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These past couple of weeks have definitely been busy for us here in the Mommy Daddy Household, which is why I’m 9 days late with this and also why there’s been very few posts as of recent. But ever since Jayden has been born, I just can’t pull myself away from him! Even when he’s sleeping, I can’t help but to lie there with him and watch him sleep. He’s my everything. If any of you recall, yesterday (May 8th) was his expected due date. But he ended up arriving 12 days early, and he’ll officially be two weeks old tomorrow. I’ve been told numerous times to enjoy every single second with him, because he’ll grow up fast, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

So I just thought I’d drop in to give a little update on how things are going, and also put out our April 2008 round-up. We’ve been taking a lot of pictures and getting a lot of videos, and we’ll be definitely posting them all in the coming weeks. Mommy Daddy Blog is going to turn into a “Jayden bonanza”, and we hope you all will stick around for it!

So, what went on last month?

Last month was definitely full of anticipation, topped off by the arrival of our son, Jayden! And there were also a few giveaways here and there! So, let’s recap! Here are our 10 most popular posts of April 2008:

• Meet Jayden Elijah! - The post celebrating the birth of our baby boy, Jayden Elijah! There is no way I can even measure this post is terms of popularity. This is our “golden post”.
• This Is It! It’s Time! - This is my post written the day Mommy went into labor. This is the last post I wrote before Jayden was born, and the first post I wrote after Jayden was born. I will cherish this post forever.
• Never Lose A Password Due To Mommy Brain Again! - Last month, we gave away an Internet Password Organizer and it generated such a great response (almost 100 entries!) thanks to the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival and Prizey!
• Unique Kid’s Headwear Just In Time For Spring! - Another giveaway amongst many that we held in April. This one was for a Crocheted Sunflower Infant Hat!
• Mommy Lost Her Mucous Plug!!! - Excitement ensued when Mommy lost her mucous plug, because we knew it meant that Jayden could possibly arrive very soon! And he did, just six days later!
• Wordless Wednesday: Preggo Meets Prego - For the first time ever in the history of the universe, an encounter has been made between Preggo and Prego! See the actual photo evidence in this post!
• “I Love You Jayden!” “Goo Goo!” - When Mommy was pregnant with Jayden, I enjoyed having conversations with him every day! Now that he’s here, he can finally see who it was that was talking him to sleep every night! Hey, I’m not that boring!
• Happy 1st Birthday MommyDaddyBlog.com! - We celebrated the one year anniversary of MommyDaddyBlog.com, the domain, last month, although Mommy Daddy Blog, the blog, has only been around since December 2007. Confused? Check out the post for clarification!
• 37th Week Update: I’m 1 CM Dilated! - Another exciting post from Mommy that highlighted the signs that the time to meet our son is almost here! In this post, we first learn that Mommy is 1 centimeter dilated!
• Never Underestimate the Power of Craigslist! - Last month, I came across a dresser for Jayden on Craigslist that I just could not pass up! And we ended up getting a great deal on it too!

If you would like to view every post from the month of April 2008, you can do so by visiting our Archives page!

Thank you for spreading the word!

Last month, we saw five new referrers make it into our top 10! We continue to appreciate the love you all show us! Thanks again for spreading the word about Mommy Daddy Blog! Here are our top 10 referrers for April 2008:

• Google - The Big G brings it home once again!
• StumbleUpon - If you haven’t been on StumbleUpon, you’re definitely missing out! Go ahead and stumble over there right now! (sorry for the horrible pun, but I had to do it)
• Sophistishe - Mommy’s personal blog just continues to amaze me every month! (sarcasm)
• Entrecard - Thanks to all the Entrecard’ers who “dropped” by (ha, I’m so good with puns!) last month! And if you have yet to hear of Entrecard, click on the box with the golden “E” on our sidebar to see what you’ve been missing out on!
• Twitter - Last month, I decided to try out the internet phenomenon that is Twitter! I haven’t been tweeting as much as I’d like, but I definitely plan to. Also, thanks to everyone who have been following us on Twitter!
• Prizey - Prizey is the go-to blog if you’re running a giveaway and you want to give it maximum exposure. Prizey helped bring our Internet Password Organizer Giveaway almost 100 entries! I like Prizey! I just can’t get enough of saying that!
• Tanyetta - Watching Tanyetta’s son DJ grow on her blog made me anticipate Jayden’s arrival even more! She does so much with DJ, it’s amazing! She’s definitely a “Super Mommy”!
• Don’t Try This At Home - “Chilihead” is the woman behind BloggyGiveaways.com, where we participated in the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival she threw last month. She throws a giveaway just about every day over at BG, so if you love giveaways, BloggyGiveaways.com is the place to be!
• A Wrestling Addicted Mommy’s Blog - A mommy, who loves wrestling? I didn’t know they make those! AWAMB is definitely the place to go for Gina’s experiences as a mommy and the latest news on WWE, all in one place!
• Babee Makes Five - Following Maryam and Damon through their pregnancy feels like deja vu! It reminds me so much of our fun-filled pregnancy with Jayden!

