The Captive Mommy

I’m NOT wishing my kids to grow up faster than necessary but Bo is already building up the skills to be a good daddy one day. Of course he has the greatest example to go by. Hubby always makes time for him and his little brother no matter what. Bo has this stuffed lion — he has a whole zoo he sleeps with but this lion is his favorite — named Steve (as in Blues Clues). This morning I was just getting Levi out of bed and Bo says “Steve is my baby!” I can’t even begin to explain the cuteness of it all but more importantly he seems to know exactly how to manage a ‘baby’. He cuddled him close and whispered “It’s okay, Steve. Don’t cry.” I almost teared up!

Hoping to get the most of this special moment I asked him some questions

Me: So you are Steve’s Daddy?
Bo: Yes!
Me: What does Steve eat?
Bo: Umm..(thinking)…baby lion food…oh and coffee!!
Me: Do you change Steve’s diaper when he’s wet or dirty?
Bo: No! (apparently he’s planning on having the mommy do that)

The coffee thing is another funny story. Whenever Bo is around and I’m drinking coffee he always wants some. Well more than some. If I didn’t stop him he’d drink it all. We aren’t big on letting him drink things with caffeine so the occasional sip of coffee isn’t the end of the world. I think its the ‘adultness’ of the drink that makes him want it. Hubby and I have Starbucks gift cards and Bo found one this morning (prior to Steve drinking it) and he asked if he could have some coffee. I always use times like this to help him pretend so I gave him a cup and said go to Starbucks and get you some coffee.

Another thing he does a lot lately is push his shopping cart around ’shopping’ for groceries. The cart is usually filled with monster trucks, Steve and other various toys. This is also something he gets from his daddy. Hubby is the best grocery shopper in our house. Somehow (don’t ask me how) he can take the same list and amount of money and come home with twice the groceries that I would. We often go shopping as a family so Bo sees this first hand. He thought it was cool when I told him that Kroger has a Starbucks inside and he can shop for groceries and drink coffee. He promptly plopped his ‘coffee’ cup into his shopping cart and off he went.

One of my favorite things to do is read. I brag that I can finish a *good* 300 page book in less than 24 hours. Perhaps not such a feat, but I do have a hubby, two kids, and a business tugging for attention. Anyway I love reading. The only thing that can make books better is someone reading books to me. I don’t want just anyone reading to me though. A nice sounding reader is essential. Audio books open up a whole new avenue to reading. When listening to books I can accomplish lots of other things…blogging for example. I can eat without worry of scarring my precious books. Currently I’m listening to Twilight. Yes I’m probably the only person on the planet who hasn’t read it yet. Yes I’m talented enough to listen to a audio book and type at the same time. I’m a multitasker through and through

All of my other audio books are Jane Austen classics: Emma, Sense & Sensibility, Persuasion and Pride & Prejudice. I prefer the unabridged versions which are usually 10+ hours of listening time.

Comment question: Do you prefer paper books or audio books? What is your favorite book?

It takes a lot to surprise me and not very much at all to make me happy but this blog party has done both! I am surprised (pleasantly) that so many of you have dropped by to say hi I’m also excited that I’ve found lots of fun new blogs to add to my ‘blogs’ bookmark folder! I do have one little update to make about my prize list. The Avon Peach Bubble Bath has been taken off because hubby decided to use about 3 oz of it the other evening to give Bo a bath. Lots of ways to look at that. He was giving the kid a bath — not many fathers (that I know) give their kids baths, particularly if the mom is a SAHM. He honestly didn’t know that bottle was being saved for this blog party — try explaining a blog party (and giving prizes away) to your hubby then you’ll know why I didn’t even bother to tell him about it. Besides it was pretty heavy and therefore it would have been expensive to mail (yes I’m a cheapskate — I picked it up from hubby). Anyway so I’ll be finding a new prize to add to the list before the week is out to replace that one.

Today’s comment challenge: has a family member ever used something of yours that you had other plans for?

Well here I sit at 1:15am like a dodo bird. Tonight my BF Charis took me out to eat for my birthday. She gets off work late on Fridays so that meant a later dinner, but that was fine by us. After dinner hubby finally paid out for my birthday and took me to Office Depot to pick out a new desk chair. Until tonight we’ve used a chair from our dinning table — not comfortable at all considering I sit here 3-5 hours everyday — oh gosh I need to stop sitting here that much!! Figuring to save some dough I wanted a moderately priced chair (under $100) but he said they were ugly and he wanted a leather one. Umm okay hubby I wasn’t going to argue! So I picked out the one I wanted, grabbed some rubber bands I needed and we headed home.

