As I type that title, I realize it has so many more meanings to me than I originally intended. You see I have a 13-going-to-be-14-year-old daughter and a 19-month-old son. I am remarried of course, and when we thought about starting a new family together I never thought I could do it all over again. I never thought I could do diapers and midnight bottles all over again. Then I had my beautiful baby boy, and I can’t believe I did the first time so young. I am so much more patient, wise and simply happier now than I ever was with my daughter.
But what I was originally thinking when I started writing this blog was the fact that after several months with my husband out of work, he has just found a job and we now have our son in daycare. OH BOY starting my days and routine all over again.
How can a day get any longer? I get up a 5 a.m. to go to work, while my husband gets up to take the baby to daycare. I go to work early, so I can be the one to pick him up. Once I pick him up, he of course is STARVING, so I race home to feed him dinner and cook dinner for the family. Read the rest of this entry »
July 8th, 2010 by Jennifer, Compliance Paralegal, Sunnyvale office
Categories:
Childcare
Family time
Parenthood
Place: Sunnyvale
There are days I’m especially proud to be a mom. Or a Yahoo. Or even a blogger. Last Thursday and Friday—at the Yahoo! Mother Board Summit—I got to celebrate being all three. (All in 140 characters or less!)
Over 60 women from around the U.S. and Canada, who had formed virtual friendships online as part of the Yahoo! Mother Board, finally came together and met face to face at our welcome reception. Eyes lit up with recognition and shoulders relaxed as the moms stopped worrying about the kids they’d kissed goodbye and started diving into conversation (and mojitos, of course). Listening to these inspirational women chatting at the party, there was no doubt this was going to be one great exchange of ideas.
And it was.
On Friday morning the group arrived at Yahoo! headquarters. Read the rest of this entry »
July 20th, 2010 by Amy, Influencer Marketing, Sunnyvale office 7 Yodels
Jul20
Categories:
Events n' conferences
Place: Sunnyvale
About three years ago, Yahoo! formed some very special relationships with 17 moms. Bloggers, to be exact. Wonderful, insightful, smart bloggers.
Fast forward to today and the Yahoo! Mother Board is 80 women strong. What’s even better, 62 of them are about to meet face-to-face at Yahoo! headquarters for the first time. Of course many of us “know” each other. What was once a product testing group is now a true community. We email through our Yahoo! Group, read each others’ blogs on our monthly topics, tweet like mad (seriously, some of these women must dream in 140 characters) and every now and then meet at industry events. But this is different. This isn’t just another industry event. This is a Yahoo! Mother Board event. Summit, actually.
Though I’ve worked at Yahoo! for 7+ years, I’ve only had the honor of working with these women for a few months. I think I started in my new role the day the Yahoo! Mother Board Summit became official. Talk about diving into the deep end! Read the rest of this entry »
July 14th, 2010 by Amy, Influencer Marketing, Sunnyvale office 6 Yodels
Jul14
Categories:
Events n' conferences
Continuing my infertility train with you all again. You see I haven’t blogged for awhile trying to figure out the right balance between working and my colleagues knowing too much about my personal life. What do I mean? My husband and I have been trying to conceive again and I haven’t been too sure I want work to know this part of my life. However, I’m sure it will help someone else out there trying to work, be brave and conceive.
Since I had my son 19 months ago, we’ve been trying to conceive. I’ve been pregnant twice so far. Yes, little pink line and joy, right? However, the joy still hasn’t come. The first pregnancy was way too soon. My son was only 4-months old, and I was pregnant. Not what we were exactly planning, but hey, we would learn to roll with it. Then the many upon several ultrasounds later told us we had a Blighted Ovum. What is that you say…exactly what we said. It’s a false pregnancy. Womb keeps growing as though you’re pregnant, but no baby. Picking ourselves back up again after learning we were not really pregnant—but feeling as though we were for 12 weeks—was tough. BUT we knew we might have some issues, so we moved forward. About a month ago it finally happened again. This time no yays or jumping for joy for fear of the inevitable. Sure enough I took the blood tests for the HCG levels and found out I was already miscarrying.
