Before I dive into who the 3 winners of our ebook, Nap Time Cash are, I just thought that I’d share something that has been on my mind: The Holidays.  It’s getting close to Christmas and our little Monkey is more excited than ever.  Every day he asks us about presents – and we let him know that Santa brings presents to good little boys, and that seems to work… some of the time when he’s in one of his terrible 2 kicks.

Having a little child around the house certainly changes the feel of Christmas.  Jane and I were talking yesterday about how it makes us feel like a kid again.  Seeing Monkey’s excitement when we see Christmas lights or even Santa, which we did a few days ago, it worth it’s weight in gold.  Seeing him smile ear to ear the other day when he saw Santa was so cool and I’ll admit that it nearly brought tears to my eyes.  It was either seeing him brought me back to my childhood and all of the wonderful memories, or it was the bug that flew in my eye.  Either way, I’m really excited about this time of year for Monkey!

We’ve picked up several presents already and I KNOW that he’ll be super excited.  And speaking of being super excited, I used Random.org to choose 3 winning comment entry numbers at random.

They are…. 34, 11, 21

Congratulations to the winners!

Please check your comments and look at the number of your comment to see if you won.  If you are one of the winners, please contact us and we’ll send you the Nap Time Cash ebook right away.  Again, congrats!

From time to time I may provide updates on Jane and my writing business.  Don’t worry, it will not be a ton of updates, just things here and there every once in awhile.

As far as new updates on our side writing business, right now I’m spending some time looking for a few new clients.  There is a potential for a VERY niche client that I hope to hear back from and/or talk to this week regarding the proposal I sent last week.  This person is a referral of a referral, so we would have never ever found him out there otherwise.  (I talk a little about asking for referrals and what we say in the Nap Time Cash ebook.)

Anyway, I sent two proposals providing him with two options.  This is not a small project and both proposals are in the five-figures PLUS a percentage of revenue that his website earns for the next 12 months.  Would it be a lot of work if we get this client?  Yup. But the upside potential over the next 12 months plus the initial payment is so worth it.

I know some of you are wondering, how could I bid so high on a writing project?  As I talk a little about in Nap Time Cash, once you get a bunch of clients and start to find the areas you love to write about, work on becoming GOOD at writing content for those areas.  Look for ways you can become somewhat of an expert in an area.  You may already have some expertise in an area, or something that you’re already passionate about.  Or, if you are like me, it may take some time to find those little sweet spots where writing and researching is a breeze and you become fairly good at it.

I’ve been fortunate enough to tap into an industry where people pay very good money for content and expertise that just so happens to be in an area that I’ve been learning about, studying, and have experience with.  But like so many of you, I started with zero knowledge.  I started writing articles, content, blog posts, etc. for low amounts which allowed me to get/win clients, gain experience, and figure out the areas I love writing about and feel I’m good at.

Now over the years I’ve learned some tough lessons.  One of which is never counting your chickens before they hatch.  So we’ll see what happens with this client.  I expect that it will take a good couple of weeks to close this deal if we can win his business.  And I’m going to try to do anything and everything to win it.  If we do win his business, this does change a lot of things.  A lot.  But I’ll wait to talk about those chickens if they hatch.

Anyway, I truly hope that all the moms/dads out there who have a bit of time and an interest in making some money on the side check out our little ebook. Our little side business has saved us so many times and is on the track to becoming a much larger income source than we ever imagined.  We don’t make any promises – and we let you know upfront that it takes some work finding/securing clients, and then actually doing the writing.  It’s not some over night money making scheme.  And I know many of you could benefit from some extra cash – especially around the holidays.

One final side note that I will make… We have another potential client that could turn VERY interesting in a few months.  If we get this client, Jane and I will need to bring on a lot of help because the project is quite large.  So that means we’d be working the other side of the coin, which is hiring writers for short-term and long-term projects.  It’s a few months away, so stay tuned.  It would be very cool if we could hire some of you.  :)  We shall see.  Fingers crossed.

