I’ve kiddingly called “Moms Out Loud” my third child, so I find it coincidental that it has taken me nine months of “incubation” to get to this point.

I’ve traded in my suits, briefcase, expense account (and corporate paycheck) to build something I felt was needed as a Plano mom of two small boys (3 yrs and 1 yr old).  It’s been a journey of self-discovery and growth, that has only reinforced my belief in the promise that a forum like the one we’re building at MomsOutLoud.com holds.  In this blog post – “What is Moms Out Loud – Part One?”, I’ll talk about the features specifically of MomsOutLoud.com.  Next week, I’ll talk more about the community-building activities we’re doing (Mom’s Nights, etc.).  And then in the week before go-live, I’ll write about my long-term vision for the business and what it will give back to Moms.

MomsOutLoud.com is a web community that allows local Moms to get information, connect with one another, and celebrate being mothers.  Research shows that Moms have 30% more “word of mouth” conversations per day than the general population, where they ask questions of each other, share advice, and recommend products and services to each other.  The MomsOutLoud.com website provides a forum for sharing these word-of-mouth conversations on the web — in effect, amplifying them beyond a typically sized playdate or Moms group.

How exactly will MomsOutLoud.com provide this avenue for sharing experiences between local Moms?  Through our user-interactive web-site.  Here is a quick screen shot from our beta test site, to give you a quick idea of the “look and feel”.

We’ve built six sections into the site, listed under the names we’ve selected that will appear in the site header for easy navigation:  MomsReview, MomsPlan, MomsKnow, MomsSupport, MomsShare, and MomsInspire.  Each week – on Thursday (get the pattern?) – we will update the home page to highlight what’s new on the site, from a tally of the number of new reviews to what Moms have shared with us on MomsKnow topics for the week.  Here is a quick sample of the home page (text and graphics haven’t been filled in yet):

MomsReview:

Share your opinions and see what other Moms think when you read and submit reports on kid- and Mom-focused businesses.  We have built a database of over 1000 local businesses that provide services to families – pediatricians, birthday party places, dentists, spas, hair salons, etc.  These businesses, and their reviews that other Moms have submitted, are totally searchable by category, by distance from your zip code, and by keyword.  And the other great thing is – if we missed a business (say, your favorite activity place), you can easily add it to our database to make sure other Moms know about it.

MomsPlan:

This is our calendar feature.  We’ll contineu to highlight what we consider to be “can’t miss” events, but you will have the ability to search our entire database of events by date range, event type, distance from your zip code, free events only, and age appropriateness.

MomsKnow:

MomsKnow will be one of our two main “content” areas.  Here’s where you’ll find articles like those we’ve been putting in the newsletter (e.g., “The Best Skin Care Products”, “Your Guide to Fall Sports”, and “25 Free (or Cheap!) Things to Do with Your Kids This Summer”).  You’ll also find our Tip of the Week here, as well as articles from local experts we have lined up to contribute to the site on parenting topics.

MomsSupport:

This area will provide a directory of local Mom’s and women’s groups, searchable by city and by category (e.g., Moms Groups, Women’s professional organizations, etc.).  We will highlight different groups and fundraisers on this page as well, to provide these incredibly rich resources and networks more visibility to local Moms.

MomsShare:

MomsShare will be our discussion forum area.  We have created a few topic groups we’ve heard that Moms care about (e.g., “Moms of Multiples”, “ADHD/ADD Support”, “Families Seeking Babysitters/Nannies”, “Nannies/Babysitters Seeking Families”).  Groups can be set up by users, so if you have other topics that aren’t already covered in our initial topic areas, like “Argyle Moms”, you can create a new group.  As a member of a group, you can post comments and read the coments posted on the discussion board already.

MomsInspire:

Our second of the content areas, here is where you’ll see our weekly “MOMumental Moms”, as well as have the chance to read some personal essays written by Moms like yourselves on issues in their life.

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We can’t wait to have the site go live, and to get all of your feedback and comments on it as you play with it, search on it, and share your opinions on it!!

Name: Jamie

City: Sachse

Marital Status: married

Mom to: 3.5 month old daughter, Ava Grace and 19 month old son, Dylan.

Occupation: legal assistant by day, student by night

What was the last movie you saw and what did you think about it?
We just rented Juno. Since it is about such a controversial issue, I thought they did a great job at making it an entertaining and funny movie.
I’m looking forward to me and my husband’s date night—although now I can’t decide between Batman and Tropic Thunder!

