YES IT'S REALLY ME and no I'm not ready to recap the last 6 weeks yet

Hi friends! I simply couldn't let one more minute go by without posting and catching up on my friends' blogs. So there I go to Erin's to see what I missed about her family, and see her recap of our cruise vacation together last week. But then her post about Digital Moms got me intrigued, so per Erin's suggested I surfed over to Dooce.com to see what SHE had to say about Twittering and FB'ing moms. (I was of course just waiting for the big controversial oh, moms neglect their kids or oh, moms risk their kids privacy stuff ... and was waiting to see if I had a violent reaction to it, one way or another).

And then I did NOT read that article, but instead got sucked into one of Heather's (many) side advertisements, specifically, this video from the Momversations.com website. The topic? Family dinners.

Now I'm thinking: (a) what do I care about family dinners? (b) what does Miss Heather (who talks politics and depression and "deep stuff") Armstrong care about family dinners and (c) gee the digital mommy advertising revolution really has sort of, well, Madison-avenued out the best and most sincere of us. Momversations? Please.

But then I actually really enjoyed it. I learned of several new mommy bloggers that I might start following - seemingly smart and funny women I wouldn't have known about except for this dumb "ad." (Giyen and Mindy - anyone read 'em?)

I also mostly appreciated seeing how a seemingly commercialized Heather ... agreeing to do this sponsored link (yes I sat through the full 30 second opening of a Target pitch) looked completely uncomfortable and nervous being shot on video. It was sort of reassuring that even as marketers tap bloggers and leverage them for their own purposes, and moms vie to make some money from it (hey more power to ya), real people are still real people ... yes you can use me for it but I can't complete change who I am. Anyway, that's my deep interpretation of a 3 minute web video.

It als reminded me how much I've missed the interweb these last 6? 7? 8? weeks of intense work and lack of life balance. I am enjoying a beautiful sunny Spring Saturday morning view out my back window, drinking my coffee, posting my random and inconsequential thoughts, and catching up on those from my friends - and complete strangers, of course! - from the last month and a half. And just thinking ahhhh ... I'm home.

Next up: a real update on my life.

100 Posts

The other day I posted my 100th post on this blog. So I feel the time is right for a look back...because I am in love with what started out as my lil baby blog.

It's taken me through finding out I was pregnant, finding out I sadly was no longer pregnant, finding out I was pregnant again, finding out I was pregnant FOR REAL, celebrating my son's 2nd birthday, celebrating my son doing so many amazing things since then, moving my house, moving my baby (remember all the breech baby posts? Rachel you were a good egg after all), having my baby (literally - don't I get a some sort of BlogHer honorable mention for the live feed from the hospital?), maternity leave (BlogHer would deduct points here, I kinda fell off the map), surviving maternity leave, mourning the end of maternity leave, returning to work, enjoying returning to work, and juggling returning to work with all the stuff above.

I neglect it, and I always want to be doing more with it. But I love this thing and love the people - I'm gonna shout out to Cara and Erin here - who inspired me to start.

I finally have a hobby besides one that originally stemmed off one of my husband's interests (aka Fantasy Football, golf, volleyball...)

I connect with so many smart and FUNNY ass women. I learn that we're all flawed and so when I lose it, guess what, MommyWantsWhiskey or whoever else I'm reading, lost it today, too.

And I guess in learning that we're all flawed, I find out really, we'll all just fine. Just all getting through this parenthood stuff in the way that seems best to us (and our spouse) at the time, at that moment.

Even if later on you realize it IS a mistake to give your kid Fruit Loops at 8pm as a bribe for getting on the couch to read books. And he's up until 10pm as a result from the sugar rush ... well, later, you can blog about it ... learn someone else did it too ... or worse! And that everything's gonna be okay once you just get the post out.

Granted I know sometimes the husbands might claim that we're all spending too much time in the cyber world. But I disagree. Women need connections. They need the network. Check out this recent study on how women handle stress differently than men. For us, it's about friendships and connections - it's about this.

Might be hooey, but sure rings true for me. So even though I don't always have time for the blogosphere, I'll keep making it. Even at 11:46 p.m.

Night, ladies.

Jury's In

Okay, survey says, we all love FaceBook like a sis.

And I'll admit, even though I'm in the "when I have time camp" that's a lie because oh, how I DO love her like a blood relation. Crackbook, indeed.

BUT ... I should have asked how we feel about the 25 Things About Me tagging thing. Because personally, I am getting all quirky stuff about me'd out ... it's spread like bubonic plague out there the last few days alone, don't you think?

Am I just being a sour puss resistor?

p.s. I quadruple check the alarm clock each night, I've had a callous on my writing finger since grade school cuz I hold the pen wrong, and I had cataract surgery two times as a kid. There's THREE MORE, SUCKERS.