Me Too You

Zooming in the Plasma Car

About six months ago, I had one of those terrible, no-good, very bad days with the kids in Target. We went in for one thing. One. Thing. I can't even remember what it was. But it was trivial. It was under $10 and should have taken 5 minutes. I am very, very used to taking all three of my small kids with me wherever I go, but sometimes they throw me for a loop. On this particular day, there were some bathroom incidents (involving me running each of the three kids to the bathroom for emergencies, near accidents on three separate occasions), there were shoe obsessions (Ava, throwing herself to my feet for 45 10 minutes: "Please, Mommy, please, please, please, please. Can I please have the princess flip flops? I LOVE them....please?!"), and then, there was the Plasma Car. Ava and Lily spied this beauty - two of them actually - and immediately hopped on. These things go FAST. Especially on lovely Target linoleum. I could NOT get them off of them. Once I would catch one, the other one would take off. And it was just one of those "Haha, let's not listen to Mommy" days. I finally dragged them out of the store persuaded them to leave. I was utterly exhausted by the whole ordeal. But, even on that day, we all sort of feel in love with the Plasma Car.

So when, a few weeks ago, a box arrived on my doorstep with a purple Plasma Car in it (for my review, compliments of CSNStores.com's SwingsetsAndMore.com which sells tons of swing sets and all sorts of fun toys), Ava and I were excited. Ben and Lily were at school, so I could assemble it and Ava could try it out in privacy. Well, assembly took me a bit of work. It was mostly easy, but I am not the most handy person and neither is Ava. She has all sort of ideas about how it should all go together, but in the end I did have to make a call to the manufacturer for help. They promptly walked me through the issue (I think that it WAS sent to me in a little funky way, but luckily I did not force the steering column in the wrong way when I started having trouble, but instead immediately called for help - I would have been pretty upset if I had to buy a new part for it, ugh). Assembled, Ava zoomed around the house for, oh, 5 minutes, before we had to leave to pick up Ben and Lily from school. Our house is a bit tinier than Target, so the zoom factor was...well, less. But a little zooming on the kindergarten blacktop did her good. She zoomed and zoomed and zoomed.

The kindergartners and their moms admired the Plasma Car, some of them trying it out as well (not the moms, mostly the kinders). The thing is cute. It zooms. The older kids could get it going in ways that Ava wasn't quite up to, so I think it is something that she'll be able to use and enjoy for quite a while. And it just looks cool.

Full disclosure: CSNStores.com's SwingsetsAndMore.com provided me with the Plasma Car for my review free of charge. Thanks for the zoom!

Ava and Art Vista at Kindergarten

Image via Wikipedia

Last week was a tough week on the babysitting front. My mom is out of town, my dad is working, my husband is working...all the time, my babysitter is in mourning. So last Friday, when I was scheduled to work in Ben and Lily's kindergarten classrooms, I was out of options. I really still wanted to be there - in fact, it was Art Vista week in Ben's class and I signed up to be a docent. We trekked off to school and Ben and Lily's teachers (actually, Lily had a sub) were kind enough to invite Ava in for a visit, so that I could still be there.

Ava, in true "me too" form, sat criss-cross applesauce on a carpet square and then proceeded to do some centers. In Lily's class, I was helping the kids work on patterns using Fruit Loops (I was popular!). Ava ate about 3 cups full (we brushed our teeth well after we got home). When she got bored, she headed over to the baby and kitchen area and played quietly. She liked the listening center a lot, listening to "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Bat" about three times. Lily was a bit sad that Ava wasn't able to tag along with her for the ENTIRE day ("She has to come to music! I'll watch her while you're in Ben's class. Please?! Pretty please with a cherry on top?"). During recess (oh boy, Ava was ready for recess after 2 hours of kindergarten!), she played and then lined up with Lily perfectly.

