MOTHER'S DAY TREATS & SAVINGS by Robin Gorman Newman

Periodically I like to share some finds I've come across, and this is my personal pick list, in plenty of time for Mother's Day. I am confident you will enjoy the following, as will others if you give them as gifts. Read on, and note the special offers....In my book, everyday should be Mother's Day, so why wait to shop?

HATLEY - Whimsical Sleepshirts and more
Hatley is a family-run company, who has been helping people get 'clothes to nature' with its cotton pajamas and loungewear for over twenty years.

Hatley’s apparel is covered in color and pun, using clever play on words and popular culture in addition to vibrant and original designs inspired by nature and wildlife.

For the bearly sleeping mum, slowpoke infant who is trailing a little behind or the energetic child looking for some puddle stomping fun, Hatley’s pajamas, loungewear and rain gear make cute and original gifts for holidays, occasions or just for fun…or maybe pun.

I am a Hatley devotee. Since discovering their whimsical one size fits all sleepshirts while on vacation a number of years ago, I can't wear anything else. They make me smile, and engage my husband or anyone else who sees them, in conversation.

Hatley sells apparel for kids and adults (including daywear, beachwear and footwear) and have a clever line of home goods, gifts and toys.

If you are an animal lover (or butterflies, roses, etc), or just want to sleep in fun comfort, check out Hatley....and have a chuckle. Buy a sleepshirt for your best girlfriend, mother, etc. It makes a statement!

Note: Save 20% on a sleep shirt for women or sleepset for a child with the code SLEEP20 if you order by 3/31. Click on the Hatley banner in this blog post to shop.

CAMILLIE BECKMAN - Delicious Hand Therapy Cremes and more
I can't say enough about this line of glycerine hand therapy cremes. Sold in specialty and gift shops, I scoop them up whenever I stumble on them. But, I recently learned that you can now shop online, and I'm thrilled.

I've been a fan for years after first sampling one in a gift shop in Vermont. Since then, I've been a loyal user and have tried a bunch of scents, and my personal pick is Oriental Spice, though they have many beauties to choose from such as Tuscan Honey, Gardenia Breeze and Secret Sea.

I travel with them (they come in varying sizes and forms), give them as gifts, and lavish them liberally on hands nightly before going to bed. It's my evening ritual. I make sure to never run out. My preference is the creme in the plastic pots (though the lotions are nice too).

They feel so smooth, rich, deliciously soothing, and smell amazing. I've tried other cremes, and in my book, Camille Beckman rocks! They also make foot, hair and lip care products, gift baskets and roll on perfumes.  Click on the banner to shop.

THE BLOOM NECKLACE - Special Piece of Jewelry
I like to think of this necklace as the Motherhood Later "Bloom" Pendant, since it immediately brought to mind, when I saw it, the name of our monthly e-zine Baby Bloomer. (If you don't already subscribe, you can sign up on MotherhoodLater.com.)

This special pendant, designed by Isabelle Grace Jewelry, is made of fine silver and 22 kit gold, and features the word "Mom" on one side and "You Make Me Bloom" on the other, along with a dangling freshwater pearl representing a seed that grows. Sold with a 16" or 18" chain, in either fine silver or gold-filled. A unique gift for yourself or a mother in your life. It's a real conversation piece, and something you can dress up or down. Email me if interested in purchasing. robin@motherhoodlater.com. I get all kinds of comments when I wear this pendant, and you will too.

Note:  Be the first to purchase a pendant in the month of March, and receive a voucher for four (4) free tix to see the popular Off-Broadway family musical FRECKLEFACE STRAWBERRY. 





TINY PRINTS - Personalized Stationery and more
We ordered our holiday cards this year from Tiny Prints, and we got so many compliments on the card (even more than past years). Since then, I've been surfing around their site, and they have the cutest stationary pickings in general.