Again, congrats to the winners – don’t forget to contact us to get your ebook!

They are…. 34, 11, 21

Blog post coming in the next few days… Black Friday Deals And Toys!  Whoo Hoo!

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Maybe Jane will post from time to time.  As for me, I’m done.  Is it forever?  Most likely.  It’s just not fun any more and hasn’t been, which is partly my own fault.  More on that in a moment.

Now one reason why I am retiring is that the majority of comments on posts that come in are quite rude.  Most never get published because they are by first-time posters and get caught up in the spam filter where we have to manually approve them.  They get read, then deleted.  What fun is it to blog, only to get negative feedback?  None.  But this one is also my fault…

Another reason why I’m retiring is because personally, I just have not been able to keep up with the normal style posts that we published in the beginning for quite some time.  Things that happened in our lives hit us hard on ever level.  And publishing the fun, funny, attention-getting posts of the past became harder and harder because of everything on our minds.

It is tough to be positive when you are losing everything and then lost everything, you know?

Those old posts are what we became known for.  They were fun. Funny. Often off-the-wall. Unique. And this blog became quite known for those types of posts as we were featured in all of the pregnancy magazines at one point, and was even shown on the reality TV show, Jerseylicious.  It was no doubt visited by many pregnant celebrities, and it caught the attention of major media outlets that had some promising things in the works, but none of them worked out for one reason or another.

But then… life got in the way.  I made the mistake mixing our personal lives (non-Monkey stuff) into our blog.  Posts about how the economy effected us.  Posts about big decisions we had to make.  More and more the focus was one non-Monkey related things, as it would seem on the surface, but of course, they were directly related to Monkey to us.

That was my mistake.  I should have started another blog to write about the struggles we were going through as first-time parents – and keep those types of posts off of here.  Maybe then once those types of posts were out of my system I would have been more motivated to post Monkey-related posts and posts about post-pregnancy life with Monkey here in the usual style everyone became so used to.

I lost focus – the main focus for this blog.  I can only blame myself.  An important lesson for me, and hopefully a lesson for other mommy and daddy bloggers.  I didn’t keep my eye on the ball, went off-topic, and for that lost some readers, attracted crazy-ass readers who posted incredibly rude comments, and dug my own grave essentially.

I had a ton of fun posting while Jane was pregnant and shortly thereafter.  We both did.  If you go back and read the hundreds of posts while Jane was pregnant, you’d see another side of Tarzan and Jane.

The side that wasn’t so consumed with trying to make it in today’s tough world.

So I apologize our blog lost its sparkle and shine that it once had.  I’m sorry that I was not able to keep up with daily posts about Monkey’s life and all of the wild and crazy things that have happened over the past couple of years as he has grown from a baby to a wild, but extremely smart toddler.

Lesson learned.  When we start another blog on another topic, I will be staying on topic – and make sure Jane and I stick to that rule. No matter what.  And if for some reason it starts to feel like work or a job (blogging should be fun) then we make some decisions on what to do with the blog.  (Note: Whenever we start a new blog, we will not use the names Jane and Tarzan, we will be choosing new pen names.)

Where we go from here, I do not know.  Like I said above, maybe Jane will post from time to time.  In fact, she is sitting on the couch watching TV and has no idea that I am writing this or made this decision.  I’ll tell her after I post.  I know she’ll understand why I made my decision.

A BIG Thank You

For our long-time readers, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you and how much of an impact you had on my life.  As cheesy as it sounds, I wouldn’t have made it through many of the tough times during Jane’s pregnancy and then after we had Monkey.

I can remember several times I was making store runs to WalMart and Babies R Us to pick up items and I was Twittering asking what items I needed, where to find things, etc. as I was shopping.  It was hilarious.

I remember posting 1/2 asleep – even falling asleep in the days that followed Monkey coming home and everyone who has been through those tough first few weeks helping us out a lot.

