days of nuwanda

Happy 5th birthday, blog!

Unbelievable! I've been out here blogging for 5 years already. I love to look back and view my own world, and see it change as our family grew and changed. I had no idea when I began blogging that so many of you would join my journey, or that this blogging journey would continue for as long as it has. Check out my very first post. No Pulitzer Prize in my future, just a girl's thoughts on life.

It's been suggested to me in the past--in my times of being over-the-top busy [which is a way of life now. AHEM!]--that I should discontinue blogging b/c it's a time-stealer. Well, that may work for someone else, but blogging for me, no matter who reads, is two things: 1) a way to capture the hilarious voice of our household that I want to record and 2) my voice in the big ol' world. Writing is therapeutic for me, so blogging is like a really cheap shrink. So if you're reading this, does that make you an eavesdropper? :)

Thank you to my children for giving me so much material to write about, and thank you to my husband who constantly encourages my blogging. And thank you to my readers who, well, read my insanity. I assume you either have no life of your own and are living vicariously thru Nuwanda-land, OR you just need to be reassured that there are people out there who are WAY more disturbed than you are. Either way, thanks for coming along on this ride!

Happy 4th Anniversary, blog!

I can hardly believe it--I've been blogging here for four years! If you're still reading, well, it must be my cute kids that bring you back. :) Hubby recently was downloading my blog into a text file, b/c if I ever lost this, I would be devastated! This is really an online baby journal/scrapbook of milestones, kid quotes, and happenings.

Thanks for joining me on this journey, my faithful readers. I have friends who say they are too busy to blog, and I would say, it's not that I'm NOT busy and have all sorts of extra time on my hands to journal my life online. I don't sit around blogging and eating bon-bons. But for me, blogging somehow is my release, my haven of sanity, my space away from the craziness of life. Cheap therapy, let's say. :)

Here's to another year of--hopefully--entertaining you, or at least making you feel normal (compared to us).

Happy 3rd birthday, blog!

Can you believe I've been boring people stiff entertaining you all for 3 years w/ this blog? In the beginning my blog was just an experimental way for me to express myself, but it has evolved into a cherished book of memoirs of my kids. A virtual baby book--with a few opinions and psychotic stories thrown in occasionally. It's fun to blog and even more fun to read other blogs and get a glimpse inside the hearts and minds of other moms, friends, and people you find randomly, and learn more about this world we live in. Thanks to my readers who have joined me on my journey! I'm certain it's b/c of my cute kids and not b/c I'm so witty and informative and wonderful, but whatever! :)

Blog stats

If you have a blog, you know that you get stats that show how many readers you have and sometimes where your readers came from to get to your site, especially google searches. I am always intrigued by these searches that brought people to my site, sometimes scared. Here are some recent searches people did that landed them here in Nuwanda-land:

• sparkly specks
• rouge sprites w/o clothes (I was #1. HUH????? I am not that kind of site...)
• dark chocolate and sleep (2 of my fave things. I am so proud!)
• what is the recent flu bug for sept 2007? (unfortunately a topic here lately)
• I am very nearsighted
• painted toenails
• son's toenails (Do I really blog about toenails enough to warrant being in the top 10 twice? Note to self: no more toenail discussions!)
• Does saying I enjoy being away from my kids at work make me a bad mom? (Answer: NO.)
• girly socks
• silly sock day

Do you notice a pattern? Feet, socks, and toenails? Sheesh. I do love socks, but come on, I do not talk about feet that much to warrant all of these hits. And now that I've mentioned toenails, feet, and socks over and over in this post, I'll be moving up the list some more. AHHH!

A blog book? Be still my heart!

I just read today about this company Blurb offering a turn-you-blog-into-a-book service. WOOHOO! This would be an awesome way to create books for Boo and Grace, since my blog has really become their baby books. This whole idea supports my theory that paper will never go out of style, no matter how "digital" our world becomes. We still want keepsakes that we can hold in our hands, not just view on a screen. Somebody had a great idea, and I'm jealous it wasn't me first!

2nd blog anniversary

Well, this month is my 2nd blog anniverary. Hard to believe I've been boring entertaining you all for 2 whole years. I know, I know, the truth is you don't read to find out about ME; it's all about the cute little munchkins and the pictures and videos and Boo quotes. I'm not oblivious to the motivation of my fan base. :) But occasionally I hope that I do entertain you or even stimulate your thoughts w/ a few of my own (of which I have very few today....it's a dull, dreary Tuesday, and only my coffee is keeping me going).

The great thing about a blog is that not only do you let your circle of friends and family keep up on everything, but you have a record of your children growing up. This is the new 21st century baby book. First tooth, first word, first steps...all of it forever on the big ol' world wide web. Like my very first post about Boo's love of rubberbands, this post about Boo's first sentence (I can still hear him!), this post introducing Grace for the first time, and the day Grace first laughed. When I started blogging, Jacob had just turned 2, and I am so glad to have these past 2 years of his life (and now sister's too) documented. (Wish I had started sooner!) It will make for good embarrasing material when he has a girlfriend someday....in 30 or 40 years! :)

Here's to another year of blogging fun!

P.S. Send me a comment if you haven't lately. I love to know who's reading....

*Note to the peanut gallery: No more comments about sweatbands or favoritism, ok?????!!!!

Sometimes the stats are disburbing

If you blog, you know how interesting it is to review your stats and see how people got to your blog. This week I've had visitors who typed the following into search engines and somehow landed in "days of nuwanda" land:

• "Show pictures of Mexican chic pooping in the toilet" (ok this is just gross. I am convinced  they were disappointed when they got to my site and did NOT find what they were looking for!)
• "froofy dress" (I'm proud to be #1 on this search in google!)
• "male genes" (hmmmmm?)
• "mylicon"
• "you've had a bad day"

Any other bloggers care to share their strange stats? Leave a comment.

Can I get that in 20's, please?

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

Blog stats

Do you ever check your blog statistics to see who's been visiting and how they got there? I'm always curious about the searches people perform that lead them to MY site, usually toddler stories and baby stuff. But here are some others from recent days, some too strange to comment on, one just too wrong to understand:

• Aerosoles + black stain
• Anesthesiologist Assistant
• dealer for frozen funnel cakes
• best baby nickname
• niece scrapbook pages
• chained up + diapers + slave

I'm pretty sure my site was a disappointment for that last searcher. I don't want to contemplate what he was hoping to find.

It's quiet day

...b/c Boo is at daycare today. I'm kinda liking Wednesdays, b/c I get so much done. Today won't include any housework or shopping b/c I have these millions of reports for work that must be finished by Friday. My back is killing me from leaning over my desk, so I decided to stop and read some blogs. I just love reading blogs. I talk about some of my online friends, mentioning to hubby what this or that person wrote or commented, and he says, "Friends? You don't even know them?" which is a completely odd thing for a techy-geek like him to say. He of all people should know that virtual friends are real too. :) It is encouraging for me to read what other moms are going thru, how they are feeling, and to be reminded that I'm not the only one who is feeling any number of ways on any particular day.