Our neighbor (who is a firefighter/hazmat tech like hubby) was working today and Chip wanted to stop by and see him so Bo could see the fire trucks. This was totally an excuse to stop and check out their hazmat equipment. Charis and I stay in the truck with the sleeping Levi because once you’ve seen one (or 100) fire trucks like I have, trust me you’ve seen them all. Turns into an hour visit — poor Josh toting Bo around to see every truck at least 12 times (Bo LOVES ’swimming Mr. Josh’ — he has a pool) while hubby jabbers on and on with the station lieutenant about hazmat mumbo jumbo. Levi wakes up, gets cranky. Bo finally tires of the fire trucks and comes back to play with Charis’ Nintendo DS — promptly looses the stylus, sending us on an unsuccessful search for it.

Me: Bo where did the stylus go?
Bo: I dropped it.
Me: Where did you drop it?
Bo: Down the windmill.
Me: There is no windmill here. Where did it go?
Bo: I dropped it down in the Tahoe, down the windmill.

Exasperated I give up trying to question him. It’s 10pm by now and everyone (except hubby) is ready to go home. Finally hubby hears Levi screaming (no amount of consoling would get him to calm down — he wanted the car to be moving) and finally gets in the car to leave. We get home around 10:45 putting Bo in bed 3 hours past his normal bed time. Levi, having napped in the car, was ready to play. Hubby put my chair together and here I sit enjoying the comfy seat. So that’s why I’m up, blogging at 1:33am

Comment Question: Do you stay up late or do you have an early bedtime? Why?

Oh and hubby found the stylus under Bo’s car seat which is apparently ‘down the windmill’

So I’m a mother of two boys (one 3 years, one 7 months). Most ‘normal’ mothers are asleep right now. Why am I still up at 12:52am? Maybe I ate too much chocolate birthday cake (turned a whopping 26 on Tuesday). Maybe I enjoy only getting six hours or less of sleep before being awakened by a hungry little bear (not the cute cuddly kind when he’s hungry) and then an hour or so later by “Mama! Mama! I’m ready to wake up!” (our oldest knows he has to stay in bed until his father or I come and tell him he can get up). So running on 7 hours of sleep isn’t so bad. Besides I do my best work really late at night. I like the quiet. Well almost quiet — that antique coo coo clock my hubby wrangled from my MIL keeps it from being 100% quiet. He’d been wanting her’s that she no longer used since watching an episode of How Its Made featuring the annoying adorable handmade clocks. Curse the Discovery channel. Speaking of that show did I mention it cost me $400+ for his Christmas gift. He saw the episode on how they make leather fire helmets and since the other guys at his station were all getting them I had to jump off the bridge too . Well he MORE than made up for it with my Valentines/late Christmas present. My new HP TouchSmart all-in-one computer rocks! But I didn’t want one after seeing a TV show about it.

Well it’s after one now I really should go to bed. Here’s your comment challenge for today: Leave a comment telling me the craziest and/or most expensive thing you have ever bought for your significant other (if you don’t have one then for a family member or friend).

Thanks for stopping by my blog for the UBP 2009 by 5 Minutes for Mom! I hope you come back throughout the week and enjoy the fun and prizes I have to offer. If you are new to the UBP experience consider checking out the 5 Minutes for Mom website to learn more about the party. Basically you surf blogs, comment on posts and meet new people. Lots of bloggers will offer prizes too (I’m one of them ).

To win any of the prizes I will be giving away simply leave a comment on this post (with your real name and email address). Tell me how you found my blog, what you think of it or just say hi. Your name will be put into the pot. If you would like to have more chances to win visit every day and comment on those posts too. You can also visit and comment on my UBP posts at Sara*s Pixel Studio Blog (my business blog). For every comment on a different UBP 09 post (here or SPS) you will get another ‘ticket’ thrown into the drawing. More ways to be entered will be announced throughout the week. Prize drawing will be held on March 28 and winners will be notified via email.

PS: Comments on daily posts will be closed at the end of that day (this post will remain open to comments through 12:59pm on March 27) so be sure to visit every day for the maximum number of chances to win.

Click here to see all the UBP 2009 Posts.

Be sure to post a link to your blog if you have one so I can visit you as well!

I have a running list of blogs I’ve visited on my other blog post. My prize wishes are there also

Thanks to everyone for making this blog party my best ever!