Thank you for your support!

Last month, we saw tons of comments from new people, and tons from people who have been with us from the beginning. We appreciate each and every one of them, especially those congratulating us when Jayden came into the world. Thank you! We love you guys! Here are our top 10 commenters of April 2008:

• Keisha
• 1StopMom
• Gina
• Jessica
• Tanyetta
• Laura
• Ana
• JMom
• Kim
• Dara

And that wraps up the month of April! Next week, we’re going upstate to visit our folks, so the seldom amount of posts may continue for another week. But after that, we hope to get back into the groove of things. We’ve taken many more pictures and I’ve shot some videos of Jayden, so we’re hoping to get them up in the next few days. So look forward to that! We’re also currently running our “Celebration of Mommyhood” Mother’s Day Giveaway, which will be ending in two days on Mother’s Day, so go on over and check that out! We look forward to another awesome month, and again we hope you’ll stick around to enjoy it with us!

Put on your birthday hats and start cutting the cake, because MommyDaddyBlog.com is officially 1 year old today! Yup, that’s right, exactly 1 year, 12 months, 52 weeks, 366 (leap year) days, 8,789 hours, 527,388 minutes, and 31,643,326 seconds ago, Mommy and I gave birth to MommyDaddyBlog.com!

*scratching record sound*

But wait, if MommyDaddyBlog.com is one year old, why is it that the archives only date back to December 2007, with the very first post dated December 19th 2007?

Well, that answer is very simple. You see, MommyDaddyBlog.com, the domain, not the blog, is one year old today. Confused? Well then take a seat junior, let me tell you a little story…

One day, a year ago to be exact, Mommy and I were sitting in our office having a conversation amongst each other. I can’t remember what the conversation was about, but somehow we got on the topic of having children. We came up with the idea of starting a blog when we got pregnant with our first child so that we could journal our adventure as first time parents, and both of us would author it together. The idea of her having a separate “mommy blog” and me having a separate “daddy blog” was nice and all, but we thought it would be even better if we shared our experiences together on one blog. Instantly after coming up with idea, Mommy said…

“…and we could call it, Mommy Daddy Blog!”

So simple, yet so perfect! A mommy. A daddy. A blog. Mommy Daddy Blog! Excited about the whole idea, we immediately checked to see if MommyDaddyBlog.com was taken already. It wasn’t, so we immediately registered the domain on the spot. We thought we were weird for registering a domain that we would continually have to pay for year after year when we didn’t even know when we were going to have our first child. We just thought that at least we’d have the domain secured for when we do. But little did we know, that just 3 and a half short months later, our very first child, our baby boy, our pride and joy, would be conceived. Talk about irony, huh?

(For those of you who haven’t been with us since the beginning, and are wondering about the time gap from August 2007, when Jayden was conceived, to December 2007, when this blog was created, read our conception story.)

So here we are today, fulfilling what we said we would do; running a blog chronicling our joys and happiness as first time parents. Mommy and I really enjoy sharing our experiences and adventures as new parents here on Mommy Daddy Blog, and we hope you all enjoy it just as much! We hope you’ll stick around for Mommy Daddy Blog’s official 1st birthday on December 19th 2008. Until then, we’d just like to wish MommyDaddyBlog.com, the domain, a Happy 1st Birthday!

