Guest Post: #Kivelli Baby #Giveaway from Cluttered Genius

My friend Lydia from Cluttered Genius is giving away some adorable Kivelli Baby jewelry. I don’t know any little girl who would turn down this adorable jewelry. Be sure to enter for the little princess in your life. It sure would look lovely on Ravebaby! Just as an aside, I met the lovely Lydia through Mamavation. Just another reason for the mamas out there to join the Sistahood :) - Wheatless Mama

Who doesn't love jewelry? I know that I love it, and Miss Sassy Pants always wants to wear my rings, bracelets, and necklaces. Imagine how excited I was when I found out about Kivelli Baby (find Kivelli Baby on Facebook too: http://facebook.com/kivelli)

Kivelli Baby makes bracelets for infants through 8 years old. Miss Sassy Pants has just turned 8, so when she received her bracelet, she was ecstatic to find that it fit so nicely.



What I love about the bracelet is that it would definitely fit an infant and could grow as the baby grows. The chain has enough links to expand as your little one grows. And, Miss Sassy Pants still has plenty of room to enjoy her bracelet for a long time.

I asked Miss Sassy Pants to model for me. Here is a picture of the bracelet she received a little bit closer:



You can win one, too!

One lucky winner will receive their choice of a Kivelli Baby bracelet. FOUR second place winners will receive $15 gift certificates to Kivelli Baby's shop.



Use the Rafflecopter below to enter for your chance to win. Kivelli Baby bracelets also make beautiful gifts!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks to my friends who are helping to promote this giveaway. Be sure to show them some love on their blogs as well!

Rachel @ To Hab and To Hold

Martha @ Wheatless Mama

Shannon @ Aries Mommy

June @ Simply Junebug

April @ Insights by April

 

#Mamavation Monday: Lent, water, bridge to 10k and the cheat

So I'm Catholic and this coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday which means Lent! 46 days of praying, fasting and alms giving or I my case: running, drinking water and cheating on both.

Okay so as part of Mamavation, I am doing the Water challenge. I get a cup of coffee in the morning and then nothing but water for the rest of the day. Now I gave up soda right before Christmas and I don't miss it at all but I love me some sweet tea and giving it up will be difficult! Also I am a member of a coffeehouse crew, basically a group that hangs at the local coffeehouse. What am I going to drink?

So here comes the cheat. Last year I took on c25k for Lent and stuck with it right to a 5k in May. So this time I am going for the Bridge to 10k. It's 6 weeks so just about the same time as lent ends. If I do all three of my runs for the week I earn one latte. This will help keep me running and give myself a reward too. This should be fun!

This post is sponsored by Touch Within Coaching and Mamavation – a community dedicated to obesity prevention and weight loss for women and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway

Mourning Normalcy for Ravebaby

Okay, so I don't always talk about my wheatfree life as much as I should but today someone on my facebook posted about the frustrations on living dairy-free and feeling alone in the frustration especially when it comes to telling their child no when they want something.  So here goes . . .

Dear Parents of a child with allergies:
I know you are wondering what you did wrong?  Did you eat the wrong thing during pregnancy?  Why would your child be punished like this?  They can't eat X and everyone else around them can.  It is so unfair.

You are right.  It is totally unfair and in most cases there is nothing you could have done differently and outside of this one huge inconvenience (reading every damn label in the world before buying/eating/using) your child is great and really you won't trade them for anything. 

So you have every parent (of a child with an allergy) in the world's permission to mourn your loss of normalcy.  Cry it out.  Scream it out.  Do it now.  Then understand you will want to do it again and again for the rest of your life.  You might want to cry when you realize your child will never have the First Communion you had always envisioned, just the blood no host 'cause of the wheat.  You will have to say no when every around is buying from the ice cream man since he doesn't have anything diary-free.  You will feel low and judged when you say no to a cookie.  People will look at you like you have killed Mickey Mouse but they don't know that that cookie will cause your child hours of agony later. 

You may mourn.  You may cry.  You will survive and after all of your work and your careful choices you will have a teenage who eats everything they are allergic to because it won't kill them just make them hurt.  Hey, they are they ones who have to make friends.  You will feel like your efforts have been useless but YOU KEPT THEM ALIVE. You kept a simple rashy allergy from turning into a deadly one so you go with your bad self!

I cry.  Sometimes I see my archnemisis give his child, Ravebaby's best friend, a cookie, right in front of Ravebaby and I want to cry and scream about how unfair it is.  It is not anyone fault.  It is not a bad thing.  I live a wheatless life and I'm good with it most days.  I hate telling Ravebaby no.  I hate seeing that look of "I want that" and her feeling defeated.  I want my child to be normal. I want to give her that damn cheap ass nasty cookie so that she won't feel different.  I want to give it to her so I won't feel different.  We're different.  That is life.  It is not fair.  I allow myself a moment to cry and mourn and then I move on. 

So please don't feel alone.  Please know we all do it.  No matter how cool we are with the X-free life we lead, we all have times we mourn the loss of that X.  Go ahead cry.  Go ahead morn.  Believe it or not, you are just being normal :)

Signed,
Wheatless Mama, mom of one, wheatless for 3 years +