Meet THIS Mama; Tinfoiling your kids room. GENIUS!

First off, you guys don't even know what is coming to you right now. You are about to be exposed to the funniest, most gorgeous, down-to-earth, adoring mama in the blog world. And no, I am not talking about myself here. Even though.... :)

Secondly, when I pasted this HTML and then opened it up... I literally fell off my chair. Raven, again, never fails to amaze me. And at that... I'm going to stop talking.

You truly, do not, need me to convince you of her awesomeness. Believe me, she's good at doing that herself :)

Thanks again Raven, or can I just call you sister, I think we are tight like that? Haha. You have made my birthday that much better!!!


I'm off with my coffee mug full of CV in hand. {and i'll give you a hint... it's not coffee}
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Hey all you awesome from Mrs to Mama readers! This is Raven from A Momma's Desires and Pacifiers and I am SO happy and thrilled to be kicking off Becky's "meet this mama" series! Is this a genius idea or what? I mean, I love reading other mommy bloggers -- we all have so many different experiences and life stories, and we can all learn from each other's mishaps and encourage one another.

However, I am getting quite ahead of myself, because before I go on, we need to recognize a very important event today. Let us all wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the hostess with the mostess, from Mrs to Mama herself!

(you like that old school pic I snatched up? Lookin' good as a blonde Beck!)

Ok, now that we have taken care of business, let us begin the first installment of "meet this mama!"

Click image to visit Blog

Name: Raven

Age: 30 (and still not happy about it)

Number of kiddos: 2

Names (and meaning): Gunner James and Colt Daniel Le. Obviously, we like guns. GunNER? Colt 45? If we had another baby, we would have totally named him Wesson. Ok, ok, so I am totally kidding. We just thought the names sounded cool. :)

Age of kiddos: 3 yrs 4 mos and 1 yr 4 mos.

Number of desired kiddos: TWO. (Becky, I can't believe that you want four, however your child is so gorgeous that you might as well make as many as possible!)

Natural (epidural?) or C-Section: Hey, I have no problem with the word vaginal. I mean, that's what it IS, right? For me, vaginal with both. And please don't hate, but both deliveries were the easiest in the world. With baby #2, I pushed twice, and the doc said, "ok, now push one more time, just half as hard." Two and a half pushes total and baby slid out. (My husband, who was obviously present for both super easy births, said, "I don't know what all the fuss is with giving birth. The two I have seen were like a piece of cake." I told him to say that to most women and then block his face from their fists, ha!)

Oh, and epidural all the way. I got that baby as SOON as humanly possible.

Breast, Formula, or both: Ok, before I had baby #1? I was bound and determined to breastfeed. I was NOT going to allow my baby to have ANY formula, and even went as far as saying that moms who give their child formula were bad moms. (Don't freak out! Hear me out...) I tried breastfeeding for 1 month, and hated it. HATED. Not to mention that I wasn't making ANY milk, and I was pumping like a sonofagun. It was just too hard, and maybe if I kept with it longer, my milk would have started to come in more regularly and I could have kept with it, but I didn't want to. And at first? I bawled my eyes out, cause I felt like I was "failing" as a mom, and that I wasn't giving my baby the healthiest start to life. But you know what? I got over it, and today? I have NO regrets about bottle feeding both my kids. Now I know not to judge someone or something before I have been there, because I DEFINITELY don't think moms who formula feed are "bad," or any different than breastfeeding moms, for that matter. Breastfeeding may be BEST, but formula feeding is absolutely ok. Both my kids? Smart little effers who are healthy, active and thriving.

Besides, showering your child with tons of love, affection and attention is what really makes them grow.

Cloth or Regular: Regular. (My sister is pregnant with twins, and she is going the cloth diaper route. I can't wait to see how this turns out...)

SAHM or Work {doing what}: Both. Being a stay at home mom IS work, haha! But really, staying at home with my two kids is exhausting! It is draining, depleting, wears me down and most days, I really think my kids are trying to send me to an early grave. However, and this is a BIG however, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love being there every waking second for my kids. But naptime and bedtime are still my favorite time of day. ;)

Something that people don't know about you: I have seven tattoos? I quit college to go snowboarding? I moved to Las Vegas for 10 days? I used to be a stripper? <--- not really.

Question Answered:

How do I get my kiddos to sleep in?

Ok all you sleep deprived mama's out there. What I am about to tell you is going to change your life. It trumps everything you have ever read in any parenting book. I'm sure your family doctor has never suggested it. And I'm sure that once I tell you my secret, you will be all, "what the hell?"

Just trust me. Because I? Get an average of 10 hours of sleep a night. I would get more if I went to bed earlier than 11 pm. Dying to hear my secret? A secret that can and WILL work for you and your little munchkin?

Ok, here it is...

TINFOIL.

You read that right -- standard, heavy duty tinfoil.