In Ben's class, Art Vista was So. Incredibly. Cool. I am so glad I was able to be there. The Art Vista program involves a project that 2-3 parents (docents) present and teach to the class once a month. There are seven projects and they all have a particular theme. For this first one, myself and the other docent (well, er, mainly the other docent, since I was watching Ava too!) talked to Ben's class about what "art" is (they are already great artists, really - just look around the room at all the stuff they have created), showed the class four famous prints involving horses, including a very abstract one by Kandinsky, and guided them through a very simple discussion about foreground and background and perspective ("if I draw the horse big, in the foreground, and then mountains small, in the background, it makes it look like the mountains are far away"). Then the kids got to draw horses (they uses stencils to trace), color their picture and do a "trick," using crayon resist, which creates a really cool effect. The kids had a great time, even though we were time limited. And, yes, we'll be seeing Ava's horse painting at the Art Show in the Spring, because...she did it too (twice, actually). Little Miss Me Too, in true form. 

Lighting the Night...and what to tell the kids about cancer?

[You can't read it, but the back of my shirt reads "SURVIVOR"]

I'm over at Silicon Valley Moms Blog today, recapping our first annual Light the Night walk with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Last night, my family and I participated, for the first time ever, in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night walk event in Palo Alto. As an 8-year survivor of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, I am thankful that organization such as LLS exists. LLS's Team in Training program was a great source of support for me during and after my treatment (Go Team!). As a mom, though, I struggle a bit with events like this. See, my kids don't know that I am a cancer survivor.

Click here for the rest...

If you would like to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, there is still time to support this event, which I organized with Jill Asher, co-founder of Silicon Valley Moms Group and daughter of a leukemia survivor. We raised over $1,300 in about a week and would love to raise more money for research and patient services. Click here to donate. San Jose's Light the Night event is on October 24th if you want to join (or form) a team to experience it yourself. Also, we REALLY, REALLY want to add to the National Marrow Donor Program's registry list. Go to www.marrow.org to register yourself (no blood sample needed, just a cheek swap - easy and you could save a life!).

Photo credit for the above photo to Carla Duharte/BabyJIDesign, who was the official photographer for the Silicon Valley Moms Group Light the Night team...and who registered herself as a potential bone marrow donor on the night of the event. Thank you Carla! And thank you, Maxine, who also walked with us, and THANK YOU to all who have supported our event!

More photos (taken by me, NOT a professional!): 

My little princesses are growing up...and going to Disney on Ice Princess Classics

About a year and a half ago, I took Ava and Lily to see Disney on Ice "Princess Wishes." My girls were princess-friendly girls before the show. After all, those Disney princesses are EVERYWHERE and the kids start to see them at a very young age...sippy cups, pullups, toddler backbacks...it is hard to escape. And I've met some princesses in real life - they ARE very, very nice. Awe inspiring, really. After the show, Princess Love was completely solidified. The show was fantastically done and seeing all of those little girls dressed up in their royal finest was So. Darn. Cute.

Now that Lily is five-and-a-half and Ava is three-and-a-half, their Princess Love has grown up a little. They no longer simply sing Ah-ah-ah Ariel, but instead know the words to Aladdin's "A whole new world." But they are still firmly in love. And I know that it is only a short time before they start asking me to go to Miley Cyrus, so I am taking advantage of their youngness to engage in some princess love myself (yes, I do have a favorite princess, but I'm not telling who it is. I am sort of a grownup.) So in a couple of weeks we are headed to this year's Disney on Ice show "Princess Classics."  Compliments of Mom Central, we are headed to the opening night at San Jose's HP Pavillion on Oct 21st. The show in the Bay Area actually starts playing this week at the Oakland Arena, so you can go there as well.

See below for a giveaway (yay!) and a special coupon code from Mom Central.

Here are the show dates:

Oakland                                                         
ORACLE Arena                                                
Wednesday, October 14: 7:30pm                     
Thursday, October 15: 7:30pm                       
Friday, October 16: 10:30am, 7:30pm            
Saturday, October 17: 11am, 3pm, 7pm          
Sunday, October 18: 10:30am, 5pm                

San Jose
HP Pavilion at San Jose
Wednesday, October 21: 7:30pm
Thursday, October 22: 7:30pm
Friday, October 23: 10:30am, 7:30pm
Saturday, October 24: 11am, 3pm, 7pm
Sunday, October 25: 1pm, 5pm

Disney has given me a special coupon code to share with you:
Purchase a 4-pack of tickets for only $44 for Monday through Friday matinee shows, or receive $4 off all weekend shows by logging onto www.ticketmaster.com and entering the coupon code: MOM.**                                                                                                                **Get 4 tickets for $44 Monday through Friday matinee shows, or $4 off all weekend shows by entering the code “MOM” at select ticketing channels. Minimum purchase of 4 tickets required; additional weekday tickets above 4 can be purchased at $11 each. Offer not valid on Rinkside or VIP seating. Cannot be combined with other offers. Service Charges and handling fees will apply.

Giveaway!

Thanks to Mom Central, I have 4 tickets to give away for the opening night show in San Jose on Wednesday, October 21st at 7:30pm. To enter, please leave a comment below with the name of your favorite Disney princess or that of your kids (yes, I don't have to tell, but you do!). The winner will be selected randomly and tickets will be waiting for the winner at Will Call on opening night. Giveaway ends tomorrow, Monday October 12th at midnight PST, so please be sure to leave your comment by then.

Full Disclosure: I was provided free tickets from Mom Central for my family to attend Disney on Ice Princess Classics on opening night. And we are very excited and grateful!

Those sure are some NICE habits

A couple of years ago, I participated in a "Pay It Forward" day. I can't remember what the source of inspiration was, but it was an organized thing. I read about how one person paid for the coffee for the person behind them in the Starbucks line and then the next person did the same thing and the next person...and so on, until something like 300 (or more?) people paid for coffee for the person coming after them. It was started by just one person and people got into the spirit very quickly. I can't remember exactly what I did, but I think I did it for longer than one day. Then...busy life took over with the kids and what not and... well, I would like to think that I do nice things on a regular basis, but with a deliberate intent? I believe that's a different thing.

Today was Monday. Mondays mean something more now in our household, because Ben and Lily have started kindergarten and it is the start of a week when we have to get out of the house early, early, early and go, go, go. I have to say that I have had a case of the "Mondays" for the last couple of weeks. I have to psych myself up for this whole thing that feels like a race to nowhere sometimes.

What to do to make it better? How about doing one nice thing? Today I got a call from my babysitter's mother. My babysitter was scheduled to come over tomorrow afternoon to watch the kids while I had a lunch meeting. However, her husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 renal cancer several months ago, has been in the hospital for a week or so now and she just got a call to head back to the hospital because "he's not doing well." She likely won't be making it to our house to babysit tomorrow. This man is 42 years old. 42!!! Being a cancer survivor myself, I know how tough it is to have cancer as a young adult (I was 28). And to have a spouse that is sick is almost harder, in some ways. After all, caregivers get very little breaks from all the stress. There is no time for themsleves. In a way, this babysitting afternoon was not so much scheduled because I need it (I could have asked my mom), but because SHE needs it. Being a caregiver is SO tough. I was looking forward to Ava telling her beloved babysitter "I love you. Will you swing me. Push me in the back, please. Push me super high!" Since I can't give her that...what can I do for her?

I looked through the book Do One Nice Thing by Debbie Tenzer today, searching for something to do for my babysitter, my friend. I came across something that I have been meaning to do FOREVER. I signed up to be an organ donor. I think I may have the sticker on my drivers license, but I wanted to be sure that I made my wishes clear and that I notified my family about it. So I headed over to www.DonateLife.net and got it done. I have no idea if my organs would even be "good" - I can't be a blood donor, for instance, since I have had a blood cancer, chemotherapy and the rest of it. But why not? Maybe it will benefit someone, somewhere, sometime. 

I have been working on habits in my household and in my life lately a lot. Laundry habits, paper clutter habits, homework habits. Do one nice each week sounds like a nice habit to get into. Ideas are plentiful when I just look around.

