Baby's 1st Birthday | Happy Birthday Max

Baby's 1st Birthday ... Walking, Dancing, Singing, Hugging, Kissing

My elders always explained that time moves faster when we are older. I did not understand until this month ... a whole year has passed and it feels like it was a whirl ... now, it is our baby's 1st first birthday. WOW!

This feels like the fastest year of my life ... REALLY! As I put together the items for our baby's birthday party, I think about all that our baby can do now. He is walking, singing and dancing. He gives us kisses and hugs. He is trying to talk and finally grew some hair. He no longer nurses, though still enjoys laying in bed with us. He has 8 teeth (4 at the top and 4 at the bottom) and is starting to refuse his baby food. He grew 2 pant sizes in the past month ... I am now answering to "Mama Baba" with a fresh milk bottle each time. The thoughts of mortality overcomes me; It feels bittersweet to hand him a bottle when he was nursing a few weeks ago and will eventually trade in the bottle for a sippy cup.

As I watch my two older boys playing basketball, melancholy hits me. It's our baby's 1st birthday today ... I wish this could be the only birthday he'll ever have, but that's not how it works ... Happy Birthday Max. You are our beautiful, loving, smart, sweet, baby boy :)


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Wordless Wednesday | Baby Loves Sitting Outside & Taking Long Walks In Stroller

Baby is the plants blowing in the breeze ...

Baby is checking out his stroller ...

Baby is watching the birds ...

Baby is watching the cars and trucks ...

Baby is checking out the neighbor's dog ...

Baby is saying hello to the trucks and cars ...

Happy Wordless Wednesday :) How Is Your Week Going?

We are fortunate that our baby loves being outside as much as we do ... In fact, he loves being outside so much that we can put him in his stroller when he is upset; he will immediately stop crying and watch the cars, birds and trees blowing in the wind. It is always an endearing moment :)

Do you love blog hopping and meeting Mom bloggers as much as I do? Browse this list of daily blog hops and add your hop to the list.

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Google + Blog Hop (Ongoing Networking Hop)

This Google + Hop is for mom bloggers and has easy rules ...

1) Add my Google + Page to your circle of Moms on Google +

2) Follow the Google + members on the list below

3) Comment below if you want us to know that you are participating.

This is an on going blog hop, so bookmark this page and check back for new G+ers :) It would be great if you would join Google Friend Connect (lower right hand side of the page), so that we can keep in touch. You can use this code to share this Google + hop on your blog, too :)

Time to build your Google + community :)

Like blog hopping as much as we do? Here are some of my favorite blog hops sorted by days ... BLOG HOPS LIST ... Join us!


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Wordless Wednesday | Fat Green Caterpillar

Check out our new friend .. We named him "Willow":)

This big fat green caterpillar just dropped down beside me while I was sitting on my porch. They aren't kidding when they say that bugs are bigger in the south :)

Blog Hopping is such a fun way to get to know one another, therefore I added a page with a list of blogs; some host Wordless Wednesdays and others have Daily Blog Hops. Hope to see you there!


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Send Video Christmas Greetings From Santa

Make Christmas A Little More Fun ... Children & Adults Will Like

I don't know if you've seen this, but it is really cute ... Portable North Pole has done their due justice with this video greeting service. You can send children or adults a video message from Santa. It says their name, shows their picture and causes a little bit of nervous excitement while you are waiting for Santa's elves to ...

I'm not going to tell you the rest; I'll let it be a surprise. Here is the link http://www.portablenorthpole.tv to the website. It is just good old fashioned Christmas entertainment. Enjoy!

* I am not receiving any incentives for sharing this resource.


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Mariah Carey’s Jenny Craig Ad - 70 Pounds

MOMS, THE MARIAH CAREY JENNY CRAIG VIDEO MIGHT BE A LITTLE TO SEXY OR SCARY FOR IMPRESSIONABLE LITTLE EYES, BUT IS NOT OBSCENE. YOU DECIDE WHETHER TO CLICK THAT PLAY BUTTON RIGHT NOW OR LATER; IT WILL BE ON TV.

I guess Jennifer Hudson has done all that she can do with and for Weight Watchers; she is now a size 0 (lost all of her baby weight for sure) and I am in shock. She did not look like a petite woman in Dream Girls, did she? On the other hand, Jenny Craig has found their own diva to take their weight loss program to the next level. Jenny Craig has launched the follow advertisement with Mariah Carey (not even 1 year after having her twin babies, Roc & Roe). I read the People magazine article in the check out line at the store, Mariah Carey lost 40 lbs of water weight and 30 lbs with the help of the Jenny Craig.



It is amazing that a woman - that was so big - can get back down to her pre-pregnancy weight in such a short amount of time. As a mommy trying to get back to my pre-pregnancy size, I am inspired and wondering whether I should do Jenny Craig. I am also wondering what she did to take of 40 lbs of water weight ... aren't you?

