Fearfully and wonderfully made

This Sunday I attended my first every baby shower at church and thought every bit of it was so beautiful. The Mommy to be was radiant, the decor perfect, the food delicious and the games fun. (I have to add...the company at my table was the best!)

Through it all I just kept thinking of Bunny girl and the countdown to her arrival. I still remember it like it was yesterday.....it was March 8th 2006, past 1 am when I started spotting and we decided it was probably time we rushed to the hospital. (We were still based in India at the time)Fortunately the hospital was only 5 minute's away...so we hopped onto Hubby's bike( I can hear you all say "WHAAAAT?") and rushed to get examined. The Doc checked me and said we needed to wait till I dilated several centimeters more and suggested we wait in the hospital as it could happen anytime. It was only post 9 pm much later that day that the labor pains actually kicked in. Honestly till you go through it, noone can ever prepare you for what's up ahead!!!

Contractions drew closer and closer together only past 3.30 am March 9th and by 7.15 am, my awesome Doc started to get a little concerned. She said the sac fluid was slightly stained which meant the baby could start swallowing the meconium, which meant they needed to rush me in for a C Section especially as I hadn't dilated enough.

At this point I need to hold this story and let you know that there were 3 things I really prayed out to the Lord from the beginning of my pregnancy....
1. I wanted a natural delivery
2. I wanted my husband to be by my side when our first child entered this world(At this particular hospital spouses are not permitted to attend their offsprings birth...why?.. I have no idea!)
3. I never wanted to experience any bouts of morning sickness
The Lord was so faithful to fulfill my heart's desire for number 3....but what about number 1 and number 2?

To continue... I was rushed to the operating theatre,yelling my lungs out. I didn't care a hoot who saw me, who heard me. I just yelled as loud as I could. I was in pain and the world had to know!!! (much to the embarrassment of my darling Hubby who at that point was a senior therapist in the hospital's Physical Therapy wing. I'm sure he must have received enough looks of sympathy from aghast onlookers!)

In the OT, I remember seeing my Hubby's eyes above the mask and thanked God again (He handled number 2) In the confusion of rushing into the OT and the seriousness of the situation, he rushed in too and told the Doc, "There's no way I'm leaving her like that"....and who would argue him out at that point?...they needed to save the baby!

The anesthetist got ready to administer the dose to prepare me for a C Section when the Doc shouted, "Wait, there's another strong contraction coming" and there, in the luxury of a spotlessly clean, airconditioned OT room, our princess Bunny girl arrived. (Thank you Lord....You bagged all 3!) The first few seconds seemed endless as we waited to hear our little girl and as soon as she let out a few weak wails everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief.

God was so Faithful....He fulfilled all my heart's desires.....and we had a beautiful little girl, a precious gift from Him, created and fashioned in His Image, for His Glory.

Bunny girl's is our promised child. She fills our lives with so much joy and each time I think back to the time of her birth I have to stop and thank God for His Goodness and Grace. His Arms of Protection brought her safely into this world, healthy and beautiful in every way.

I look at her today and say, with all my heart " I will praise You Lord, for Bunny girl is truly fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well." (Ref: Psalm 139:14)

Labels: Bunny girl, faith, prayer, Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 7:49 AM 4 Comments

Mommy Tip # 3 - Hosting a Disney themed birthday party for preschoolers.

Two weeks ago we celebrated Bunny girl's 3rd birthday with a Disney Theme. What made this party special was Bunny girl helped every step of the way, from filling the goody bags, to helping create the game props, to making the Mickey ears for the party hats. We had the party indoors as we had crazy cold climate which was very unusual for our city...but that didn't stop us from having fun. Here are some of the ideas we brought to life at our very own Disney party:

1. We made customized party invites- We bought regular invitation cards from Michaels and Bunny girl stuck the little Minnie/Mickey stickers on the front. (depending on who was getting the invite.)
The initial plan was to have the party at the park (The park had a duck pond...Donald Duck!)but sadly the weather took a change for the brrrs and we had to change it to our apartment 2 days prior. (Made up a little poem to tie in the Disney theme.) We pasted the poem on the back of each invite.