What is sitting on your bedside table right now?
Receiving blanket, pacifier, lamp, phone, political theory school book, and alarm clock (set to the highest decibel possible)!

What is the last thing you told your children that your own mother told you when you were a kid?
“Eat your vegetables!” Once my children get a little older, I’m sure this statement will be followed by “do as I say not as I do.”

What was the last meal you cooked from scratch and when?
Last night, I made a chicken pasta salad and fruit salad – both quick and easy, which is really the only kind of meal I can prepare right now!

What was the best piece of parenting advice you got? Who gave it to you?
The best piece of advice I received from my mother would be to follow your motherly instinct. When she told me this I had just given birth to my son, and I told her I was a new mother and have no
idea what my instinct should be! Of course, you grow and learn and, in time, every mother knows what it means. I went from a paranoid, hypochondriac new mother calling the nurse every other day, to trusting my “instinct”.

What are three products that you could not live without (e.g., your journal, your Blackberry, your facial moisturizer – anything you use constantly!)
Right now, the top three products I use weekly if not daily are (1) a pacifier to calm both me and
Ava Grace, (2) a wonderful site where I create my children’s baby books called
www.bigdaybooks.com–it’s a complete savior for working moms, and (3) Nailtiques nail protein –
because I wouldn’t have nails without it!

If you could put one product on the market that doesn’t exist today, what would it be?
I think if I could create a product today, it would have to be a machine that not only makes you feel refreshed and tireless, but also one that gets rid of pesky facial wrinkles and dark eye circles—all while sleeping for only five hours! It could also shave off a few pounds here and there, as well as give a manicure/pedicure, oh, and also do my makeup and hair before I wake for the day…

Has your definition of success changed since you became a Mom? If so, how?
Definitely. Prior to having children, I was driven to work hard and always set my own personal standards high. Now that I have my babies, I’m thinking law school can wait another 5 or 6 years!

What do you do in your “me”-time? How do you protect it?
I have a newborn and one and a half year old—what exactly is “me” time again!?! I do have a girls’ night twice a month, and I get away for a quick and easy mystic tan or pedicure here and there. The simplest (and quickest) things make me happy!

How are you different today than you thought you’d be at this point in your life?
If you would have told me three years ago that I would have two children at age 30, I would tell you there was no way possible! Having little ones only 15 months apart is quite a challenge, but I
wouldn’t have it any other way.

If an expectant mother asked you “what it’s like to be a Mom”, what would you tell her?
I would tell her that no words could ever come close to describe being a mother. It’s the most rewarding and most stressful role that a woman could ever have! The movie Parenthood explains it
perfectly when they say it is like riding a rollercoaster, and you are either one who likes the unpredictability, or one who prefers the merry-go-round. If you’re a rollercoaster fan, you have to learn to let go and enjoy the ride…bumps and all

Thanks, Jamie, for sharing a bit about yourself with our Mom readers! If anyone else would like to get a copy of our MOMumental Mom Questionnaire, please email us at MOMumentalMom@momsoutloud.com!

Name: Missy

City: Plano

Marital Status: divorced

Mom to: 18 year old daughter, Sarah and 16 year old son, Scott.

Occupation: Elementary school teacher, 3rd grade

What was the last movie you saw and what did you think about it?
Just saw Mamma Mia and had a fun time singing old Abba songs & wishing I could afford to go to Greece!

What is sitting on your bedside table right now?
Four unfinished bestsellers, a lamp, a phone, and my brain (a pad of paper & a pen)

What is the last thing you told your children that your own mother told you when you were a kid?
“I shouldn’t HAVE to tell you to pick that up!” followed shortly by “Oh my goodness, I’m my mother!”

What was the last meal you cooked from scratch and when?
Cooked a crock pot roast last night and made gravy & mushrooms this morning. I do this about once or twice a year….

What was the best piece of parenting advice you got? Who gave it to you?
“Just wait a couple of weeks.” Given to me by my mom when my kids were infants and I thought I couldn’t live through whatever they were going through at that time—hunger, teething, etc. She taught me to hang in there & usually whatever is happening passes, & that I would survive it, and she was right!

What are three products that you could not live without?
My computer—email is my contact with the outside world; elastic waistbands (there’s a reason they call it ‘middle’ age); and Nestle Creamer—I must have a hot cup of tea with it every morning!

If you could put one product on the market that doesn’t exist today, what would it be?
I would like to have a day extender, you know, that gives you two extra hours each day in which you could sleep, exercise, or do whatever it is you just don’t have enough time for in the regular 24-hour day.