What do you think?

Have you tried Jenny Craig and had the same results?

My inquiring mind ... wants to know :)


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Why Mom Bloggers Need To Use Google +

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CLICK THE FOLLOWING BUTTON TO FOLLOW
MY GOOGLE + PAGE BEFORE READING THIS DETAILED BLOG POST!



I warn you now ... this is a long blog post about the marketing technicalities of Google Plus and why you should be happy to use it! You might want to use the bathroom or get a cup of tea before getting started :) Your feedback and 1+, Digg, Tweet, Stumble, etc is appreciated! I have set up Viral Marketing Mom page to reciprocate the 1+, Tweet, etc of family friendly sites and mom blogs.

Why Do Mom Bloggers Need To Use Google Plus?

Mom Bloggers, this is not my first run in with Google Plus ... I was there when it launched as Caffeine back in 2008 and then did the Google Buzz thing for a while, therefore I joined and played around with Google + when it launched 6 months ago (from an old profile), but preferred to use Facebook until the day Mashable.com posted the information on the new Google + Pages. This blog post will explain WHY Mom Bloggers should be happy about the GFC changes ... Why Mom Bloggers need to use Google Plus!

It is Google after all ... Why wouldn't you want to use it?

First of all, we have to give credit where credit is due, Google + is made by Google.com. It is actually an extension of their Google Search Engine and has been in the works since 2008 (Caffeine, Buzz, etc). No other search engine or directory has more of the market share than Google. They have set the standards and raised the bar for what anyone can do to obtain search engine rankings and additional exposure from a search engine.

I have studied and used Google for years (as have many Mom bloggers). If they have not created a program that can compete or take over a competitors market share, they will take the best of what they see working on their websites and create it as their own; only better.

If Google creates a program that is not successful, they just improve it and launch a new program as the replacement. If they cannot legally accomplish either, they will do their best and most often succeed at buying out the service they want to provide or replace.

LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook cannot compete with Google + unless they partner with Yahoo/Bing ... there opportunity for taking Google's market share is slight. There are already more people using Google Plus than Facebook. In fact, Google + grew to 50 million users by September 2011 (Experian Hitwise) and was projected to add 2 million users a day from that point. Now that they have launched Google + Pages, the sky is the limit for every business, non-profit, mom blogger and social user. This is mind blowing considering that Google + only launched 6 months ago. Why wouldn't a mom blogger want a piece of this pie?


Google + Currently Uses Do Follow / SEO Friendly Links

It does not matter whether you are a new mom blogger or UP - UP - UP there in the mommy world, we all have the same opportunity here. Take heed and be wise (especially Review, PR Friendly, Social Media, Mom Marketing bloggers ... and those who are not doing this for a hobby, but intend to make some money online) ... preserve your 1+ activity, but you need a lot of 1+ to your content in order to "make the cut". This is not Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. There is a SEO rumor / prediction that our Google + usage will have a direct effect on our search engine rankings and popularity within this realm (some of us have seen this already).

* BTW, I say that Google + currently uses DoDollow because Facebook pages and groups once had SEO friendly links, too. If we are lucky, Google will force them to reinstate them :)

What does my 1+ advice mean ... "preserve your 1+ activity"?

It means that you should feel comfortable using Google + as you would another business network; go ahead and comment; share posts that you think are worthy of displaying on your Google + (Under the Post section of your personal profile and pages), but remember that not only are you sharing content with your followers, friends or the public, you are passing ranking from your Google + because our profile links are programmed as DoFollow links; instead of rel="nofollow" or rel="extrenal nofollow". The only links that do not apply are your profile links when you comment on a post.

What does this "DoFollow" mean?

When you post a link on a website, you share some of your page rank and Google search engine rank with the link that you have posted. The same for Yahoo / Bing search engine rankings. When you post to your Google + account or Google + Page, the same thing happens. A link is not dofollow if you add rel="nofollow" or rel="external nofollow".

Here is the trick (again, this is a SEO rumor / prediction based on what they are seeing) ... These Google + DoFollow privileges are rewarded based on your popularity and activity, so now we are ALL going to be Mommy SEOs and fight to save our blog / website popularity for months to come, or pay someone to do it for us.

What do I mean by "we're all going to be SEOs"?

Well ... Google has been telling us that they are becoming a social search engine since Matt Cutts excitedly announced Google Caffeine in 2008. You might remember seeing Twitter feeds in the Google search engine results about a year ago and news links showing at the top and the bottom of the search engine pages. Well, they kept the news, updated how maps displayed, launched Google Buzz, changed how the profiles worked and started forcing people with duplicate accounts into one Google account by encouraging them to use their Gmail in these Google programs. There were many more changes, but this was all in preparation for Google + and what we will experience from it. You now have everything that you need (between the Social Search Engine and all of the Google programs available to you) to do your own branding, SEO and Internet Marketing for your Mom Blog.