SO now the big decision has been decided. We’re going to try only one more time, and this time with fertility help. Read the rest of this entry »
July 8th, 2010 by Jennifer, Compliance Paralegal, Sunnyvale office One Yodel
Jul8
Categories:
Infertility
In honor of National Internet Safety Month in June, Yahoo! released some interesting data from a survey of 2000 U.S. Internet users done to gain insight into consumers’ behaviors and perceptions around online safety. The good news, parents are doing pretty well—Yahoo! gave them a B+. The better news, our Yahoo! Mother Board got the opportunity to speak with Catherine Teitelbaum, Director of Child Safety at Yahoo!, and now we’re all a bit smarter and sharing the insights we learned about keeping families like ours safer online.
Here’s the summary in numbers:
• 70% of parents talk to their children about online safety at least 2-3 times a year; 45% talk to their children least once a month.
• 74% of parents are connected to their children’s profiles on social networking sites.
• 71% of parents have taken at least one action to manage their children’s use of the Internet or cell phones. Parents are checking to see where children are searching online, setting time limits, setting parental controls on video sites, and using filters to limit where their children go on the Web.
And huge kudos to dads:
• 71% of dads (compared to 63% of moms) say they are taking at least one action to help manage their children’s online behavior, including having conversations about respecting the privacy of others and checking their children’s privacy settings. Read the rest of this entry »
July 7th, 2010 by Amy, Influencer Marketing, Sunnyvale office 2 Yodels
Jul7
Categories:
Family time
I think it’s really important for moms of girls to show them how powerful their moms are. I try my best to do this in a variety of ways: working outside the home, volunteering for the kids’ sporting activities (i.e. team mom) and giving back to our community. But I also think it’s important to show them that we moms are physically powerful too. I work hard to stay fit and am always out doing active things like boating, hiking, backpacking, etc. (Carrying all the things you need to survive in the woods on your own back gives you a truly amazing sense of power.)
But my latest physical endeavor had a different spin. It showed physical strength, commitment and just plain silliness. I recently joined forces with my daughter’s soccer coach to compete in a Muddy Buddy race. Read the rest of this entry »
July 6th, 2010 by Chris, Legal Department, Sunnyvale office One Yodel
Jul6
Categories:
Uncategorized
It turns out you don’t have to drive a minivan across town at 7a.m. on a Saturday morning to be a soccer mom. You can simply have an 18-month old who chases his big brother around the front lawn while dribbling a shiny ball, and counted “soccer” and “goal!” as two of his first words. Or a 4-year old who insists on wearing shin guards, soccer shorts and the Sweden jersey his grandparents bought him as a souvenir to every single “game” where he doesn’t even make contact with the ball. But that smile and enthusiasm he has out there on the field, those are what make him a dedicated soccer kid. And me a proud soccer mom.
I never played soccer as a kid—and honestly, never really cared for the sport until my kids fell in love with it. Now I play it every day (yes, we even play in the garage when it’s raining), and I love the passion my boys show out “on the field”. We laugh, we get great exercise and I can see that we’re all showing signs of improvement.
And today, as the World Cup begins, I find myself surprisingly excited to share in this experience with my kids. Read the rest of this entry »
June 11th, 2010 by Amy, Influencer Marketing, Sunnyvale office One Yodel
Jun11
Categories:
Events n' conferences
Family time
Parenthood
Today is our 7-year wedding anniversary. And it’s funny, until we went away over the weekend, I hadn’t thought of it as a milestone year. But as we told people we ran into along our adventures what we were celebrating, the seven-year itch jokes began. I couldn’t help but wonder, should I be itching? (Besides the patches of sunburn that grace my typically bathing-suit-phobic skin, that is.)
