about what if I didn’t have that outlet.  I realize that it won’t last forever, me coaching that is.  Eventually I will walk away, but until then I will try to make this work.  I want to be good at all my roles and not give up one to be better at the others.  I realize that family comes first, I just hope that I can juggle all of these roles and do MY best at them.  I am grateful for every role that I have in life, I pray that I will be blessed with the energy and HELP to continue.  Selfishly, I am not ready to give up.

Clarissa

I can’t believe it is already Friday! When our first son, Ilan, was born I remember wishing the days would pass faster. I would look at the clock and what seemed like 5 hours later would look at it again and wonder why, oh why, had only ONE hour passed? I had a rough time adjusting after his birth. Partly because this whole motherhood thing was so foreign to me (I am not a born natural, shucks!) and partly because he has a milk protein allergy that wasn’t diagnosed until month 4 of his life. I spent my days and nights walking around like a zombie while trying to figure out what to do next with a screaming baby.  Every time we would sit down with him he would scream…and to top it all off, he didn’t sleep. His naps were 10 - 20 minutes long, 30 - 45 if we held and rocked him while he slept. I was averaging a shower a week and brushed my teeth each afternoon, if I was lucky. The days and nights passed so terribly slowly.

But now, now things are so different! Ilan is 17 months old and is SO easy (comparatively speaking) most of the time. He likes to play, watch Baby Signing Time, loves “Mo” aka Elmo, and dances with a very serious look on his face. He is hilarious! Now I look at the clock and what seems like 1 hour later look at it again and wonder why, oh why, have FIVE hours already passed?

Where did our week go? Better yet, where did the last 17 months go?! We just bought a mini digital camera so that we can capture a “snapshot” or two everyday…time flies too fast. We have to capture the moments some how.

Here is a picture of Ilan from this morning, eating popcorn and doing a puzzle. I know, I know. You wonder, “popcorn for breakfast!?”. Refer to my posts, “Salsa, Rice, and Beans, Oh My!” and “I’m No Martha”. Oh, and did I mention I am not a natural at this?

-Victoria

That is the question. I am 15 weeks pregnant with our 2nd child and have just made it through the morning-noon-night sickness. Whew! Now the pregnancy milestone I most look forward to is my 19-week sonogram, which I’ll have in just 4 short weeks. The first time I saw this baby was at 6 weeks and honestly, it was literally just a blob. No head or tail. No arms or legs. Just a blob. So, needless to say, to me this is the first “real” and only time that we will see the baby until the birth in July.

When we were pregnant with our now 17-month old son, Ilan, there was no question as to whether we would find out the gender or not. It was a simple, no. We wanted to be surprised.  The best reward for waiting for my husband was that he was able to share in the joy of the pregnancy by being the first to notify all of our friends and family in the waiting room of the gender. It surely was a proud moment and one that he will never forget. For me, not knowing made the pains of labor seem less intense. I was more focused on getting that baby out so that I could find out what it was rather than focused on the contractions and pushing. In the end it was a great experience for us both.

This being our 2nd child, I know what the first question will be from the sonographer. “Do you want to know what you are having?!”. But do I know what my answer will be? I need to be prepared to answer that question come March 2. Do I want to know? Or do I want to keep a surprise like we did the first time around?

4 weeks to decide and counting…

-Victoria