2. Thought up some Disney themed games -

• Place the tool box in Handy Manny's hand: Similar to pin the tail on the donkey

• Passing the Crown: Similar to hot potato/passing the parcel except a crown is passed to a player, he places it on his head and then passes it to the next player who then places it on her head, before passing it on. The player wearing the crown when the music stops, leaves the game. The last player left in the circle with the crown, is declared the Royal Winner

• Finding the number of Nemos :I filled a little plastic container with goldfish crackers and got the guests to guess how many Nemos were in the container. Strangely enough I was only able to stuff in 303 Nemos....which worked out symbolic to our 3 year old's party!

• The last game we played was called the 'Little Einsteins Mission':Made all the kids decide which Little Einstein they would be and then got them all to stand on the carpet-that was was our Rocket!Gave them clues to guess 8 Disney characters. After guessing each clue, they had to race around the apartment and find a small chart taped on the wall with the corresponding clue number and then return to the 'Rocket' and wait for their next clue. After solving all 8 clues, each child was given an envelope with a picture of the Little Einsteins, titled "Mission Completion".
  
• Each envelope held 7 tiny printed Pluto's bones. They were told to open their respective envelopes and check if they had a bone with a blue star sticker on the back. If they did, they would win the grand prize. (We made sure each child's envelope contained a blue star) In the end, all the winners were made to stand in a line and await the "Mission Reward"- a tiny Mickey or Minnie pouch/purse filled with Hershey kisses.To ensure the adults didn't feel left out, we played Bingo/Housie and got them to shout out 'Mickey Mouse' instead of 'Bingo'. This was fun as we had embarassed adults whispering out their loudest 'Mickey Mouse'!. Had 6 prizes given away for this.
  

3. Made our own Mickey party hats- Elisa had good fun helping make these...it was super easy and we just needed black chart paper for the ears. We cut these out and attached them to the party hats through tiny slits on either sides of the hats.

4. Had a Little Einsteins cake- used the little Fisher Price toys Bunny girl has as cake toppers..and ordered a yum buttercream marble cake from Sam's...the cake remained moist and fresh even 6 days later! I would definitely suggest Sam's Club's cakes.

5. Disney themed goodies- The little ones had Tinkerbell favorbags filled with a little plastic glass that held their Princess or Pooh pens and pencils, a Mickey or Minnie topper sharpener, a Mickey or Minnie replaceable eraser pen and healthy snacks- raisins, Welch's fruit snacks and crackers.

It wasn't much but it was Disney enough for the kids. Best of all, it was fun doing the preps before the big day too and Bunny girl was the best little helper any Mommy could have!

P.S. Here are the 8 Little Einstein Mission Clues...try n guess them all (scroll down for the answers):

1. I BOUNCE AND JUMP AND I'M LOTS OF FUN...I'M ORANGE N BLACK AND POOH'S MY BEST CHUM

2. MEESKA MOOSKA, THATS MY CHANT. HOT DOG,I'M A MOUSE THAT LOVES TO DANCE!

3. QUACKITY QUACK OH ME OH MY, I'M MINNIE'S FRIEND..I'M A GIRL N I'M SHY!

4. UNO DOS TRES...WE'RE ALWAYS THERE TO FIX- MY TOOLS N I DO SOME GREAT FIX IT TRICKS

5. I LIVE IN A PALACE, THAT'S A S ROYAL AS CAN BE...I'M A PRINCESS WHO LOVES TO SING AND YES I'M PRETTY

6. PIXIE DUST AND SPRINKLES, I LOVE TO FLY...PETER PAN AND I SOAR ACROSS THE SKY!

7. I'M NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS COZ I HAVEA LONG FISH TAIL...I LIVE UNDER THE SEA, BELOW WHERE THE BOATS SAIL

8. MISSION COMPLETE! YOU DID JUST GREAT. FIND ME AND MY BATON, THEN YOUR RACE IS COMPLETE!
.
.

1. Tigger
2. Mickey mouse
3. Daisy duck
4. Handy Manny
5. Cinderella
6. Tinkerbell
7. Ariel
8. Leo- Little Einsteins

July 9 2009 update: Our Disney party idea was featured on Creative Parties and Showers.