While our marriage certainly isn’t perfect, I know that “perfect” wasn’t in our vows. I’m afraid I can’t tell you what was exactly—our 5-pound wedding notebook made its way into the attic when Dr. Seuss and Sandra Boyton took over the few bookshelves our teeny house holds. But I know the traditional better and worse, sickness and health, along with some not-as-traditional phrases made the cut. And, as fate would have it, there have been years where the scales have tipped toward the undesirable half of each phrase. But we haven’t just “survived” as people have joked. We’ve built a life—and started two new ones—together. Read the rest of this entry »
June 7th, 2010 by Amy, Influencer Marketing, Sunnyvale office 6 Yodels
Jun7
Categories:
Family time
Parenthood
Volunteerism. The word inspires some people to take action and makes others run and hide. These days, it seems, it’s doing more of the former. One year after President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, Yahoo! uncovered some pretty amazing stats about the increase in online searches for volunteering. In fact, from May 2008 to April 2009, searches for “volunteer work” had a 653% spike on Yahoo! Search. Perhaps it’s an online Obama effect, unemployment freeing up people’s time or even the Web and social media making volunteer opportunities more accessible. Whatever the case, it’s good news.
We asked the Yahoo! Mother Board to share their experiences with volunteerism and got a lot of great perspectives. It’s All About Balance shared her heartwarming story of how people stepped up to help her when she reached rock bottom. And now she’s paying it forward and teaching her children wonderful life lessons. Hormone Colored Days’ husband made the most of a tough situation as well by volunteering while he was out of work.
Some moms jump at the chance to be involved in every opportunity that comes to them. Bonngamom is one of the many Yahoo! Mother Board members who loves to volunteer at her kids’ school to connect with her children—and get a peek into their world beyond home. I love the approach Coast 2 Coast Mom has taken with her family who has moved frequently. They explore and connect with their community by participating in various charity walks and races in the greater NYC area.
As for me, I couldn’t help but relate to JavaMom who said that she falls into both categories: super-volunteers and slacker moms. Just like her, if you ask people in my various worlds, I’m one extreme or the other. While I would love to be an active part of my neighborhood (which has a bizarre, but wonderful number of ways to be involved), my son’s preschool, local charities and friends’ various walks, races, etc., I can only do so much well.
I’m trying to learn to say yes and no—at the right times. I was inspired by Chefdruck Musings who said, “Now when I say yes, I never do it in the heat of the moment, regardless of the pleading eyes directed at me. I take the time to consider the good my contribution will do and how much time it will take away from my family.” The bottom line for me is that I want to enjoy the volunteering I do, dive in and do a great job and inspire my kids to be do-gooders in the process.
Happy volunteering…however you choose to do it!
*For more posts on Volunteerism read the blogs of the Yahoo! Mother Board!*
June 3rd, 2010 by Amy, Influencer Marketing, Sunnyvale office No Yodels yet
Jun3
Categories:
Family time
Giving back
Parenthood
Tips and tricks
Those of you who know my husband know he’s a pretty amazing gift giver. He’s extremely thoughtful, generous and creative. This Mother’s Day was no exception. He and the boys surprised me by sending me away to the local Westin for a night to enjoy some “me” time. They decorated the room with flowers, musical cards (this was the first year Munch could actually write his name!), candy, wine and magazines.
At 4 years old, my husband trusted Munch with the secret. He knew for a week and worked so hard not to tell. One time he even sang quietly, as if to convince himself, “I have a secret and I’m not going to tell.” And he almost made it. Almost. But when they came back from their last pre-celebration errand, he shouted, “Mom, we saw a limo at your hotel!”
It was ok though. I had my suspicions. This glorious tradition started last year when I was at the end of my rope after just returning to work from maternity leave and having a sick baby who hadn’t slept more that a 2-hour stretch in a couple months. (And, hey, if that’s what it took to be a spoiled for a day, so be it.) Read the rest of this entry »
May 26th, 2010 by Amy, Influencer Marketing, Sunnyvale office One Yodel
May26
Categories:
Family time
Me-time
Parenthood
Place: Sunnyvale
Uncategorized
rss
twitter