Coincidentally, we were just tagged in the Name That Blog meme by JMom. Well, JMom, I hope this answers your question!

There were a total of 58 entries in the 1,500 Entrecard Credit Giveaway, and now it all boils down to this very moment; who wins? May I have a drum roll please?

And the 3 lucky numbers are…

#44: Sherry, who entered by commenting on the giveaway post! Prize - 1,000 Entrecard credits!

#51: Gina, who entered by adding us to her favorites on Entrecard! Prize - 350 Entrecard credits!

#2: Tara, who entered by commenting on the giveaway post! Prize - 150 Entrecard credits!

Congratulations to our 3 winners!!! I will be crediting each of your winning credit amounts to your Entrecard accounts shortly! Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter, and see you all on Entrecard!

By the way, we are currently running another giveaway for a crocheted sunflower infant hat! Hurry over and enter, as it ends at 5:00PM CST today! We also have many more giveaways planned for the near future! So, if you don’t want to miss out, be sure to subscribe to our feed so that you can be the very first to know whenever we throw another giveaway!

What an exciting month this has been as the anticipation of Jayden’s arrival ensues! This month, we saw the ending of one giveaway and the beginning of another, we’ve been through four more weeks of pregnancy, we threw a blog party, we had our baby shower, and we saw everything from farting babies to poop time humor! If you missed out, don’t worry! It’s exactly what this monthly review is for!

So, what the heck went on this month?

Giveaways and parties and baby showers, OH MY! This month was definitely a fun a productive one! So, let’s recap! Here are our 10 most popular posts of March 2008:

• Welcome 5MinutesForMom Partiers! - Susan and Janice of 5 Minutes For Mom threw a HUGE party, and we just couldn’t resist joining in and getting doooown with our bad selves!
• 1,500 Entrecard Giveaway! - Still currently running! I’m throwing a giveaway for a total of 1,500 Entrecard credits, and there will be 3 winners! So, be sure to enter for your share of Entrecard credits today!
• So, What The Heck Is “Hounie”? - You’ve seen it used by Mommy. You’ve seen it used by myself. We even named our store after it. But, wait a minute, what the heck is “Hounie”? Everything you need to know about “Hounie” is explained in this post!
• 31st Week Update… Daddy Style! - You’ve seen Mommy pump out pregnancy updates week after week since our 22nd week. But find out what happens when I take the mic this time!
• 33rd Week Update - Halp! Mommy’s birthmark has gone GLOBAL! (And by the way, I know I misspelled “help”. If you’re not familiar with “lolcats”, Google “halp”.)
• Our Baby Shower Blast! - Friends, family, games, prizes, gifts, and fooooood! I don’t think our baby shower could’ve been any better!
• 34th Week Update - Mommy’s boycott of iron pills and the annoyance of her midwife’s repetitive questions make up her most recent pregnancy update.
• Feeling The Love Across The Blogosphere! - Quite a few people showed us love this month, and there was no way I was going to let myself get away without showing them love back!
• 32nd Week Update - Braxton Hicks contractions and the need for a nesting pillow; more signs that signify, “Hey, we’re pregnant!”
• Daddy Meets Babytalk Magazine - Find out what happens when I have to take a poop, and a Babytalk magazine is my only form of entertainment! Surprising results!

(If you would like to view every post from the month of March 2008, you can do so by visiting our Archives page!)

Thank you for spreading the word!

This month, we’ve had quite a few people link to Mommy Daddy Blog, and we continue to appreciate the love! It is because of you all spreading the word about us that enables us to grow! So now we would like to reciprocate the love! I present to you, our top 10 referrers for March 2008:

• Google - Yes, you deserve some love too, big guy!
• StumbleUpon - Thanks to each and every stumbler who stumbled Mommy Daddy Blog!
• Entrecard - Just in case you didn’t hear me the first time, we’re currently running a giveaway for 1,500 Entrecard credits! So enter enter enter!
• Sophistishe - Now who would’ve guessed that Mommy’s personal blog would be one of our top referrers?
• Wife Advice - Who knew that our love of a donkey and his ball and chain wife would send us traffic? Hee haw!
• 5 Minutes For Mom - Thanks Susan and Janice for throwing the Ultimate Blog Party 2008! We definitely had a lot of fun here at Mommy Daddy Blog!
• Dad Thing - Dad bloggers sending fellow dad bloggers traffic; now that’s cool!
• Babee Makes Five - Thanks for the love Maryam and Damon, and congratulations on the addition of your third!
• Tanyetta - Tanyetta loves us and we love Tanyetta! A lot! Plus two! Times infinity!
• MyBlogLog - Just couldn’t resist clicking on that pregnant couple every time it appeared in your MyBlogLog widget, huh?