Labels: Bunny girl, Disney, Disney Party, Mommy Tips

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 2:33 PM 5 Comments

Doer of the word!!

When Bunny girl was younger, we'd keep her in church with us. She would always sit quietly with her little toys or crayons and be good. One Sunday our Pastor spoke about the necessity to tell people about Jesus' Second Coming and it was only a few days later that we realized that Bunny girl was listening to every word he said.

This happened when Bunny girl was close to turning two. One evening while I was cooking in the kitchen, I heard her talking to her little toy doggies very seriously. (I have to mention here that she absolutely adores animals and wants ever so much to have her very own puppy. We don't want to have a pet in the apartments, thus she resorts to adding to her toy puppy collection!) Suddenly I heard her raise her voice and announce, with the sweetest baby voice of conviction "Jeejas caaming! Jeejas caaming!" (Jesus is coming! Jesus is coming!)

Children absorb things so quick and even when you think they aren't listening....they really are!!

Labels: Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 1:45 PM 2 Comments

Mommy Tip # 2- It's fun to learn my ABCs

A fun way we discovered to get our Bunny to learn and identify her alphabets when she turned two, was by playing a fun game on her Alphabet mat. (I do know many homes have these mats in the kids rooms and honestly they serve more than just colorful decor!)

We'd call out an alphabet and ask her to jump to the right square and stand there till we called out the next alphabet. This game is a fun learning activity for a little one plus a great way to get the energy beans out!!! (now isn't that incentive enough to try this out?!!)

Labels: Mommy Tips

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 1:34 PM 0 Comments

Mommy Tip # 1 - Make charts

I've learnt it always makes things exciting for little ones when they can see with their eyes there is something to look forward too.

I make monthly charts for Bunny girl with the various events planned for the month. (Playdates, parties, church etc.) Since Bunny girl is too young to read, I represent certain events with a picture. If she has a birthday party to go to that month, we have a picture of a birthday cake on the date of the party. When we were going to Disney earlier this month, we had Mickey pictures stuck on the days we would be there. Similarly a trip to Sea world, San Antonio had pictures of dolphins.

As a countdown, every morning after breakfast, she puts a sticker, in the square, for that day and then gets to countdown to the next fun event planned. This also helps with her counting, as she counts down the number of days left to go before her 'fun event'

Try this out....its lots of fun and at the end of every month the chart becomes a keepsake for you as a reminder of the fun things your family did that month.

Labels: Mommy Tips

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 8:25 AM 9 Comments

There are those days!!!!

Wish I could say I am the Mommy I really want to be but I am miles away from that. There are a few Mommy traits that really need to explode big time within me. Primary one being patience....whew! I need work on that BIG TIME!!!


I honestly think God gave us children to form us into the people we need to be in Him. There is so much I have learnt in these 3 years and I know there's an encyclopedia of stuff left to be learnt in the years to come.

Like that Sunday school song says

"He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge here yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands."

There are those days.....but He's still working on me.

Labels: Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 8:08 AM 3 Comments

A child's innocence

2 weeks ago, our niece celebrated her 12th birthday, back in India. We called her that morning and Bunny girl sang her favorite birthday song.

Later that night, during family prayers, Hubby prayed for our niece and said "Father, bless this child on her birthday and bless her year..."

Immediately Bunny girl turned around and asked him, very worried, "What's wrong with her ear?"

We then needed to explain to her what he meant.

Little children are such darlings and its at times like these we are reminded of how pure and innocent their hearts are. How awesome it would become if we could be like them again.

Matthew 18:2,3 (The Message Bible Translation)
For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in.

Labels: Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 11:50 AM 4 Comments

Swag and Win great prizes!

Swagbucks is a great search engine portal dedicated to helping you win swag bucks and digital dollars that you can redeem for amazing prizes.

There's nothing hard about this.....you just need to search on this engine (as you search on google) and you can win swag bucks. With these swag bucks you can get giftcards, (Target, Amazon, Disney etc) electronics, books and tons more!

To make this easy what I've done is replaced my homepage with swagbucks instead of google and search as I normally would. Its always great in the middle of a search when a swag buck pops up!