Cards, announcements, labels, stationery, notebooks, gift tags, stickers, etc., Tiny Prints offers one stop shopping in the paper products arena. I love all the designs and styles you can choose from, and the card stock is good quality. There is something to be said for sending a pretty personalized note to a friend, so, if you're looking for a special gift, perhaps make up some note cards with a friend's name on them. You can also do it with photos. And, make cards up for your child. We use them for my son as thank you notes and birthday notes he can give to friends.

I love this site, and am pleased to no longer feel the need to surf the web to find our holiday cards. I know I'll be shopping at Tiny Prints.

Note: Save 10% On Tiny Prints Orders $49+ (Code AFF1105). Click on the banner above to shop.

Mother's Day Cards - by Cyma

I remember the first Mother's Day card I received. It was six years ago. I'd been a new mom for two months. I was more than timid about reading the card; nearly embarrassed about acknowledging my new-found status.

It was similar to an incident which occurred around the same time. While at a local Blockbuster, my baby called out to me in front of some acquaintances. Unaware that I'd become a new mom, they nearly paled when they saw that I was the recipient. I couldn't face them directly, but caught their disbelief out of the corner of my eye. I was almost embarrassed for them. I wondered whether I appeared "motherly enough;" whether they'd ever seen me in that light.

I also remember strolling my baby around town and having people express surprise seeing me as a new mom. They would smile and say I 'wore it well,' but I wasn't sure how to act or what to do. The armor I'd worn in public was stripped - the world could now see what I'd always longed for (but hidden), would witness a more transparent person, not the one who carefully presented the image she had wanted to. Suddenly, I was part of a club which I'd never ever thought I'd join, nor believed that I could ever be a member.

"Motherhood" held a different meaning to me than before I had children. I realized that while nearly everyone could be a mother, not everyone could wear motherhood well.
So, finding myself in these new 'clothes,' I kept squirming -- the arms were too long, the neck too tight; they were often too baggy or the wrong color. There was that same old familiar embarrassment, again.

Which brings me back to the Mother's Day cards. As the years passed, the cards felt more appropriate, the words more endearing. The printed words "Mother or "Mom" made me more joyful, made my heart skip a beat. So, while the experience became more customary and usual, it was the 'same old, same old,' but in a very, very good way.

This year, as I am looking forward to getting all my cards (breakfast in bed and presents?), I will gratefully open them and express my surprise/gratitude/happiness with laughter/crying/joy. And, while I surely will express myself a little more exuberantly than usual, it will only be because I am just glad to be here and celebrating a day which now feels right for me.  Mother's Day.

My Mother's Day - by Liimu

Mother’s Day used to be all about cards and flowers, my biggest complaint being that I wished I could get a day to myself for a change, away from the kids, away from responsibility. That all changed for me last year, along with my whole perspective on what Mother’s Day means to me, when a teeny bug invaded our lives and turned our whole world upside down.

I remember distinctly all the things I was consumed with last year - running the Broad Street Run (three minutes faster than this year’s time, I feel obliged to add). I was on top of the world, complaining about nothing, except how slow business had been lately. Okay, that’s a bit of an understatement. I was consumed with losing weight and gaining business, only slightly distracted by the fact that my six-year old daughter couldn’t seem to shake a mysterious fever. Pages and pages of my journals from that time period show how completely out of whack my priorities were:

May 4, 2009

Amelia still has a fever today. We’re going to the doctor in an hour. Hopefully he can figure out what the problem is. This has gone on for a long time. I feel things shifting with regard to work. Finally! Yesterday was the Broad Street Run. I rocked it! I ran it in an hour and 45 minutes. A 10:35 pace. Amazing!

May 5, 2009

I am in tune with myself today. Slowing down and creating space in my schedule. I will not freak out about all I have to be. I will do what I can. Amelia is still home sick today. If I can just get to the gym, maybe get my nails done, I’ll be happy. Will I be in the 150s this week? Will I see it? I really hope so. I need to just breathe into my life. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed and unsure.

May 7, 2009

I can do this. I can bring this company back to life. I know I can. I’m going to get back track and start writing again, start working out again, start MOVING again. We’re taking Amelia to the ER today to get some tests done. She’s on day 7 of fever. God, please let her be OK. Please let her be OK. Heal her, Lord. My little angel. Don’t let anything happen to her, please, Lord. Everything else just isn’t that important right now. All I care about is her healing.