Thank you for your participation!

The opinions, concerns, and advice of YOU, the commenters, are priceless to us! We appreciate each and every single comment that we receive; especially by those who continue to come back and contribute! We love you guys! Here are our top 10 23 commenters of March 2008:

• Keisha
• 1StopMom
• Sheliza
• Tanyetta
• Whitney
• Val
• Kim
• Elliott Kim
• Dara
• Get ready, because it was HUGE tie for 10th place!: Modern Mami, Pamela Kramer, Natalie, Holly, Tawny, Liz, Aubree, Angela, JMom, Tamara Wilson, Miranda, Jessica, Ana, and Lisa C! Whew!

This month was definitely an awesome one, and we look forward to April being even better; as April will be the last full month before Jayden’s arrival! Thanks to everyone who has helped to make Mommy Daddy Blog what it is now. It is because of all of you guys’ love and support that we continue on!

If you haven’t heard of Entrecard, then you’re definitely missing out on all the fun! Entrecard is a networking tool that, if used on a regular, can bring lots of traffic and tons of new readers to your blog. Entrecard has continued to be one of our top sources of traffic (bringing us just about as much traffic as Google!) for the past 3 months that we’ve been using it! And we constantly receive comments from new readers saying that they found us through Entrecard!

Entrecard can also be viewed as a community of blogs. Not only can it bring new visitors to you, but it can also bring you to new, interesting blogs you never knew existed! Take a look into the Parenting and Family category of Entrecard. There are currently 220 blogs listed in this category. Some blogs you may recognize, many others you may not. I myself have personally discovered many blogs I never knew existed that I now read on a daily basis, all because of Entrecard!

How does Entrecard work?

The first step towards getting the most out of Entrecard is by signing up (it’s free!) and creating a 125×125 banner that represents your blog or website. This 125×125 banner will be used as your “business card”. After you’re all signed up, you’ll need to install the Entrecard widget on your blog. If you take a look to your right in our sidebar, you’ll see our Entrecard widget under “Blogosphere”. Once you have that installed, this is where the fun begins! You can begin “dropping” your Entrecard on other members, and other members will “drop” their Entrecard on you! Every time you drop your Entrecard on someone, it will show up in their Entrecard dashboard. That person will see your Entrecard the next time they log in and may click on it, which will take them to your blog. Do you see what just happened there? You just received a new visitor, and possibly a lifetime reader, and it costed you NOTHING! Now imagine the possibilities if you dropped your Entrecard 300 times a day (the daily maximum amount Entrecard allows)! That could be 300 new visitors to your blog each day! But Entrecard currently stands at only 6,274 members, so eventually the amount of new visitors you receive will top off once you’ve gotten through all 6,274…

…and that’s where credits come in to play! What I didn’t mention before was that every time you drop your Entrecard on someone or someone drops their Entrecard on you, you receive 1 Entrecard credit. These credits can be used to purchase ad space in other Entrecard members’ widgets that I discussed earlier. The amount of credits it costs to advertise varies from member to member, and your Entrecard will show in their widget for a full 24 hours. The amount of new visitors you can get from advertising in other members’ Entrecard widgets are endless! It all depends on the amount of traffic the blog you are advertising on receives; and there are quite a few highly trafficked blogs on Entrecard! Take John Chow for example (I’m pretty sure everyone knows who John Chow is). He receives tons of traffic on a daily basis. Advertisers pay him hundreds of dollars to advertise on his blog. But what does it cost you? Currently only 178 Entrecard credits!

More on how to effectively utilize Entrecard can be viewed on Entrecard’s help page.

The giveaway!