My thoughts are with my babysitter tonight especially. We love you! Come over and play ANYTIME you need a break and a few "I love you's."

This post was inspired by the book Do One Nice Thing by Debbie Tenzer and is part of Silicon Valley Moms Group's September book club for this book. You can read more posts for the book club here. 

Back to school: Ben and Lily's first few weeks of kindergarten is a mixed bag

 

My twins club blog, Mad About Multiples, is having a topic week this week on Back to School, which has spurred me on to finally write about this! This post is cross-posted at Mad About Multiples and you can read more Back to School with Twins posts there.

On Tuesday, August 25th, Ben and Lily had a big day - they headed to kindergarten at our neighborhood public school. It was an exciting morning! The First Day of School Fairy came (thank you for the idea Makes and Takes!) and brought the kids new lunchboxes, thermoses, some craft projects and Peanut M&Ms for an after school treat. We jetted off on scooters to settle in and get introduced. It was a big disorganized - no true kindergarten orientation and we got the schedule for the morning at 10:30 as we were leaving...a nice memory, would have been nice to have that BEFORE the morning began! But all in all, a successful initial start.

Ben and Lily are in separate classes and Jeff took Lily to her class, while I started in Ben's. I teared up a little as Ben's teacher read "The Kissing Hand" (one of our favorite books that we've had for a long time, courtsey of Nana Sandy)...not really because they were going to kindergarten, but it was sort of a twin parent moment. I wanted to soak in Ben's first day, but I was also a bit sad to be missing Lily's first moments. It is always hard to feel pulled in two different directions with twins (oh, the guilt!). But, as it turned out, Ben's teacher was quick to turn us parents loose, while Lily's teacher took her time, so I was able to luckily make it over to Lily's class and hear her teacher read "The Kissing Hand" as well (and to get my special kiss!). Having Ava there as well complicated things just a bit, but she was very patient and excited to see what this kindergarten was all about, so it was fine.

I thought that perhaps our trip to the East Coast that we had just returned from five days prior would help out with the early morning wakeup time, but....no. Wow, what a change. After a lazy summer and afternoon preschool for the past year, we are NOT used to early rising, much less early getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth and getting out the door. School begins at 8:03am (such weird times!) and we scooter or walk there, so...(carry the 1...) we have to leave at 7:25am to get there on time. 7:25. Wow. That's early.

Of course, Miss Me Too (3-year-old Ava) thinks she is in kindergarten too. She insists on me packing her a lunchbox too and follows the kids on the playground to put her hands on her head and stop playing when the bell rings to go line up. Funny. (She is also doing nightly homework...more on that below.)

I'm not going to lie. It has been a mixed bag. It is GREAT to be going to our neighborhood school. I love scootering to and from school (the kids have learned to balance and ride their bikes sans training wheels with all this practice!) and seeing all the kids in our neighborhood heading in that direction, playing at the park with our new school/neighborhood friends, being able to do easy playdates, and just being close to home. On the other hand, I DESPISE how overly structured, pressured, and academic kindergarten is proving to be (I knew it would be, but didn't know how much) and I disagree with the negative discipline tactics that are often employed (e.g., take away recess or free choice time if you don't get through your work...these kids NEED to play!). For my kids, who NEVER once had a "bad" day at Explorer Preschool and have a true love of learning, this whole thing has been a bit of a shock to the system.

Ben has had an especially hard time. Ben was labeled as an "emerging leader" at Explorer, which is frowned upon by academic, negative discipline types. At times, I DO want him to sort of...join the rest of society and not have it be "his choice" ALL the time. But I also don't want his spirit to be squashed. I am a big fan of thinking outside the box and believe that churning out students who can take tests, but not THINK is and will not be good for our future. 

