TWO Giveaways!!!

So, I want to give everyone ample time to enter my giveaway!

Remember that I am vote-whoring, so you can vote for me EVERY DAY to gain additional entries: just click that little link on the right that says "Picket Fence Blogs" and that will gain me a vote.

I also want to share another giveaway with you: KDBuggieBoutique is giving away a nursing wrap from the cutest Etsy shop ever. (Seriously, this mommy makes these adorable little take-along horse and race tracks to throw in your "mom" bag to take along to restaurants, waiting rooms, etc. I have never seen anything like them...so cool!)

Sexy is Invalidated.

So, in honour of "V-Day" or that holiday that shall remain nameless (kidding, my husband is sweetly spending extra time today to drive all the way to my office to take me to lunch at P.F.Chang's, where we had our first date) I thought I'd bring up the rampant use of the word "sexy" lately.

I've noticed that it's become such a frequently used word in our lexicon that it seems to have lost it's value (kind of like "love" and "obese"). This morning I was listening to a fairly conservative radio talk show and they were discussing a visit to a military base and how "sexy" the young producer looked firing a grenade launcher. I mean, her older female and male peers were all calling her sexy left and right like it was old hat.

I don't consider myself a prude my any means, but I feel like calling someone sexy pretty much should be limited to myself and the hubby in the privacy of our homes or emails, and maybe reserved occasionally when referring to Marky Mark and/or Tim Thomas.

Do you feel like sexy is overused today? What about other words? I'd love to have a real discussion today!

And Now We've Cooooommmmeeee....

To the end of the road. And I just can't let go.

No, seriously: and here we are.

Tomorrow morning I will nurse my baby boy for the last time.

Honestly, I think that I am doing pretty well this week: I have cherished each wake-up nurse to the best of my ability, and even though I don't know how much he can understand I have talked LO through them, saying things like "this is your last week of mama milk, buddy, are we going to be ok with that?" He either doesn't understand or couldn't care less: he's much more interested in running to the window and saying full sentences like "There goes the bus!"

Overall, I have an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment in the bond we've managed to create over the last almost 18-months. Or technically, the last 27 months, as I kind of see breastfeeding as an extension of that "part of each other" bond that started as soon as I began carrying that little zygote way back in November of 08.

I hearken back to a conversation my sister and I had when I was 7 months pregnant. "Are you going to breastfeed?" she asked. "I think I'll try to go until at least 6 months if it works out, but it will be hard to make it after I go back to work full-time." Her response with a sneer: "Why would you only go 6 months? You KNOW 12 months is better!" I'm sure she understands now how frustrating it is to get parenting/pregnancy advice from someone who is not even a parent or pregnant herself, but then I just let it go.

I approached breastfeeding as a good part of our bond, but I had watched too many of my friends beat themselves up when they had a low supply or something prevented breastfeeding from working out for them. So my tactic was "I will try my best, and if it doesn't work out, I'm not going to stress about it." Luckily my guy had a great latch from the first time out of the gate, and I didn't have any issues until I had been at work full time for a few months.

As I got into it and really began to enjoy the ease, the bond, the simplicity of the task of breastfeeding my child, I decided that best case scenario would be for him to self-wean around 18 months. And here we are. Two weeks shy of 18 months and he's no longer asking for it and hasn't batted an eye since his last bedtime nurse two months ago. So it's time for my baby love to be my little boy.

::sigh:: Hopefully I won't be a total hot mess after tomorrow's nursing, but even now just thinking about it is making me cry.

WMW: I Could Use Some Consistency.

Time for my favorite blog hop, through which I've met some wonderful moms who know all the ins and outs of being a working mother and can commiserate and celebrate with me. Working Mom Wednesday over at WorkWifeMomLife has really kept me blogging when I just feel like I can't come up with anything creative at all.

Which brings me to my point today: my strengths and weaknesses. And I'm not going to focus on the "mom" part, because the prompt is pretty open-ended. Today I will just focus on the "life" part.

Here's the truth: I lack consistency.