So now that you know the value of Entrecard credits, I want to give you the opportunity to win some! I’m giving away a total of 1,500 Entrecard credits, and there will be a total of 3 winners in this giveaway! It all breaks down as follows:

First place winner will receive 1,000 credits.
Second place winner will receive 350 credits.
Third place winner will receive 150 credits.

I will use the Random.Org Integer Generator to determine the 3 winners, with the first number corresponding to first place, the second number corresponding to second place, and the third number corresponding to third place.

How to enter:

There are 3 ways you can enter this giveaway!

1. Simply leave a comment below! Only one comment per person will be counted.
2. Write a recommendation for Mommy Daddy Blog on Entrecard. Only one recommendation per person will be counted.
3. Add Mommy Daddy Blog to your favorites on Entrecard. Be sure to let us know in the comments below if you have added us to your favorites!

You can use just one method of entry, or you can use all three! It’s up to you! Each method of entry counts as 1 entry, for a maximum of 3 entries total per person.

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, April 9th at 11:59PM CST! At that time, comments will be closed and no additional entries will be accepted.

Good luck to everyone who enters and Happy Entrecarding!

Comments are now closed and winners have been announced! Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!

It always feels good when you find out that there is someone out there who loves your blog! It makes you feel that what you write is interesting and of worth and value to someone. I feel that those people not only deserve to be acknowledged, but shown that you appreciate them! This is why I would like to show love to those who have recently shown love to us!

We met Tawny through the Ultimate Blog Party 2008 that was held last week and she listed us as one of her favorite blogs that she discovered via the party. Tawny is a mama blogger with a very unique looking blog and two kids with the coolest names ever: Aidyn and Ellery! I told her that I absolutely love those names! I don’t know what it is about the names. Maybe it’s because I’ve never heard of them before and they are uncommon to me, which makes them unique! Perhaps it could be because “Aidyn” is so close to “Jayden” in terms of pronunciation. I don’t why I love the names so much. But I do know one thing, one day some years from now, her kids are going to look up to her and say, “You are such a cool mom for giving us our names!”

Marian and Fabio are a blogging duo (just like Mommy and I) who blogs on the subject of love; hence the name of their blog, Subject: Love! Marian loved the 31st Week Update post that I wrote a couple weeks ago so much that she featured it in a post on Subject: Love. I’m glad to see that my shot at a weekly update wasn’t bad after all, and I hope everyone else enjoyed it!

Tyler is a husband and dad blogger who has just recently put together a 101 site resource for husbands and fathers, and has included Mommy Daddy Blog in it. When Mommy and I first started this blog, I didn’t think any “dad blogs” existed. I knew that there were a gajillion “mom blogs” out there, but didn’t think there were any dad blogs around. Then I did some digging, and what I found was a wealth of dad blogs, many of which that have now become my daily reads! But after I came across Tyler’s list, I realized that I’ve only discovered a fraction of the dad bloggers out there! Tyler’s list includes many dad blogs (and dad communities) that I’ve never even heard of. It’s definitely a great resource if you’re looking for fathers who share a common interest: loving and enjoying parenthood!

Ever heard of Truemors.com? No? Well how about Guy Kawasaki? No again? Well have you heard of the internet? Ohhhh ok, well that explains it! Well then let me fill you in on who this “guy” is (pun intended!). Guy Kawasaki, one of the guys behind Truemors, has recently put together a new creation, Alltop. Alltop is a “single-page aggregator” of many different websites/blogs across many different categories. To break it down into layman’s terms, Alltop collects “all the top” websites across the internet, sorts them into different categories, and conveniently displays the last five stories from each website all on a single page (with each category, and its contents, having its own separate page). For example, in Alltop’s Dads category, you will find several “dad websites”. Beneath each website’s name you will find the five most recent stories listed. Everyone’s there, from Busy Dad to Joeprah! And wait! Could it be? Mommy Daddy Blog is there too! Guy, if you’re reading this, thanks for including Mommy Daddy Blog! I definitely see Alltop doing big(ger) things in the future!

If you have recently shown us some love and I didn’t include you, I apologize! Send me an e-mail or let me know in the comments and I’ll include you! Mommy and I are just recovering from a VERY busy weekend and we’re trying to catch up on things! To everyone who has shown us love, thank you!