For Lily, well, she's a pleaser. She LOVES kindergarten. On her first day, she said it was the BEST DAY EVER! And it has only gotten better (she has her times when she wants to stay home and relax, but mostly it is all rosy). Her teacher hasn't given homework yet really, but we give her optional stuff because she just wants to. She is excited that her teacher LETS her do homework. Joy! (I'm so glad I separated them for kindergarten, by the way.) I sometimes feel guilty that I am spending so much time making sure Ben is ok...I hope I can remember to focus on Lily too.

We ARE making progress. Jeff and I have both made some major changes in our lives over the past few weeks. I am taking a leave from my law practice (maybe a month, maybe more) and Jeff has committed to: 1) take Ben and Lily to school every Monday to show them he views it as important and 2) be home at 6pm (instead of 7 or 7:30 or...) so that we can all do homework together (this one is tough for him with his commute from work and his high-pressure job right now, but he's trying). We are staying in contact with Ben and Lily's teachers and doing a lot of the other things that are supposed to help. I am volunteering in both of their classrooms on Fridays - they are very different, their teachers could not be more opposite - and the kids are excited about that and it seems very comfortable for them and for me, coming from a coop preschool background.

Homework, like making lunches and getting up early, is becoming a bit more routine. I was and remain philosophically against homework in kindergarten (apart from reading 20 minutes or more a day), but I am actually realizing that if you have to get these academic standards met, you really have to do the homework. And, for Ben, it is actually proving to be a confidence builder. Ben has always been a kid who is cautious and wants to be 150% sure that he can do something perfectly before he tries and this stalls him. So we baby step it at home with the homework and he's getting it.

As much as I dislike this, I find myself doing a sticker chart for "good days" and homework, with a reward. I guess I feel like we need this as a temporary motivational tool and...it is working. Ben is pretty motivated to do well at school because of it and hopefully we can help him see the other reasons to do well over time. 

I am AMAZED at how much Ben and Lily are learning in kindergarten. They seem so much older and more capable after just one month. I am not celebrating the academics though - it saddens me how much they are expected to do at age five. I am SO glad that we did Explorer and let them "just play" and learn things that were age-appropriate. They actually did learn a ton at Explorer - both conventional and unconventional things. And I am thankful for that unique experience. I guess I just hope we can continue to give them the opportunities to think outside the box at home, even if they don't get those opportunities much at school.

In some ways, I wish I could send them all to a private school (which would probably have to be a little bit hippie) to get what I feel is best. But at the same time, I don't want to work full-time at a boring job in order to be able to afford private school for all three of my kids AND I feel like there are things that can be done to improve the California public school system. I only hope the pendulum hasn't swung too far in the wrong direction.

Note: I'm late in getting this August topic published for Back to School as a part of the Yahoo! Mothers Board, but, as you can see, we've been busy! You can read other Yahoo! Mothers Board members posts about Back to School by Kim, Donna, April, Joanne, and Julie.

Some resources from Yahoo! for Back to School:

• For great tips and opinions on a number of back-to-school issues visit Shine and get the low down on a variety of topics.
• Sittercity.com has some great tips on saving money on your back to school shopping
• Need tips for a better brown bag lunch?
• A bit of history and background on year-around education
• The story about 700 teachers in New York that are getting paid to do nothing has caused some real controversy
• Not familiar with some of the pros and cons of school uniforms? Read up here
• Looking to buy the latest in back to school fashion or gadgets?  Do a little retail therapy on Yahoo! Shopping
• Learning doesn't stop after 3:15 and 6 other things teachers wish parents knew
• EcoGeek's guide to going back to school in green style
• 8 after-school snack ideas from around the world.

Business 101 class at Outside the Cube

A wonderful entrepreneur in the Bay Area, MF Chapman, founder of Cubes&Crayons, is building a resource for new and aspiring entrepreneurs called Outside the Cube. I went to an event a couple of weeks ago called Entrepreneurs and Eats and was blown away by the support and innovative ideas that the group came up with right away (thanks @kristinafesta @sarahntastic @aligntheself ).  

Now, Outside the Cube has announced a great new crash course for aspiring and new entrepreneurs: Business 101. It will cover the accounting, social media, marketing and legal aspects of starting and running a business that you need to know. I've been asked to teach the legal portion of the class and am so excited. Elizabeth Potts Weinstein and Stefania Pomponi-Butler are my co-faculty for this course. The schedule and signup is here. Please join us!

Time on the Cape: a three week chronicile of vacationing with three kids and no husband

On the heels of BlogHer '09 in Chicago, I returned home for one day to unpack my swag and repack for a trip to Cape Cod with my three kids. My best friend just moved to Sandwich, Massachusetts on the Cape, after her husband (who is a Boston native and has had this summer house on the Cape for about 10 years) was transferred to Boston for his work. My twin sister, Robin, her husband and their kids also joined us there.

I never thought I would be one of those moms who takes her kids on vacation without her husband...but there I was. We hoped that Jeff would be able to join us at some point, but his work made it impossible. That, and ticket prices were just too high to justify coming for just a weekend.

It was...lovely. Yes, I missed Jeff (we all did - the kids, our friends, my sister, my brother-in-law), but it worked out fine. And we all got some time off. I got time off from my work (mostly) - I took a long, long break (thanks to all of you who let me do this!), I got very accustomed to going to bed early, not getting on my computer at night after the kids got to bed, to just being idle. My sister and I spent a lot of time just listening to music, reading, writing, talking about life, the universe and everything. I have not taken a break like that in a long time. I did post photos to Facebook quite often to keep Jeff and my parents up on what we were doing and we had webcam conversations with Jeff, but apart from that, I was pretty turned off.

I will be trying to work in some limits to my every day life as a result of this trip. It is something I have been working on for the past year, but this long three weeks on the Cape really did me good and showed me that it is possible to just turn it all off for a bit, stick my feet in the sand and live in the present.

Some highlights from our trip are coming soon....

The First Five Minutes: From the OR to the NICU

Sometimes I am sad to be done having babies. Even though I have three wonderful kids and do not need ANY more. Even though my tubes are tied, so it is not even an option. Even though I had pretty horrible birth experiences.

My births were actually not horrible in the sense of the actual birth procedure part of it. I had two planned c-sections, both of which went great and I recovered well from. I learned some things about planned c-sections...if anyone is preparing, here is what I recommend:

• ask for a spinal
• when you get the spinal, you will lose feeling in your legs and belly and chest VERY fast - lie down as quick as you can (you will have help!)
• the numbness will be in your chest too, so you will feel like you can't breathe. You can breathe, it just feels wierd for a minute
• breathe....
• you might feel a bit naseous right after you get the spinal, but it usually passes quickly (breathe...). They can inject some anti-nasea medication into your spinal line as well if you ask.
• drink A TON of water afterwards
• get up and walk as soon as you can afterwards
• if you need more and more pain medication for your incision pain as the days go by, you most likely have an infection. Get antobiotics ASAP. 

My births were horrible in the sense that all of my babies went straight from the OR to the NICU. I never held a baby right after birth, I never breastfeed a brand new baby (it was around 2 weeks post-birth for each of them, I pumped in the meantime), I never came home from the hospital with a baby, which was....VERY tough.

My twins, Ben and Lily, were premies, due to preeclampsia that hospitalized me on bedrest for a month before they were born at 31 weeks. Ava was a full term baby, but was born with Presistent Pulmonary Hypertension in the Newborn (PPHN). I thought premies were tough. A very ill baby who is hooked to more and more machines as her body tried to make the switch over from being in the womb to being out of the womb, who was extremely close to dying in the 2-3 days after birth before she finally turned the corner, well...that made premies look easy.

I REALLY enjoyed and appreciated seeing Mark Sloan discuss PPHN in his book Birth Day, as it was always hard for me to explain to people what having a baby with PPHN was like. The phrases "stuck in fetal mode," "caught in a trap," "up and down pattern" were exactly what Ava experienced as a baby with PPHN. Like the baby Dr. Sloan talks about in his book, Ava narrowly escaped being placed on the last resort effort of ECMO and her life was saved by the medication nitric oxide. She turned her corner on Mother's Day, 6 days after she was born.