Click the following link ( or the Swag banner on the right) to register for an account and get started with 3 free Swag Bucks before you start searching!

http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=118125

Labels: Deals 'n' more

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 10:17 AM 0 Comments

The Ultimate Blog Party for 2009 - super prizes!

5 Minutes for Mom has this amazing blog party going on. Check out http://www.5minutesformom.com/5808/ultimate-blog-party-2009/ and sign up, there are some awesome prizes to be won.

My absolute favorites would be #19, #21, #22(Yup Target rocks!!), #26, #68, #91, #99(have to make a photobook with our Disney memories!!), #123(great stuff for kids wear!), would love to read the book under USC #13, would be happy with USC # 15 & # 47 too(yay Amazon!), USC #22(so cool!), USC #56 (I guess we all fall under the "I love Target" brigade!!!).......
whew.....so many prizes!!!

What is super cool is they even have a segment of prizes for their International Followers.

This sure is one ultimate blog party!!!

Labels: Deals 'n' more

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 8:42 AM 9 Comments

Postman Pat

We have a darling Postman whom Bunny girl fondly named 'Postman Pat'. (When she was younger it was "Patitees"!) Ever since she was less than 2 years old, she'd wait on the sofa for Postman Pat's van to take the turn to our apartments and on an odd day or two would wait for him with a cookie or an energy bar. She has always considered him a part of our friends list and mentions him right after our landlord and apartment handyman (yes they are on her friends list too).

Two weeks ago when she had her 3rd birthday party, she waited for him with an invitation card. Postman Pat was touched and told her he would make sure he'd come as he hadn't been able to make it for her party last year. Needless to say, Bunny girl was thrilled....we as parents thought it would not be realistic to encourage the joy as our Postman, in all probability, would not make it.

Halfway through the party, the doorbell rang and there on the door step stood our precious Postman, tired as ever after the day's rounds, standing with a bunch of balloons for our Princess. Bunny girl shrieked with joy and ran to the door and gave him a hug. He was apologetic he couldn't get her anything more but we know that even what he got for her was a lot.

Later that night as we prepared to retire to bed, Hubby and I agreed that the one thing that touched us the most at Bunny girl's party was our Postman's visit. No he didn't come in to celebrate with her but he took the time out from his rounds, stopped at our home again and made one little girl very happy. (He didn't even know Bunny girl was having a Disney themed party but got her a special Minnie Mouse balloon too....how cool is that?!)

There are times in this material world, where we shirk back from giving to God only because we feel we can't or don't have the resources to meet up to others. But its at times like those we need to remember that God looks at our hearts and our lives and sees what we have.... and when we give our best from our little, to Him its bigger than anything else!

Bunny girl got some awesome gifts that day but for me, the one I'll never forget all my life, are the balloons she got from her Postman Pat!

Labels: Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 5:44 AM 2 Comments

Mama NOT Bunny girl!!

Its been over a week now that Bunny girl walks around emphatically stating that she isn't Bunny girl, she's Mama ( to her Cinderella doll and her plush Simba) and last night before bed, she proudly arrived with a bump that extended from her neck to her torso. She happily gave us the wonderful news that she had a "Baby" in her tummy and it was tickling. We asked who was in and she quietly whispered "Dumbo and a cloth"! (Ahhh....such bliss to know we will hear the pounding of elephant feet in our home!)

We played along till it was close to bedtime, when she announced excitedly that she AND the baby in her stomach would be going to church the next morning. The look on our faces was priceless! Knowing discouragement would result in possible tears, we agreed and got our child 'with child' to brush her teeth and get into bed.

Minutes before lights out, after much thought and consideration, a tiny voice announced quietly "The baby is going to come out now"and out came Dumbo and in jumped a sleepy 3 year old who realized sleeping with a 'baby'(and cloth) inside wasn't going to be as comfortable after all!......Sigh if only things were as easy in real life!!!!!

Labels: Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 4:03 PM 1 Comments

Sweeps.....can I win??

This is a question I always asked myself but after noting the success rates among other bloggers and various forum members, I thought...why not? ...and since then I've not stopped trying out different sweeps, giveaways and my fave instant win games.

I have been at this for little less than a year and though I'm not as consistent as I'd want to be, I have been successful at winning a few prizes. My loot includes...

• 25$ Amazon Gift certificate
• 10$ Shell Gas Gift cards
• Chevron gas cards
• Movie tickets
• Free food
• Two 7 day 2 park tickets for Universal Studios, Florida. (Just got these in the mail from the Universal Heroes Sweepstakes. We just took our first trip to Disney world 2 weeks ago and since these tickets expire at the end of the year we're praying we're able to make another trip down....Yay!!!)
• And other odds n ends.

So you never know what you can win till you try your hand at the sweeps.

One of my favorite Sweeps blogs is Sweeties Sweeps.....she is amazing and you should go check out her site to see her wins....AMAZING!!!!! (Her wins include a 5000$ visa card from the ongoing Burger King Sweepstakes, A Dodge Truck {WOW!}, Expense Paid Vacations and more!)

Visit Sweeties Sweeps for winnable contests and sweepstakes

Labels: Deals 'n' more

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 8:27 AM 0 Comments

Free Thomas or Pals Choo choo at ToysRUs on March 21 and 22 only

This is a great coupon for all your little Thomas n Friend fans.

Toys R Us is handing out a FREE wooden Thomas train or Lights & Sound Percy or Sir Handel, or Peter Sam, with the submission of this coupon. you don't need to buy anything to get this train and each guest can get their own train :>

These run out real quick so hurry hurry hurry.....before all trains leave ToysRUS!!!

Link to the coupon:
(You will need Adobe Reader to view/download/print this coupon)

Free Thomas Train coupon

Labels: Deals 'n' more

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 7:57 AM 0 Comments

Noah builds a ..........

One afternoon after narrating the story of Noah and the Ark to an engrossed little 2 year old, I decided to do a recap of the story by asking Bunny girl to fill in the blanks while I summarized the main segments in brief. Every blank was answered with a quick accurate reply till I asked, "And God told Noah to build...."
There was silence as my darling tot thought and then confidently replied "A SNOWMAN"!!!!

Labels: Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 7:51 AM 1 Comments

Pilot post...hope I steer ok!!!

The butterflies in my tummy coupled with a rush of adventure tell me I'm feeling what I did when my Bunny girl entered the world in the midst of those crazy birth pangs.....the same feeling I had walking down the aisle...and definitely the same feeling I had when my Prince popped the question to beat all questions! Finally the day has arrived and FINALLY I have decided to........BLOG!!!

Now that I've decided to blog...what should I blog about?.....(Doesn't the title say it all?)....right! My darling Energizer Bunny, who just turned 3 last week. Time flies and what better place to record Bunny reports than on my very own "Bunny Blog"!

Let me start by introducing myself, the author of this blog......I've just hit my 30s and feel being 20 was oh so cool....but 30 is another story.....suddenly you are considered one of those "oldie goldies" and even people 3 years younger than you call you "AUNTY" (The ultimate chillipowder on an open wound tag!). We're based in a quiet city in the US and have been here for less than 2 years now. (We're originally from the most beautiful and culturally diverse Nation of all.....Hamara Bharath Mahan...India!!)

Join me as I take you through my life as a Stay at Home Mommy blessed with a wonderful caring Hubby and a precious little Energizer Bunny daughter. (For privacy reasons my daughter will not be referred to by name but as "Bunny girl" and my beloved as my dear "Hubby". )

There will be...

Times of laughter as you read the funny anecdotes about my Bunny girl
Times of encouragement as I reflect on God's goodness in my life
Times of 'sharing the market buzz' as I review some great products and services in the market.
Times of anticipation as you enter the many giveaways that are hosted
( And times of celebration when you find out that you've won a giveaway! ;>)
Times of learning as I teach you to be frugally profitable, replicate store steals and let you in on some of the best shopping deals out there.

There will be times like these and many more. Make yourself comfortable....I'm glad you're here and hope you'll bunny hop along this journey with us.

Till my next post......Smiles! ....Need to rush away as I hear exasperation in hubby darling's tone as our little livewire is all set to stay up another 3 hours and its lights out soon!

Labels: Home, Reflections

posted by Marina@EBMR @ 10:34 PM 0 Comments