There are hundreds and hundreds of you who made this experience incredible for both Jane and I.  I’m forever grateful that so many of you took the time to read all of our posts, comment on our blog, take part of our contests in the past, and help us out whenever we asked for it.  Jane and I are both so very grateful and we thank all of you from the bottom of our hearts.

Monkey will get to know many of you years down the road as he reads all of the posts and comments.

So with that, I wish all of you well.  And again, thank you so much for everything over the last 2 and a half + years.  I appreciate all of you.

Good night.

Tarzan

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It was just a few days ago that marked the second anniversary of when I came up with the idea for the His Boys Can Swim Pregnancy and Baby blog. This blog was a gift for Jane so she could share her pregnancy journey with the world.  But the more I thought about it, the more I thought how fun it would be for both of us to blog about our journey together.

Today we received a question from Ginger who asked, “Hi.  I look forward to reading all your posts.  But I can’t figure out how to start from the beginning.  Is there a way to read from the first entry on?”

I went to the blog and quickly realized that there was no easy way to go back to the beginning.  It would take about an hour of clicking on “previous post” to get to the beginning with hundreds and hundreds of blogs posts.  So this morning I did some digging and found our very first pregnancy blog post.  Here’s the link:

12/26/2008 – http://www.hisboyscanswim.com/102/so-i-found-out-im-going-to-be-a-father

If anyone wants to start from the beginning and read about our often wild and crazy pregnancy journey, check out the above link.

I was just going through some of the posts and was laughing out loud at some of the things Jane and I wrote!

Hope you enjoy!

Tarzan

PS – If you decide to look through all of our past posts, simply scroll to the bottom of a post and click on the title of the title of the next post next to “PREVIOUS POST:”

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OK.  Looks like some commenters are wondering why we stopped posting about the HCG diet – and wondering what our results were.

Well, for me, I lost a total of 28 pounds on the 40-day diet.  Jane lost a total of 26 pounds.  Why didn’t we keep everyone updated on posts?  For me, it was not worth my time.  It took some strong will and motivation at times to avoid eating in the evening when I was up working late.  The last thing I needed was to spend time reading all of the negative comments left by people.

Jane and I are positive people.  There were quite a few down-right rude and obnoxious comments left by people that never made it to the public because we simply deleted them before the comments went live.  It amazes me how many negative people there are and how much extra time people have on their hands.  Moreover, it amazes me how much effort some people put into trying to bring others down – while they obviously need to be focusing on themselves.

I had thought it would be good and fun to keep everyone posted on our progress.  I thought it would motivate people to begin to live a healthy lifestyle.  Whether they chose to do the HCG diet on their own or they chose another route.  It didn’t matter.  As long as we motivated a few people to start eating healthy and start taking care of themselves, then we succeeded in my book.

As I sit here typing this, I’m wearing jeans that I haven’t worn in a good three years.  They are size 36 button-fly Lucky jeans.  I tried these on before we began the HCG diet and I couldn’t get them on high enough to even button the first button.  They now fit very comfortably.  I’m wearing shirts I haven’t worn in years and I feel a hell of a lot better about myself.

Over the next few weeks we’re on a loose 1500 calorie diet.  Basically just watching what we eat, weighing ourselves daily and making sure we don’t gain more than 2 pounds.  If we do, then you do what is called a “steak day”.  In January, we are going to do another round of the HCG diet.  Once we finish that, I’m sure that Jane and I will be right where we want to be.  Whether we post about it or not is undecided.  More than likely not – at least for me.

I’m the type of person that keeps a good distance between myself and negativity.  Misery loves company.  Like attracts like.  And for whatever reason, the HCG diet really attracted some interesting characters to our blog.

I created this blog shortly after we found out Jane was pregnant to have fun and document the journey.  It was the best present that I could have given Jane.  It made us so much closer as a couple.  We learned so much together.  And it was an activity that we could do together.  It was an absolute blast.  If you go back and read posts I wrote while Jane was pregnant, you’ll see a much different tone.  It was fun.

Then after Monkey was born, that’s when everything changed.  Now don’t get me wrong, I understand that this is a blog and we welcome people’s comments.  But there were times that people really crossed the line with comments that were never published.  I’ve quickly learned that there are 100,000 different parenting styles out there – and many believe that the way they choose is the ONLY way.  And if someone chooses a different path – then they are always wrong in their eyes – and have no problem letting us know.

It’s crazy.  Even laughable.  We’ve always had comments from people wondering if this blog was real, wondering if our Twitter account was real, wondering all sorts of things.  I can’t help but laugh.  We’re what, more than two years into this blog now?  I can’t imagine any couple spending 2 years of their lives making up hundreds of blog posts, running contests, reviewing products, etc.  I can assure you, there is VERY little money keeping a blog like this going – even though we have a few thousand unique visitors visiting our blog daily.

So sorry for going on and on here – just wanted to get a lot off of my chest that has been on it for a long time.  My posting frequency went down, down, down as many of you know shortly after Monkey was born.  I just didn’t want to be around all of the craziness sometimes going on with comments.  Now don’t get me wrong, 95% of you are awesome.  We have many VERY loyal readers and I want to say thank you, we appreciate you, we look forward to your comments, and appreciate you spending some time on our blog.  We really appreciate you.

But it’s that 5% that drives me nuts; drives me away.  They take all of the fun out of it, you know? For example, if I post about what happened the other night while Monkey was sleeping in bed with us, we’d get hit by a lot of negative comments on why Monkey should not be sleeping in bed with us.  Some would make it to the blog, while many others would be deleted due to being too rude, obnoxious, include swear words, etc.  Seriously guys, some commenters are NUTS.  So much so that we’ve had to literally block people’s IP addresses so that they cannot ever view our blog again.

So for all of you wondering where Tarzan went – the above explains everything.  It’s not that I’m gone – I’m on this blog each and every single day and spend a good 30 minutes to an hour a day going through everything and making sure things are running smoothly.

Maybe once Monkey is a little older I’ll be more motivated to post again about our daily happenings.  But for now, I feel that Monkey is at an age where too many people have too many opinions on what is right and what is wrong.  At the end of the day, YOU have to do what YOU feel is best and right.  Parenting is a never-ending learning process.  Sure, you can learn a few things from others, but at the end of the day, parenting is learned by being a parent.

There’s not one book or DVD in the world that can prepare you for what it’s really like to become a parent.  There isn’t one person in the world who can truly describe the feeling you get in your stomach when your son falls on the pavement – and gets his first skinned knee with blood running down his leg.

No one can explain the feeling you get in your heart when your little baby is sick and not feeling well.  I literally want to pull my heart out of my chest and do anything and take my little Monkey’s pain away and make him feel better.

There is no way of knowing what it’s like being a Father or Mother until you are one.  It’s one hell of an emotional roller coaster – and I can see how it can get the best of people, changing them into Parenting Monsters.  And for all of those out there, that I’ll now label as “Parenting Monsters”, please, for the sake of yourself and everyone around you… LIGHTEN UP.

So that’s the deal everyone.  And to address some random comments recently… Yes, this blog is real.  Always has been.  Yes, Jane and I did very well on the HCG diet.  Both feel great.  Look good.  Wearing clothes we haven’t worn in years.  And we’ll be doing one last round in January to get to our ideal weight.  Eating habits changing.  Exercising more.  I’ll even tell you guys that Jane ran a marathon recently!  (So proud of her!  I would have joined her, but I tore a muscle in my leg)

As far as ads on our blog, it’s how we are able to keep this blog up and running and cover the hosting costs.  If being able to go to Starbucks a couple of times a month from the profits of this blog makes us rich, then sure, this blog made us rich.

As far as why we don’t post daily – but try to post at least a couple times a week or more, well, read the above.  I don’t want to speak for Jane, but I’m sure she feels the same way I do on a few things I mention above.

I hope that everyone had a great Turkey Day and I hope everyone is excited as we are about the upcoming Holiday that has something to do with big guy in a red suit.  Our little Monkey LOVES christmas lights and looking around the neighborhood with us.  He is full of “oooooh’s” and “aahhhhh’s” when he sees the lights and yard decorations.

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Hey everyone!

You know, having a blog can be really fun, but there are times when it isn’t fun… and that’s how it was becoming.  I really enjoyed blogging about my pregnancy the most.  It was all so new to me & I didn’t feel so completely “attached” to the growing baby in my belly so it felt natural to make so many jokes about being pregnant.

Once I had Monkey, there was a bit of a shift in me.  Suddenly making jokes about my son wasn’t funny to me & didn’t seem appropriate.  Plus, (& totally  not bragging) he’s a good baby.  He’s slept through the night for forever, he hardly cries, & he’s just an easy going little boy.  While that’s really good for me, it’s not good fodder for a blog, hence my “I love my son & I’m happy being a mom” kind of posts.

I felt like the posts were seriously lacking what they used to be & I found myself getting bored with it.  Then I got a couple of responses telling me the same thing I was thinking & I just needed a break.

I usually don’t let negative comments get to me, but for some reason, I was bothered to read that I had become boring all of a sudden.  So I took a break from blogging.  I want to change my blog up a bit, but I’m not sure what to do… maybe I should just get pregnant again so that I can make fun of all the crazy changes that happen.  Just kidding.

Well, sort of.

Aside from not liking the boring side of myself, my uncle is not doing well and that’s really hard for me.  I’ve been going to visit him often, but it begins to take a toll on me.  It’s just hard.  Cancer sucks & I hate seeing him so weak & frail.

My in-laws have also been in town (for what seems like forever) & we’ve been doing so much with them.  I’ve been exhausted & went to bed at 8:30pm last night.  They are leaving in another week, which I’m looking forward to.

I’ve also been really busy with StrollerFit, another exercise class for my core, The Little Gym, playdates, & keeping up with the day to day errands that need to be done.

On a different note, I feel like I’m finally “there”… You know, that point where you look at your life & say, “Wow, I’m truly so damn happy with everything in my life.”  Seriously.  I wouldn’t change a thing.  I love being a mom.  I love having other mommy friends.  I love losing weight & feeling SO much stronger.  I’m just truly happy right now.

So while nothing truly awful has happened in my life, I’ve been really busy physically, emotionally, & mentally.  I do plan on blogging more instead of being absent like the past month; I just needed a break.  I’m sure all of you moms understand.  I never meant to be gone for so long without an explanation, but it just happened.

To those of you that have checked back so often only to find nothing – I’m so sorry.  I honestly felt like some sort of an explanation was due to y’all instead of just jumping back in & I didn’t have it in me to write this before.  I appreciate having you as readers and sorry if I made you worry that something was wrong with myself, Tarzan, or Monkey.  We are all healthy & doing well.  Most importantly, I hope that you will continue to read about our journey through parenthood & dealing with Monkey growing up.

And to Milly, Aye Vee, Annabelle Lee, and your other alter ego’s – You make me laugh.  Surely you didn’t think that I wasn’t aware that you are all the same person, did you?  LOL.  Feel free to stay away from reading.  I don’t prefer a lot of negativity in my life, especially from a crazy person that has created a lot of names & email addresses just so you can post on my blog.  Remember, it doesn’t matter how many times you change your name – Your IP address is STILL the same.

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I haven’t blogged in a few days & the reason is because I just don’t have it in me right now.  My mind has been occupied with thoughts of hope & prayers.

At the start of a new year, the last thing on a person’s mind should be health.  Well, in the perfect world that I wish I lived in anyways.

If you follow me on Twitter, you would know that my uncle is in ICU.  You also know that on NYE I felt extremely sad for a reason that I could not exactly pinpoint.  Now, not to say that I have this connection with my uncle that I just knew he was about to go into the hospital while I was feeling sad, but it’s a pretty crazy coincidence regardless.

I know that I have a million emails to reply to & I also know that I have a lot of giveaways that are way behind, but you know, it’s just hard.  I can’t get my mind off of wondering what’s going on at the hospital.

It just sucks.

I don’t really want to get into everything, but it’s pretty serious & life-threatening.  If you could please keep my uncle in your thoughts, prayers, send good vibes, etc. I would really appreciate it.

Love,
J

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Jane, Monkey, and Tarzan wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Jolly end of December!  Christmas time always brings an overwhelming amount of childhood memories rushing through me.  The excitement.  The happiness.  The joy.  Family. Toys.  Fun.  Some of my best memories growing up were this time of year.  And I know Jane and I will do everything we can to create the same magic for Monkey for many years to come.

Although Monkey won’t really understand what’s going on tomorrow as we’re unwrapping his presents with him, I know that tomorrow will become one of these days that I’ll never forget.  A baby’s first Christmas is so special.

Tomorrow, when we wake up, I’m going to cook Jane and I a nice breakfast.  Eggs, bacon, toast, and we also have some cinnamon buns that I’ll cook in the oven.  We’ll have Christmas music playing, and Monkey will be the center of our attention (as he always is).  We’ll then sit down by the Christmas tree and begin to open presents, one-by-one and show Monkey his new toys.  Jane and I will open our presents from each other, and then relax for awhile.

Actually, I’m excited out of my mind to play with Monkey’s toys with him, so I’m sure Jane and I will be playing with Monkey for awhile.  We’ll then make the long drive to Jane’s parents house and have Christmas there.  I’ll be excited to come back home so I can play with Monkey’s toys – with him of course.  Unless he’s tired and needs a nap, then I’ll just play with them by myself.

Anyway, I promised Jane that I wouldn’t be on my computer after 12:00 PM today and will not be on it over the next couple of days.  We need to run out and do some Christmas Eve stuff in a few, but just wanted to say Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Tarzan, Jane, and Monkey

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We recorded this awhile back (when Jane was 3 1/2 or 4 months pregnant) and since it’s almost Christmas, I figured we’d post the little song we sang here.

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Jane received an email from a woman who had asked if there was an easy way to go back and look at our pregnancy and baby blog posts in order.

I thought I’d post the answer here in case there’s anyone else who would like to do the same.

All you have to do is go to: http://www.hisboyscanswim.com/page/39 (opens in a new window)

On that page, you’ll see:

If you scroll down to the bottom of the last post, you’ll see “Next Entries”.  You can follow that all the way to the current baby blog posts.

Now as you scroll through the pregnancy and baby blog posts, you can click on the headline of a post to view the rest of the post.  Then just hit the back button and you’ll go back to the previous page.

I hope this helps you guys!

And you know what, I was going to stop the blog posts here… but looking back at the first blog post I wrote, I saw the date… and the one year anniversary is coming up in a few days!

We’ve received a lot of emails and comments from many of you who have gone all the way back to the beginning of our blog and have read our entire journey!  Thank you so much.  That amazes Jane and I to say the least.

We owe all of our readers a BIG thank you for hanging around here, commenting on our posts, and all of your help when we needed it.  You have all been such a BIG help to us – in so many ways… so many times.  Thank all of you.  Really.  Man… we’ve been through a lot here.

From postpartum depression to breastfeeding.  From being scared and unsure to becoming excited and confident.  From the struggles to the celebrations.  We’ve been an open book – and it’s been quite a journey that’s really only beginning.  Funny that it’s just beginning… 391 pregnancy and baby blog posts later!

From being accused of being a ‘fake blog’ a few times in comments on our blog, other blogs, and on Twitter (which made Jane and I laugh) to people attacking Jane or I on decisions we made awhile back.  The ride hasn’t been smooth all the time – but what can you expect when you’re blogging about real things that happen in your life?  :)  There’s always some bumps in the road!  We’ve learned to keep pushing forward and stay positive.

And that brings me to….

Happy Birthday To His Boys Can Swim!

