And the winner is....

So this whole blog contest thing was probably not my best thought out plan. Even though North did pick the winner's name a little while ago, I now have to ask that person to send me her address so I can mail out her grab bag of happy things. It also never occurred to me that a six month old baby would not really understand the concept of picking a name out of a hat. I mean, I explained it to him in very simple terms and he looked at me the whole time as if he was listening while sucking on his fists, so I thought we were good. The first run through took a good five minutes for him to drop the pile of paper he grabbed from the hat. For such little hands, he can fit quite a few slips of paper in them! But all of that effort was for naught and the winner of the trial run through was my mom. Although she deserves a prize every single day for all that she's done for us, this blog is more of a gift to her than anything I could buy in a store. Right mom?....ahem. Mom?



So I had North pick a new winner---Melissa! Oh, I also loved your idea about writing a post about non-essential baby items and it looks like you'll need this info sooner rather than later. I hope to get that on the blog soon for you. Congratulations! (I mean this more on that beautiful belly than for this silly little contest!)

What a difference a year makes

So I've been adding to this blog for one whole year now. Go me. My goal was to have 100 posts by now, but alas, this only makes number 95. That whole raising a child thing threw a wrench in my big plans apparently.

You'd think after a year of doing this that I would have a better idea how to categorize this blog, but I don't. One day it might be all baby stories and the next it could be a recipe or some political rant that I have to get off my chest. I guess this blog is a grab bag or a box of chocolates if your mama was of the Forrest Gump school of thought. And every now and then I'll probably write something that tastes as crappy to you as whatever those disgusting pink centered chocolates taste to me. But I hope to occasionally provide you with a delicious chocolate covered peanut or two as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings over the last year. I've enjoyed reading your feedback and learning from your experiences in the comments section. My goal for 2010 (is it just me or does that sound far off into the future, like we should be flying around with jetpacks four months from now?) is to have more dialogue going on in the comments section. I just wish blogger made it a bit easier to leave feedback.

I'd like to run a little contest as a gesture of thanks. So please leave a comment on this post and I will randomly pick a winner to receive a grab bag of goodies picked out by yours truly and the almost six-month old baby North. But don't let his involvement deter you. I probably won't have him help me too much. Otherwise, the winner will get rewarded with very strange prizes like a wet washcloth, a beer bottle or some other random item that he currently covets. Maybe I'll write the names of anyone that leaves a comment on a piece of paper and put them in a hat. Whichever one North picks and attempts to eat is the winner.

Anyway, I'll pick a winner once I've made it to my goal of 100 posts. But really guys, you're all winners in my book.

Edited to add: Please be sure to leave at least your name with your comment so I can identify you. This whole running a contest thing is trickier than I thought it would be! But I'm having so much fun collecting little things that make me happy to send the winner, I might run these contests more often. Please bear with me as I figure out the best way to do this.