Here is the reasoning behind it...kids wake up when sunlight streams into their room. Tinfoil makes it so their room is always pitch black, therefore, they never know if it's day or night and the blackness makes them sleep longer. If you want your child to know whether it is night or day in their room, this tactic may not be the right one for you.

But if you could give a shit if your child knows whether it is night or day in their room and YOU WANT TO GET MORE SLEEP, than this WILL work for you.

I could go on and explain more, but what else is there to say?

Tinfoil = pure darkness.

Pure darkness = tricks the mind into thinking it's still nighttime.

Still thinking it's nighttime = still sleeping.

Your child still sleeping = YOU still sleeping!

I don't know what the HELL I would do if my kids woke up before 8 am.

Really, I don't.

Quick story: So, I have had tinfoil on my kids' windows since they were born. The other day, I did a major cleaning job of my three year old's room. I took all the tinfoil off the windows so I could windex and get all the dustmites off. When bedtime rolled around, I hadn't put the tinfoil back up but I figured, "not a big deal, he is used to sleeping til 9 am every day so I'm sure he'll do the same and I'll just put it back up tomorrow."

Child woke up yelling from his room at 5:30 AM. WHAT. THE. HELL.

I tried to ignore him as long as possible, praying that he would just go back to sleep, but no. So finally, I went up to his room, and there he was, sitting up on his bed, wide awake as a rabbit and the first thing he said to me... "Mommy! The sun woke me up!"

Eff me.

Tinfoil went back up before the clock struck 6 am.

This may be laughable to you, but I promise, everyone who I have ever suggested this to has called me their savior. Because it really does work.

Only drawback: Your home may look a little whitetrash from the outside.

We live in a pretty nice neighborhood, and hubby always tells me that the neighbors are not going to be pleased that they can see tinfoil plastered to our windows.

I tell him that his wife won't be pleased if she doesn't get enough sleep, and when wifey ain't happy, well, you know the rest.

Guess who's keepin' it real for ya'll and took a picture of the outside of my house? If you guessed me, you'd all be right.

There it as, all that shiny silver in all it's glory.

(I hear angels singing)

Want a closer look at the inside?

Notice how you need to use A LOT of tape to make sure that every single square inch of sunlight is blocked out.

Aesthetics mean nothing when it comes to precious shut-eye.

So there you have it! The ultimate secret to getting your kids to sleep in.

p.s. you can buy the super sized box of tinfoil at Costco for pretty cheap.

p.p.s. If all else fails, just put outside locks on your child's doors. Which I also do 

Hey, you can never be too smart prepared. 

Show me your 9 month Prego picture (or your last prego pic before birth):

(whoa. Scandalous side boob action going on there.)

side note: I never got really big with either of my pregnancies. Both babies were straight up and down. I never really went "out" much, but jiminy christmas did both boys make it hard for me to bend over. I felt like their feet were RIGHT UNDER my boobs!

Show me the nursery:

Sadly, I don't have a nursery, nor did I ever. See, our master bedroom is on the main level, and we have two other bdrms upstairs. However, our upstairs consists of a half wall and I was always terrified that my kids would try to look over it and fall to their deaths below. SO, the boys slept in our room for a good year, and then after that, I moved them upstairs but knew it was only for them to SLEEP. They NEVER go upstairs during the daytime, ever. I have the entrance to the stairs blocked off, so since we are never up there, only for them to sleep, I just never decorated a nursery/toddler room for them. 

Isn't that sad? Poor kids.

But I did take a pic of my three year old's room. Nothing fancy, just a bed.

Show me your kiddos:

This is my most favorite picture ever of my boys...

followed closely by this one...

However, both those pictures are about 8 months old, so here are a few recent pics of the little bambinos...(come on Becky, you knew I couldn't just choose one picture to show. I'm your twin, remember? We both take craploads of pictures of our kids.)

And I figured that I should also show a pic of my husband, since without him, my two little precious angel babies would not exist...

Lastly, show me a quote (or picture) of something you believe in, or that makes you smile:

"A man in love is incomplete until he is married. Then he is finished."

author unknown.

Ok peeps! That's all I got for today. Please visit me anytime, I love to make new friends!

And for the birthday girl herself, I have one more thing for you...

Gunner wants to give you a great big birthday kiss!

Smooches!

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When we were emailing back and forth on what she would write about.... and the second she had mentioned "tin foil" to me.... I just knew this was it. I even consulted my husband. Who by the way is like, anti-blogger over here. And he too? Rolling. Giggling. Which is like a miracle in itself.


And reading the story, again, reconfirms how an absolutely amazing Mama she is. Truly. She has this down like an art.


I say, she right a book.


What do you think?


Hell, go visit RAVEN, NOW NOW NOW AND NOW!


If you don't follow her blog already, you will now. And everyday you wake up and see a post from her, will be a bright and happy day full of laughter and great life leasons.


LOVE YOU RAVEN!! XOXOXXOX