On December 26, 2009, it will have been exactly ONE YEAR since our very first blog post by yours truly.  One year.  Amazing.  We’ve been through a lot here.  From posts that’ll make you cry to posts that’ll make you spit out your coffee from laughter.  (Really happened to someone!)

Allow me to take a trip through memory lane here a little…

From giving away thousands and thousands of dollars in prizes on our contests, to winning several awards, to pouring our hearts out many times, and when I blogged when I was on daddy duty in the middle of the night 1/2 asleep the first 1-2 weeks Monkey was brought home.  (I literally fell asleep blogging many times during those rough first few weeks!  And some of the posts make no sense whatsoever. LOL!)

I also remember for the first week or two that Monkey was home that I took over on Jane’s Twitter account.  I was on there all the time asking for help.  When I went shopping I asked for help MANY times and had so many people tweeting back.  We saved a lot of money many times – and learned about many new products we would have never known about.

And we also want to thank ALL of the wonderful people who have donated products for our contests, allowed us to review items, etc. Thank you so much.

Since our first blog post, our blog and Jane’s Twitter following grew quickly.  (Jane now has over 21,400 followers on Twitter which blows us away!)  We were mentioned in both Pregnancy & Newborn magazine, Pregnancy magazine this year, which was really cool.

And here’s some crazy stats about His Boys Can Swim that blew us away tonight and thought we’d share:

- In the last year, we have had over 1,100,000 (yes, 1.1 million) page views on our blog.

- People have visited our blog from 197 different countries!  Seriously, 197 counties!  No joke.  Places like: Congo, Mali, Cook Islands, South Korea, Monaco, Rwanda, Paraguay, Angola, Fiji, Syria, Iraq, Nepal, Guam, Bahamas, Denmark, and 180+ more.  Crazy, isn’t it?

- The least amount of visitors have come from Christmas Island, who has a whopping population of 1,403 people. Only 1 person viewed our blog from there.  If that’s you, tell your pregnant friends and new moms about us.  (Note: Christmas Island is a on-governing territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean, but in our stats it shows up as its own country.)  (Another note, Christmas Island does have a huge crab population.  120 million to be exact. Check out this video to see them in action.

- The top 3 states that view our blog are: California, New York, and Texas.

- The state with the least amount of people who have viewed our blog is Wyoming.  What’s up Wyoming?  Aren’t you having any babies over there!?

So there you have it.  Oh, and in case you’re wondering what will 2010 bring… Jane and I have some plans, ideas, etc. that we’ll share down the road when the time is right.  Some of the plans involve YOU in a big way.  So stay tuned on that one for sure.

The biggest plan is to keep pushing forward, sharing our story into the wild world of parenthood and stay up-to-date on the world of pregnancy.  And who knows… maybe we’ll try for a Baby Jane?  ;)  Maybe we can say that Baby Jane is a business expense for our blog and write off each and every single penny we spend there.  LOL  Wishful thinking.

Anyway, thanks again to ALL of you.  You’re what makes this blog exciting for us.  You’re the reason why we decided to open up to the world.  You’re the reason why we’re on here each and every single day.  Jane and I TRULY appreciate all of you!

- Tarzan

P.S… OK.  I’ll tell you one thing about 2010 plans/ideas… One thing Jane and I have been thinking about lately is helping other pregnant moms-to-be and new moms get their blogs/websites going and growing.  There’s a LOT to it as you can imagine.  Between HisBoysCanSwim.com and all of our little side projects, there is a wealth of information we can share.  I’ll bring it up in another post sometime to see if there would be any interest before we put in the crazy amount of time it would take to create all of the training.  Because once you learn all this stuff, there are many, many little things you can do to make some side money online, which I’m sure no one wouldn’t be opposed to making a little extra money each month.  Just one quick example here real quick…

I used some of what I learned here to put up a brand new website this month.  It took me 15 minutes to create it and 15 minutes to get it out there.  Here’s a screenshot of the earnings this month so far:

The first two transactions were denied for some reason, but went through the next day.  The total earnings for this little site for December so far has been: $145.80 in commissions that will be mailed to us in January.  Zero was spent on advertising.  All that was spent was about $10 for the domain name and hosting.  So no, not a life-changing amount of money by any means, but that’s just one example of a few sites I’ve recently started with Jane’s help.  Anyway, like I said… we’re just thinking about putting something together in 2010 for pregnant moms and current moms who want to get their blogs going and growing… and then maybe show some ways to make extra money online using the same methods on other sites.

