Mabel’s Labels is tickled pink (and blue) that Celebrity Baby Blog has named us a Star-Worthy Find.  

 Celebrity Baby Blog is the hottest site for the latest news on all things celebrity baby related so this is a very exciting way to end the year! The celeb moms CBB mentions include Tori Spelling, Jennifer Garner, Reese Witherspoon and Tina Fey but since we’re name-dropping, here’s a few more who love our labels: Gwyneth Paltrow, Marcia Gay Harden, Brooke Burke, Brooke Shields. And to quote Elisabeth Hasselback on The View:  “I could not live without these labels!”

All this celebrity love hasn’t turned Mabel’s head though and things are as busy as ever at Mabel’s HQ as we look forward to another great year of doing what we love most: serving you! We’ll be working hard for little stars everywhere, from Hollywood to our neighbourhood. Watch this space…and in the meantime, check out this one!

Celebrity Baby Blog

http://celebrity-babies.com/2009/12/24/star-worthy-find-mabels-labels/

Around our house, we have great fun celebrating Christmas. This year was also fantastic, with one exception. Nagging at me all day was how baby boy was breathing. Not good.

At 7:30pm I couldn’t take it anymore and made the trip down to the hospital. Before getting admitted, they put us in the trauma room to get him on some oxygen and begin other treatments.

I was sitting there holding a ventolin mask over his screaming face, telling myself that the situation sucked. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, and a lot sorry for my baby boy. It was no way for my little man to spend his first Christmas, thought I.

Then I had a quick reality check. The guy on the other side of the curtain, who seemed to be getting treatment for pain of sorts, started speaking:

Guy: “Nurse? I kinda feel like killing myself”

Nurse: “Hmmm, what are you thinking about doing?”

Guy: “I dunno, maybe cut my wrists, find a gun or take some pills”

Nurse: “Do you have a gun?”

Guy: “No”

Nurse: “OK, we can have a chat with the Doctor about all this”

I looked down at my wheezing boy and thought about the guy on the other side of the curtain. What was his first Christmas like? How would his mother feel if, on his first Christmas, she knew that in about 40 more years he’d feel like killing himself on Christmas Day?

I gave my baby boy an extra squeezy hug and decided my Christmas didn’t suck after all.

Seven years ago my first born was celebrating his 2nd Christmas. As a new mom I had no clue. The presents that we had accumulated for him probably could have easily covered five 2 year olds. It was ridiculous. One thing I noticed in the excitement of the morning was that he was opening and throwing presents aside. My excitement was quickly deflated when I realized the unthankfulness in it all. Mind you a two year old doesn’t really totally understand being thankful but he didn’t really get excited about the toys, it was unwrapping them. I could have saved myself hundreds if I would have wrapped empty boxes and I would have gotten the same effect.

Fast forward 7 years and two more kids later, we follow a budget, we don’t over-buy. We don’t overwhelm. An astonishing thing occurs when we now open presents. The kids remember who bought what and are more appreciative of what they get. Most of all they love being in the company of family. It’s taken me a few years to learn about simplifying the holidays but I’ve finally caught on.

This year remember to teach your kids to say thank you. Make a list of who bought what while your kids open their presents and remind them later who the gift was from. Don’t let them get caught up in the getting but the giving. Tell them to give thanks to the people that are there and people afar. In this digital age there is nothing better than getting a thank you card in the mail from a loved one. This is a custom we should not let fall by the wayside.

So this baby of mine has been a chronic bronchiolitis guy. I’ve never had a bad breather so it’s all new and exciting. In fact, I’m just home from a few days in the hospital with him. Throw some pneumonia into the bronchiolitis mix and you’ve got yourself a weekend pass to paediatric paradise. Baby and I have had the pleasure of spending quality time together wrestling ventolin masks and guzzling pediapred.

Being such a chesty baby, both his sleep and mine have been pretty dodgy over the last few months. Baby’s breathing antics paired with the shenanigans of some of his finer siblings has seen my usual 5-6 hours of sleep a night dwindle to the 3-4 hour mark. It’s not much, but we all know that mama steps up to the plate when she has to, and we can’t underestimate the power of a bit of adrenaline.

Last Saturday night Daddy-o announced that I was to go to bed, shut the door and have a night of uninterrupted sleep. He was volunteering for night duty – sleeping elsewhere and ready to respond to each and every night-time disturbance.

Imagine my shock (OK, pretend shock) when at 4:00am Daddy-o comes bursting through the bedroom door. He was all disheveled with red eyes and crazy hair. He looked as though he’d been sleeping in the wilderness for days. Out of his mouth came the words we mamas have often felt but rarely said: “I can’t do it anymore! Help me!”

Uh dude, you know I do this every day, right?

Since I had already had more sleep than I’m used to and was feeling as fresh as a spring morning, I let him off the hook. He settled into bed feeling all defeated and in awe of me.

I’ve got some mama friends who are exceptional at making milk. I’ve got other mama friends who are incredibly skilled at tricking their kids into eating veggies. It would seem my specialty is getting by on very little sleep. It is a talent that serves me better than any musical or artistic genius would. So what are you good at? Can you predict and intercept a toddler fall before it happens? Perhaps you breastfeed, dress a toddler and get ready for work all at the same time? Do you have some ridiculous mama talent that in any other circles would not exactly count as “talent”?

Picture of SIL and business partner, Julie Ellis, teaching me the ropes. She has survived parenting two chesty babies.