We were told by our family doctor (during the third visit in less than a month) that if the fever didn’t break by the end of day 7, we should take her to the hospital. She woke up on day 7 with not only fever, but a rash over most of her body, swollen trunk and limbs, lethargic and extremely irritable. That is when the nightmare began.

When we got to Abington Hospital (what I now feel is one of the best hospitals in the country), the ER doctor on call said she believed what she was looking at was a case of the very rare Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever . She recommended we put Amelia on an extremely severe course of the antibiotic, Doxycycline. The potential side effect of the drug was that her teeth might be permanently tinted gray. That sounded sort of harsh to me, and I told her so. “What’s the risk if we don’t treat with the antibiotics?” “If this is Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever,” she told us gravely, “Amelia could very well die.”

The doctor then recommended Amelia be rushed directly down to CHOP. Soon after we got there, the infection spread to Amelia’s spine, rendering her paralyzed, and then to her brain, so that she no longer remembered how to sip from a straw or who her parents were. For nearly a week, we sat next to her bed and asked each other how this had happened. How had we gotten to this point? How were we now looking at our beautiful child, facing doctors who were telling us that she may never walk again, that she may suffer permanent brain damage, that she may suffer a stroke any minute that would kill her? My husband and I spent those days in tears as family members flew in from all over the country to do what they could to help, to do anything they could to get her to come out of it.

I remember so clearly one day sitting next to her bed and my husband asked, yet again, what we had done to deserve this and I had a moment of epiphany and I said, “I don’t know what brought us to this place. But I know that from this moment forward, I’m going to do everything I can with my attitude and my thinking and my prayers to bring us out it. And so from this moment on, I don’t want to hear anything about how did we get to this point. From this moment on, I don’t want to hear anything about the possibility of what horrible things that could happen to her from this point on. All I want to do is focus on our daughter getting well, and the image of her sitting up in that hospital bed, watching SpongeBob Squarepants and playing Uno cards. That’s all I want to think about, that’s all I want to hear about, that’s all I want to focus on. Period.”

Soon after, I asked me husband to go home to get some much needed rest, and to let me spend some time alone with our daughter. That night, at 10 pm, I scooched my chair up next to her bed to settle in to read her a story, as if we were home in her room filled with pink and purple flowers, instead of in a sterile hospital room. I asked my tiny daughter which story she wanted me to read: Winnie the Pooh or KnuffleBunny? To my shock and amazement, I heard a tiny voice in response say, “KnuffleBunny.” That voice was the sweetest sound I had maybe ever heard, and one I thought I might never hear again. I started to cry, and I started to text everyone: “She said ‘KnuffleBunny!’ She said ‘KnuffleBunny!’” And of course, I read her the book, and by the next day, she was sitting up in that bed playing Uno cards and watching SpongeBob. The doctors were dumbfounded at how quickly she was improving – exponentially, they said. They questioned whether the charts were accurate, because the patient they were observing was so vastly improved over the one described in her chart by the doctor who had visited her just hours earlier.

Today, my Amelia’s biggest concern is that she has not yet mastered a headstand. I spent last Mother’s Day in the hospital by her side. This Mother’s Day, I will spend with all three of my children, enjoying the Race for the Cure in the morning, playing outside in the afternoon, and then leaving them in the capable hands of my own mother as I go off to spend ten days in Italy with my husband in celebration of my upcoming 40th birthday. I am so grateful and blessed for this life that I have, and I know that my connection to my Higher Power and my ability to stay positive in the midst of the most horrific trials and tribulations, are in large part why I have the life I have today. So this Mother’s Day, I will hug my children a little bit tighter, and thank them for being here, for they are what I am celebrating on that day, not me. What I celebrate this Mother’s Day is my children – their beauty, their joy, their growth and their successes, and perhaps most of all, their ability to help me see what’s really important.

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone.