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Yet another late update, sorry! Things have been hectic preparing for the baby shower (March 15th) and all! This post will be written as if today’s date is March 13th, so the baby shower will not be included. Stay tuned for our baby shower recap in the next couple of days!

I’ve noticed the Braxton Hicks contractions more. I mean I was getting them before but now they are a part of my daily schedule. If standing, I’m left hunching over until they are done. Jayden is twisting and turning all over the place, he wants out! I am curious to know just how far down his head is because I can feel him pressing against my girly bits at times. I know he hasn’t dropped yet so I’m just wondering. Each day I swear he grows bigger because he almost can’t even hide in my stomach anymore. There’s always a baby bit poking out somewhere and it is most uncomfortable when he’s resting and moving around my belly button!

I’m feeling much heavier, my legs and feet have alerted me of this. I have a nesting pillow coming to rescue me from uncomfortable nights! It’s really going to come in handy before and after delivery :-D. If you or anyone else is interested in purchasing a nesting pillow from Blessed Nest, we can give ya 10% off of your order when you use discount code MDB at checkout!

Well that’s all for now! Not much going on, just anticipating delivery!

(We have been keeping weekly accounts of our pregnancy since the 22nd week. If you’re interested in reading weekly updates prior to or following this one, click here!)

Hi guys, Mommy here! I just wanted to let you all know that our baby shower was Saturday, we are so pooped. It was a great turnout! I won’t get into details, save that for another post. We are still at our folks’ houses (5hrs away from where we live) and we’re having some car trouble. We have a lot lined up for Mommy Daddy Blog, but we just can’t get to it at the moment, sorry! Hoping we can get caught up this week, commenters and 5 Minutes For Mom partiers we haven’t forgotten about you! We’ll get back into the groove of things as soon as things settle down. So stay tuned!

If you’re a frequenter of Sophistishe.Org (Mommy’s personal blog), heard of our store Hounie’s Haven (currently on hiatus), or know us in real life, you’ve probably seen/heard us use the word “Hounie” quite a few times. So, what the heck is “Hounie”? Since Mommy and I frequently use the word “Hounie”, it will most likely pop up here on Mommy Daddy Blog a few times. So I thought I’d create a post explaining what “Hounie” is so I won’t have to explain it every time I say it in the future (like I did in this post). So, without further ado…

So, what the heck is “Hounie”?

“Hounie” dates back to the days when Mommy was in college and I was in high school. I would visit Mommy whenever I had the chance. I didn’t have a car back then and we hated walking, so we’d typically spend the days together in Mommy’s dorm room. I also didn’t have a laptop, but Mommy did. So we’d share Mommy’s laptop between the two of us. At that time, I had a little stint going in internet marketing, so I constantly wanted to check to see if I had made any money (I never did). And since it was Mommy’s laptop, and she had papers and other college stuff to work on, she had priority over it. But occasionally, I’d a get a little impatient, and I’d start nagging her to let me on the laptop. Now some time a few months before, I had started calling her “Honey”, which stemmed from me calling her “Honey Buns” (I won’t explain why I called her that, I’d like to keep this blog G rated!). So whenever I started to get impatient, I’d say, “Hoooooooneeeeeeey! Let me on the laaaaaaptoooooooop!” Yes, it was as annoying as it sounds! I’ll admit! And I didn’t pronounce the word “honey” how it’s usually pronounced. I threw in some different sounds to add to the annoying factor (I’m such a cool guy!), and thus spawned the word “Hounie”! For odd some reason, somewhere down the line, we took that word I used to annoy the hell out of Mommy with, and we turned it into the complete opposite. We now use the word as a gesture for love for each other. Just as other couples use “sweetie”, “dear”, and of course, “honey”, we use “Hounie”!

So, how the heck is “Hounie” pronounced?

It is very difficult to explain how “Hounie” is pronounced and you’ll probably still be in the same boat even after I try my best to explain it. The difficulty falls within the first syllable, “Hou”. The best way that I can explain how “Hou” is pronounced is by comparing it to the name, “Noah”. The “Hou” in “Hounie” sounds a little like the “oah” in “Noah”. But where “oah” would be pronounced as two syllables (oh-uh), they are blended into one syllable (ouh) in “Hou”. Just try saying Ho-uh or Hoah really, really fast. That’s how “Hou” is pronounced. Get my drift? Yep, like I said, still in the same boat as before. As for the “nie” in “Hounie”, it’s not as difficult to pronounce. It’s pronounced “nee”, exactly like the word “knee”. That part was pretty simple, right?

So, why the heck can’t we just use “honey”?

We’re unique. We’re special. We’re different. I don’t know! Someone call Robert Stack, we’re an unsolved mystery! I do know one thing though, I’ve discovered that whenever I’ve done something wrong, Mommy calls me by my name instead of “Hounie”. Remember when you were a kid and your mom would call you by your full name whenever you were in trouble? “Christopher Cornelius Harrison the third! Get your butt here now!” That’s how it is with Mommy and I. Whenever I hear “Greg!”, I know that I’ve either left the toilet seat up, or I accidentally fed those nasty green beans she made for dinner to our dog. I swear they fell off my plate!

So, what the heck do you use?

I know Mommy and I aren’t the only weird ones that use made-up words to call each other. So how about you? Do you and your spouse/fiance/boyfriend/girlfriend/whatever have any special made-up names for each other?

This post has been featured at The So Called Me.