Could I beg for some votes?  I have entered my business in the 2009 StartupNation Leading Moms in Business competition.  The voting ends March 31.  The top 200 businesses “win” and have a chance to be interviewed and featured on the SuN site.  Please, please, please vote for me if you have three or four seconds to spare.

Click here:
Support us in the 2009 StartupNation Leading Moms in Business Competition

To sum it up in two words: FUN & PRIZES!! Between this blog and my business blog (Sara*s Pixel Studio Blog) I will be having lots of fun and giving away some great prizes!

So what is a Blog Party? Simply put it is a party where mom-bloggers from all over the world blog, visit/comment on other’s blogs and win stuff! Its pretty fun and easy to participate. If you don’t have a blog you can just wait until the party begins and surf through all the blogs listed in the Mr. Linky. If you do own a blog and plan to participate you need to plan what you are going to blog about during the week. You can also choose to give a prize by drawing a name from your commenters (people who comment on your blog posts). You’ll need to keep a watch on the 5 Minutes for Mom site for when they post the Mr. Linky (12am on March 20). When they do, sign up and enter in the link to your blog. Be sure that the link you give will actually show your UBP posts – not another page. Then just blog away! Be sure to surf other blogs, make comments (leaving the link your blog) and hopefully win a prize, increase traffic to your blog and make some friends!

I will have two blogs participating in the party so that means twice the fun! You can check out my post at the SPS blog to see what prizes will be given away and how to win! Don’t worry I will explain everything in depth and great detail the day of the party (here as well as SPS blog).

I have been wanting, for several weeks now, to recreate Captive Mommies into a more personal blog, shifting from the “club” type feeling. I wanted this for several reasons the main two being that I wanted a place to blog random things about my life (besides my family blog) and that the whole ‘meeting place for mommies’ just didn’t catch on like I had hoped it would. With that said I hope I still have at least one or two readers and if not then that’s okay too. I will build up my blog. I will build up my blog. I will build up my blog. If I say it enough maybe it will happen.

So here’s your official “Welcome to the New-ish Captive Mommy Blog!” Who is the Captive Mommy? Me that’s who! LOL! Okay so right off you know I’m not good at humor (at least not intentionally). My name is Sara Brooks and I am the Captive Mommy. I am captivated (or held captive) by many things. Just to name a few: my faith, my family and my business. I am a Christian. If you dislike that then this isn’t the blog for you. I am a stay-at-home-mom to my two sons (currently 3 years old and 7 months old). Hubby and I have been married for 6 years and we live in Georgia. I’m southern and I type my accented words just as I’d them. If that bugs you well…sorry. I also work from home and I have my own business, Sara*s Pixel Studio, where I design everything from websites and blogs, trademarks and logos to business cards and letterhead.

In the past (particularly after I had my 2nd son in Aug 08) I relied mostly on articles to carry the weight of this blog. I usually scheduled the posts three-four days apart and just left it until I knew the posts were about to run out then I’d add some more. I figured out this is NOT the way to blog and expect to still have readers (duh). With this new approach I knew it [the blog] needed a new look. Something creative, random and personal. I have seen so many blogs lately that are so ‘corporate’ or just thrown together and I did not want that type of look. One of my favorite blogs is KevinandAmanda.com and she always has the cutest blog layouts! (Check out all of her awesome FREE handwriting fonts too!)

I decided to try making a blog layout with a digital scrapbook kit — I figured this blog is kinda like a scrapbook. I shopped at goDigitalScrapbooking.com and found a great set by Snowflake Beach called Ashlyn’s Love. Making the layout from the scrapbooking kit was super easy, but getting the layout to work in WordPress…well that was harder than I thought it would be. But I hope you’ll agree that it was well worth it!

So welcome, kick back, grab some chocolate and/or coffee and don’t forget to post your comments with your blog link so I can come see you!

Today’s world is a  busy place. The days are gone when Mom stayed at home with the kids and Dad was the breadwinner. Although numbers of working mothers have declined in recent years, 60% of all American mothers still work outside their homes. This severely limits the amount of quality time mothers spend with their children. One way to create more time, however, is to have children help you shop and prepare meals. Although it may seem easier to do it yourself, sharing the experience with a child can help the two of you bond as well as teach valuable lessons.

It’s amazing how many children today don’t know where food comes from. Many of them don’t realize that a lot of canned foods are actually grown on farms. They don’t even know that such things as cookies can be baked right at home and don’t have to come from a package in the supermarket. Believe it or not, there are kids who have never even seen the inside of a grocery store. Too many moms find it easier to shop for food prior to picking their children up from childcare. Read the rest of this entry »