So, we’ll see.  WHEW.  This “quick little post” I was planning morphed into so many different directions here!

Related posts:

1. His Boys Can Swim chosen as one of the “Fab Fifteen” pregnancy blogs! Well we just got back from the doctor’s appointment (see...
2. A quick update on the His Boys Can Swim Pregnancy Blog Contest We had a couple of people/companies update their prize which...
3. A Blast From The Past: The First His Boys Can Swim Blog Post It was just a few days ago that marked the...

Here’s a giveaway that any child (and parent) will love!  Barefoot Books has generously offered to give away the Barefoot Books Singalong Gift Collection, which is a $100 value!

I just received these books two days ago & to say that I was impressed is quite an understatement.  What caught my attention about the books were so many things.

The books are such a great size & hardback so that your child can’t tear off the cover.  The colors are so vibrant & occupied Monkey’s attention for longer than any other book we have.  Honestly.  See, told you I was impressed!

The words are big enough so that you don’t have to hold the book up to your face to read the story, but not too large that they take away from the picture.  I’m telling you, these books are great!

Another thing that I really like is that the kids in the story are from various races, including Caucasian, Asian, African-America, and Hispanic.  I like that Barefoot Books has incorporated different races into one book.

And as if you were interested already, each book comes with a CD in the back so that you and your child(ren) can sing along while reading!

Once the story ends, there is additional information that pertains to what the story was about.  For example, in “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush”, you learn how to play the song on the piano, as long as you can read piano keys.  You learn how the song originated & even a fun dancing game that goes along with the song.

In “Port Side Pirates” you are taught the different kinds of pirate ships, pirates around the world, famous pirates, and how to play the song on the piano.

In “Whole World” there is a “Did You Know?” section that explains what the sun, moon, mountains, valleys, plains, deserts, lakes, rivers, trees, flowers, birds, fish, and town and cities are.  There is also a page devoted to ways to reduce Global Warming and finally the sing along in the back to play on the piano.

The Barefoot Books Singalong Gift Collection is awesome and educational.  I would recommend these books to anyone and will be buying some more in the future.  It’s an invaluable way to teach your children about all different places, people, animals, and many other things in the world.

I am so glad that Barefoot Books offered to send me this collection and to give this collection away to a lucky winner!  I know that Monkey will love these books and grow into them more and more as he gets older.

The Giveaway:

Who can enter? U.S. and Canada

How to enter?
1.  Follow @liveBarefoot on Twitter and tweet them a message.  Post what you tweeted in the comment section.   (1 entry)

2.  Post on Twitter: “I just entered the @HisBoysCanSwim giveaway #4:http://bit.ly/6ukvuu ” and then tell me your Twitter ID in the comment section. (1 entry)

3.  Go to the Barefoot Books website and post a comment to let me know one book that you would be interested in. (1 entry)

Contest Ends: Saturday, December 12th at 1pm CST

You are allowed 3 entries for this giveaway.  Remember to post a different entry so that your chances of winning increase.  If you enter more than 3 times, your excess comments will be deleted.  I will pick the winner using Random.org & post it in the comments section.  Remember to check back to see if you are the winner.

If would like to buy Barefoot Books for your child(ren) or as a gift for someone else, here are a few things that you’ll want to know:

* Last day to ship ground for December 25 is December 15 (by 11:30am EST)

* Last day for upgraded shipping for December 25 is December 23 (by 11:30am EST)

* Free Shipping & 30% off all orders!  Enter SNOWY at check out!  Offer ends December 15, 2009.  Outside 48 continental states, standard upcharges apply.

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