Voila ... If you want your piece of the Google market share, then you will use all of the popular Google services and keep your networking efforts very close to home ... meaning at Google +.


Google + Pages

Some of us started using Google + when it first launched. I had a different account before I got married, so don't look at my information and take it like I am a Newbie. I just preferred to use Facebook while Google + was developing, though I have friends that dropped Facebook and went gung ho at Google +. At that time, we could register with any name and use it, so I used keywords and added as much search engine friendly content as I could to my clients About pages. This worked for a while and helped with clients' websites. Google eventually placed a restriction on the name fields and told us to start using our real names. This makes sense now that they have launched the Google + pages. There is no need to try to name our profile pages the name of our Mom Blog or Mom Business. That is what the Google + pages are for ...

When I noticed Mashable and a few other "authority sites" posting information about Google + Pages, I though they had just removed the name field restriction and people were creating multiple user accounts. Well, we all see now that they have taken this social site to the next level with this feature. Your Google + page currently has the potential to be more search engine friendly than any other network, blog or website that you create.


Google + Profile

Go ahead and set that up like a regular social network profile. A picture with your face and your real name is the best, but you can get creative (use a pen name) if you have privacy issues. The point here is that the profiles are for the networking to your Mom Business / Mom Blog page. This is a standard, proven to work, social media marketing process ... mom in direct marketing might have heard this same concept explained as "it is you that sells your business" ... the same is true in this case. Use your personal profile to build rapport and connections; use your page as your brand and the two shall meet by how you set up the About pages and links on the About pages.


Google + features that you may have overlooked:

1. That plus one button (1+) can help your websites get better ranks
   (remember what I said about this above ... scroll up to read the red text)
   
   
2. Animated graphics (.gif) work on Google Plus.
   
   
3. Hangouts are not like Meetups.com; they are video hangouts.
   
   
4. Mobile integration and usage.
   
   
5. We follow other users / friends by putting them in circles that we can organize by categories / subjects and share w/ others.
   
   
6. You have the same privacy settings like the new Facebook
   (can send posts to select circles).
   
   
7. There is a "real time" stream that is similar to the new feed on Facebook
   (you can see what others have posted).
   
   
8. The pictures from our Blogger blogs and what we upload to Google + all store in our accounts on Picasa Images (Google's image service that you automatically have). You can copyright, choose whether you want them private from that service or Google + friends or not.
   
   
9. There are games and the downloadable ones store right in our Google Chrome browsers (for those who are using it). I have not tried on Firefox or Internet Explorer, therefore Chrome is integrated.

I could go on and on about the networking and marketing capabilities of Google + but I will stop writing because I am sure that you get the point by now ... Mom Bloggers need to use Google + whether your using a Blogger blog w/ Google Friend Connect or not. I understand that the newsletter feature saves money and time, but the reality is that you should be using a different service for that - like Feedburner - more than one if you are using Feedburner to capture your stats and subscribers email addresses.

I hope this blog post is helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to ask questions or provide information that you want to share about the benefits and why Mom Bloggers should use Google + for branding, networking and marketing.

While you're here, join us at the Google + Hop for Mom Bloggers :)


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Tired | Isaiah 40:29-31

I am so glad that she posted the Five Minute Friday word early because I am up very late and extremely tired, though looking forward to it :) Ironically, the word we're writing about is ... TIRED.

December has crept up on me this year and no wonder. This has been a REALLY busy year. Last December, we moved into our "temporary" house (long story) just days before Christmas and having the baby. My family arrived, from out of town, just in time to open presents, eat an amazing Christmas dinner, clean up and take me to the hospital to have our baby.

We moved again just a few months after I had the baby and it has taken all of these months to settle into our new home and community while nursing baby, homeschooling, unpacking, entertaining, cooking, cleaning and working my behind off (wish it was literally) on client and personal projects. It has been a busy year and I am tired.

Not nearly as tired as before ...

Not as tired as when I moved to Florida and started all over.

Not as tired as when I was as a single mother trying to do it all alone.

Not as tired as when I was of fighting and crying over a rebellious son.

Not as tired as when I was when I worked two jobs as a mother and in school.

Not as tired as when I was pleading for special support classes for my son.

Not as tired as I was when I finally got tired of taking the bus, in the snow, with my son, and begging people to help me get my drivers license at 25.

Not as tired as I was as a new mommy on welfare trying to make ends meet.

Not as tired as when I left home as a teenager.

Not as tired as when I used to lay in bed and wonder about my mom.

Now that I think about it, I am not nearly as tired as I thought that I was ...

How could I not praise the Lord for such a difference?

"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." ~ Isaiah 40:29-31 (NIV)

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child


This blog post was inspired by
Five Minute Friday: Grateful