I came to this realization while contemplating my strengths and weaknesses. I am in the process of doing my first ever giveaway that someone else is sponsoring, and I get to share it with you guys by my own agressive stab of presentation to the author of my favorite Sunday column. So I was thinking, I can present myself pretty well, right? Yesterday at work I got a quick visit from one of the more executive supervisors in my company, and I think it went really well. I presented myself well. But then I remembered last week when a different executive was visiting, and I worked from home in the morning while waiting for a plumber to come over, didn't bother to do much "presentation" before heading to work, and looked like a hot mess with zero makeup, wash-and-go hair, and a maternity top over my black pants. Not a day where I was so great at presenting myself.

Then I was thinking maybe time management is my strength. My job requires the ability to prioritize (I prefer that term to multi-tasking: I honestly cannot do three things at once very well, but I can do one thing really well while thinking about the next 6 things on my list). I think I manage my time pretty well. But then we have a week where I fall behind slightly, and then decide that I'm too overwhelmed to do anything and end up surfing Amazon for random mom items instead of blogging or actually working on a task for my career.

So my point is: I need to be more consistent. That's my real shortcoming, is that I can never sustain my patience, task management, or presentation skills for very long before I just shut down and become an Internet Zombie who does crazy things like google image search pictures of Marky Mark to drool over. Also, Firehouse Subs sound tasty right now. (See, wandering mind...)

Now that you've read all about my lack of consistency, help me out by voting for me on Picket Fence, following me on Twitter (Ali_LastSplash), retweeting or blogging about my giveaway, and rack yourself up a chance to win a really, really cool book by a sarcastic funny lady. And join us at Working Mommy Wednesday to share your own strengths and weaknesses!

Giveaway: She's Just Like Me, Only Wittier

I cannot tell all of y'all how excited I am to do this giveaway. First of all, I got to email back and forth with my very own favorite D-list celebrity (she calls herself that, I'm not being mean, andplusalso she is WAY funnier than Kathy Griffin). Her name is Celia Rivenbark, she's a weekly columnist with a syndicated newspaper service so you may already be reading her weekly columns (if not, go HERE and you can...every week) and she also happens to write a series of books that are the perfect antidote to women with senses of humour who need a break from all that "Chicken Soup for the Soul" crap.

Like me, she was raised in North Carolina. Not like me, she's cool. And ROFLMAO funny. And she uses curse words in the most deliciously appropriate way. She's a mom, but not like all the scores of us mom bloggers out there who can think of nothing to talk about except our tots. She actually references other things in life. (They do exist, google it.)

Her books have titles like "Stop Dressing Your Six Year Old Like a Skank" and "Bless Your Heart, Tramp" and "We're Just Like You, Only Prettier" (long before a certain country singer released a song with curiously the same name, as one of Celia's columns recently pointed out).

Seriously, whether you are from the South or not, if you are female, you will be able to identify and laugh along with the stories in this book. I was laughing from the first page, and it was a welcome, refreshing break to read her book after finishing a serious and heart-wrenching novel. My favorite kind of person is one who doesn't take herself (or those around her) so damn seriously, and Celia accomplishes that with a style and flair that I can only be jealous of.

I highly encourage you all to check out her books and BUY them. For yourself for Valentine's Day, for any lady you know going through a tough time who needs a pick-me-up, for a pregnant friend or new mom who barely has time to pee and probably is sick of reading all the "What to Expect" series. The format (short chapters of separate stories) is perfect for busy moms. Or the beach. Or those of us that only seem to get alone time when we're in the crapper.

Being a fellow North Carolinian and a very nice person, Celia has offered to send an autographed copy of her most recent accomplishment "You Can't Drink All Day if You Don't Start in the Morning" to one of my loyal readers. To ensure you get in on these goods, you must be a follower of my blog (or become one) and leave a comment telling me so.

You can also gain extra entries by voting for me on Picket Fence blogs up to once daily, "liking" Celia on Facebook, and finally (THE BIG REVEAL) following me on Twitter @Ali_LastSplash. Please. I don't know how the Twitter thing works, so I'm going to need some friends to educate me. (AJD+Three, I'm talking to you.) Leave a comment for each time you do this. I guess if you "retweet" or mention my giveaway post on your blog, that is an entry, too. Oh Lord, what have I done?

Contest closes 2 weeks from today, winner announced Tuesday Feb 22!