It has always been amazing to me that any of my babies survived. And that I survived. Had we all been born just a couple of generations ago, it would not have been possible, not at all. It is a very different world of obstentical and neonatal medicine that exists today. And to the doctors that make that possible, I say thank you very much.

This post was inspired by the book Birth Day by Mark Sloan, M.D., which the Silicon Valley Moms Group bloggers are discussing today for our book club. (Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review.)

My Yummie Tummie shapewear has left BlogHer'09 Chicago and gone on vacation to Cape Cod

About a month ago, I was at the video shoot for the Silicon Valley Moms Group's new video series A Byte Out of Life, when one of my costars, Sheila, co-founder of Clever Girls Collective, asked me if I would like to be a brand ambassador for Yummie Tummie shapewear at BlogHer'09 in Chicago. I had separately just heard about the Yummie Tummie line from a twin mommy friend of mine has a couple of these magic little items. Um, yes, twins. It is a doozy. Even for those of us, like me, who don't get stretch marks. Yes, I work out and I do weigh the same as I did pre-babies, but the tummy has never been quite the same. I said....SURE!

Coincidentally, that next week I went shopping for a few fun clothing items to wear at BlogHer....and I took my three darling little angels along with me. They were actually VERY good kids and were in great awe of the "mommy store" - Ooh, pretty! Wow! You should get this! You should get that! I went for minimal damage on the pocketbook, which was slightly disappointing to them. But I did let them pick out a couple of things. As you can see...being a mom has left me craving...ahem...coverage in the tummy area. Sometimes I go for awful things, like this ruffle top (dress? For a teenager, perhaps).

Mommy and my three kids in the dressing room, trying on clothes to wear at BlogHer'09

At BlogHer, I did not wear the ruffle top number. No, no. Because I had my Yummie Tummie tank on. Instead, I wore a fitted shirt. Yes, a fitted shirt. And I LOVE the fact that the tank is MEANT to be seen. I am a fan of the layering look anyway, but a layer that actually benefits me? Great. I also really liked how the bust area is separated from the tummie area, so it actually holds EVERYTHING in place. No more annoying jiggle. The tank actually seems to have two layers of shapeness in it. While the top layer might ride up a bit, the inner layer clings to your body, making everything pretty much stay in place. Adjustments ARE necessary from time to time, but overall, I felt everything stay where it needed to and be really comfy and lightweight.

Big Stuff! I was starstruck to take a Yummie Tummie photo with Carson Kressley from Queer Eye from the Straight Guy (loved that show! miss it...even though they did get to be pretty much the same over time), right after he stripped to take off his sweater and put on a RIPT (the guy version of the Yummie Tummie).  (Yes, that's my fabulous friend and BlogHer roommate, Carla taking photos in the background.)

Me and Carson Kressley at BlogHer - me in my Yummie Tummie, Carson in his RIPT. Photo credit: Carla Duharte/BabyJIDesign

This first day at BlogHer, I tucked the Yummie Tummie tank into my jeans. The second day, I wore a looser shirt, but tried out the layered on the bottom look. Worked out very well.

Now...I am in Cape Cod, vacationing with my best friend, who just moved to the Cape, and my sister, who lives in St. John's Newfoundland. The Yummie Tummie tank has continued right along with me, when I am not wearing a swimsuit, that is! I am loving these things, even in the hot and humid weather here. Really want to try the shorts, the spagetti strap tank, and maybe something in leopard.   

Get your Yummie Tummie today - there is a 30% discount in effect through August 7th! Use the BLOGHER30 discount code.

Full disclosure: #1: I am legal counsel for Clever Girls Collective, the fantastic new social media agency that is representing Yummie Tummie. #2: I received two complimentary Yummie Tummie Boyfriend tanktops as part of being a Yummie Tummie Brand Ambassador.