Growing up I went to predominantly African American schools. I wasn’t taught much about diversity and different cultures, just racism and segregation year after year. Of course this had some effect on how I perceived other races. I developed schemas based on textbooks, television, and my surroundings. Although we were taught Martin Luther King’s dream multiple times in school, it didn’t have much affect on me because there was no uniting races when the school made up one race. I wasn’t exposed to diversity early on so I didn’t know how to interact once exposed later in life. Of course I was always taught to treat others with respect but the subject of diversity never really popped up. I remember entering high school, it was a predominantly African American high school but there was a noticeable percentage of Caucasian students as well. At first interacting with each other was a little awkward, making sure we didn’t say anything to offend each other. I remember at a band gathering having a conversation with a group of people of different races; “no offense” was used quite a few times. Nothing said was offensive, “no offense” was just said to be courteous just in case someone did take offense, I suppose. It just tickles me now thinking about it because we didn’t know how to act around each other. This was due to the lack of exposure and proper knowledge of other races and cultures.

It is important to start teaching children early about diversity. While it is important to teach your children to embrace their culture it is also important to teach them about the cultures of other people. It will help them better understand why some people do the things that he or she may not do, why, and to certainly not be afraid of them because of it. The key is to help your children become well rounded individuals because the real world is one gigantic melting pot.

There are a handful of stores that are devoted to promoting multicultural products for children. Regionz Kidz is a great place to pick up products to help teach your children diversity and unity. At Regionz Kidz you can find SUPER CUTE culturally diverse t-shirts for infants, toddlers, and mommies! Regionz Kidz’s t-shirts feature amazing sketches of babies in different regions all over the world. There are over 104 designs to choose from. You can even have a custom sketch of your child designed! In addition to t-shirts, Regionz Kidz offers books and games as well! Some useful articles and resources can be found on the Regionz Kidz blog and free coloring sheets can be found here! Regionz Kidz was founded last year and has gotten off to a great start! I look forward to seeing what the future brings!

JT’s tee from Regionz Kidz! Isn’t it the cutest?

Hey all, Daddy here! …what? You were expecting Mommy? Well, we just thought we’d switch things up a bit and give preggy Mommy a break on this one. Plus, I haven’t really been able to talk much about the pregnancy from my point of view. That is, until now! So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to MY 31st Week Update… Daddy Style!

Ok, let’s see… where should I start? Hmmmm… well, she’s pregnant! Yup! Oh wait, you all already knew that. Ok well ummm… her stomach’s getting bigger! And it’s so beautiful! I can’t help but to lift up her shirt and rub her bellay whenever she’s in my vicinity. And even when she’s not within my vicinity, I can’t help but to go to where she’s at, lift up her shirt, and rub her bellay some more! I tell her every day that she is so “beautifully pregnant”. And that’s because she is. I don’t know if its the fact that there is a little me growing inside of her stomach or what, but she has never been as beautiful as she is now that she’s pregnant!

On the flipside though, not only is she eye candy for me, but she also serves as a form of entertainment for me! I know I’m wrong, but I just cant help but to laugh as I watch her wobble her way throughout the house. She sort of reminds me of a penguin. And for visual purposes…

And now that she’s getting bigger (by the DAY!), she’s also starting to hold her back quite often when she walks. I find that quite funny also because she reminds me of an old woman. Cue old woman!:

Ok, that wasn’t quite an old woman, but it’s all I could find that perfectly represents exactly how Mommy looks as she walks. Now add those two pictures together and you get Mommy! Oh yeah and when she rolls over, hi-lar-i-OUS! It takes Mommy literally two and a half DAYS to roll over from her left side to her right side, and vice versa. I could leave right now, fly all the way around the world, come back, and she’d still be in mid-turn!

Mommy knows it’s all out of love though! And trust me, I make up for every single laugh I get out of it. How, you ask? You know those pregnancy cravings women always talk about, yup those are REAL! For the past umpteen weeks, I’ve made 2,710,417 trips to Walmart to buy popsicles, yogurt, oranges, and Honeycomb cereal. For some reason, Mommy has had massive cravings for these four foods, and these four foods ONLY. I don’t know why. I’ve cleared out the popsicles, yogurt, oranges, and Honeycomb sections in Walmart on many occasions due to Mommy’s cravings. Try having the cashiers look at you weird because you come in every single day to buy the SAME four things every single time. Buy in bulk, you say? Doesn’t work! Mommy just eats more! There’s no stopping her! If it’s in the fridge, she’s going to eat it! It’s inevitable! And I end up having to go back to Walmart the next day anyway as usual. So yeah, I can at least have my few laughs here and there, can’t I?

I have to admit that it doesn’t matter what it is I have to do though. I’ll leap hurdles and jump through fiery rings if I have to, because I know it’s all for my son, Jayden. He is really starting to have a ball inside Mommy’s stomach now! Every day he’s kicking and punching and jabbing and drop kicking. It’s like he’s learning Kung Fu in there! I can already tell he’s really going to be a really active one when he gets out. The day he learns how to walk, all hell is going to break loose! He’s going to be running all over the house, jumping all over couches, and diving into laundry baskets! I don’t know what Mommy and I are going to do!

Well I guess that about wraps up how our pregnancy is going so far. Not a whole lot, but not a little. Oh yeah, and the baby shower is next week, March 15th to be exact, so we’re starting to prepare for that. Mommy’s making me go! So I hope you all enjoyed my shot at a weekly update! Until next week…!

(We have been keeping weekly accounts of our pregnancy since the 22nd week. If you’re interested in reading weekly updates prior to or following this one, click here!)