Has your definition of success changed since you became a Mom? If so, how?
Of course, it’s all about money & status before kids, and then after that, it’s all about passing your newfound ideas about success on to your kids and celebrating them each and every day for who they are at that moment in time.

What do you do in your “me”-time? How do you protect it?
When possible, I like to spend time in or near a body of natural water or watching a nice cozy indoor or outdoor fire. If time, I like to travel. It is really hard to find me time once the school year starts, but I protect it by saying no to certain people and projects and by letting my housework slide (understatement) so I have down time.

How are you different today than you thought you’d be at this point in your life?
Well, for one I thought I’d be married, but other than that I think my path has rendered me more wise and mature and unselfish. One dream that has come true is that I have successfully raised two well-adjusted kids who can cope with life and still love to be around their mother!

If an expectant mother asked you “what it’s like to be a Mom”, what would you tell her?
I would tell her that if you do it right, it is both the hardest and absolutely most rewarding choice in the world. Plan to learn a lot about yourself, and plan to find out what unconditional love really means.

Thanks, Missy, for sharing a bit about yourself with our Mom readers! If anyone else would like to get a copy of our MOMumental Mom Questionnaire, please email us at MOMumentalMom@momsoutloud.com!

How did this happen? Well, I have to thank Marta Frey, the Director of the Small Business Development Center at the Collin County Community College District. When Moms Out Loud was but a speck of an idea (and I was still employed, which must not have conveyed into the article), I met with Marta and “pitched it” to her for her reaction. She very politely told me that it sounded like a great idea, but that I may be a tad too aggressive in my assumptions on how fast it could launch and take hold. (Me? Expectations too high? Strange, I’ve never heard that before.) Anyway, she, and the SBDC, have remained a great resource as I’ve gotten my business going. On her recommendation, Kim called me for an interview.

So, I met with Kim Nguyen over a Starbuck’s blended lemonade last week (a great reason to go to Starbuck’s…like I need another reason to go to Starbuck’s) and had a wonderful discussion. She wove it into a nice article profiling the trend of Moms (like so many I now know) opting out of corporate life and into something they are passionate about that provides them more flexibility to balance their family and career. Overall, I think she nailed it, even though there was some appropriate “poetic license” used (on my part, at least). And now I feel like I have four more comrades on this entrpreneurial ride I’m on, which is great. (Check out the Teacher Depot in Frisco, Dawn Michelle Photography, Homemaker CEO, and The Executive Organizer.)

There is only one place I feel like I really have to correct the article, which says MOL is targeted to Moms who stay at home. In fact, Moms Out Loud is targeted to all Moms, not just those who stay home. One of the great things about the way we’ve scoped Moms Out Loud is that any Mom can find something useful in it, whether it be the reviews of local businesses, the local events calendar, the Mom/parenting content, or the social networking. And every mom as an individual will probably use it differently than other Moms. So, I hope every Mom from every walk of life will use it and find it helps solve some of the hassles in her life.

And thanks again, Kim, for a great discussion and for spotlighting some of the great Mom-owned businesses here locally.

Name: Jill

City: Plano

Marital Status: married

Mom to: Samantha (“Sami”), 15-month old girl

Occupation: Attorney. However, I have started my own business, Sweet Cheeks. I specialize in monogrammed diaper covers, onesies, bibs, burp cloths, etc. for babies and small toddlers. I also carry other speciality items from vendors I personally love, like Swankie Blankie and Elegant Baby.

What is sitting on your bedside table right now?

A lamp, a decorative plate with writing pens and paper on it. A glass of water and coaster (of course!). I think even a wrapper from one of Sami’s snacks. I have a pile of sam’s books on the floor that won’t fit on the nightstand because we read each night in my bed before she goes to bed.

What is the last thing you told your children that your own mother told you when you were a kid?

I love you.

What was the last meal you cooked from scratch and when?

Does breastmilk count? BECAUSE I DON’T COOK.

What was the best piece of parenting advice you got? Who gave it to you?

My mom gave me the advice. You have to put babies on a schedule! My daughter is wonderful at bedtime and sleeps well. She is a very happy girl and I’m happy to think that I contribute to that happiness in many ways!!

What are three products that you could not live without?

Blackberry (soon to change to my new i-phone!), a car, toothbrush and toothpaste!

If you could put one product on the market that doesn’t exist today, what would it be?

I am soooo sick of traffic. I think I would invent a space travel option on my NEW i-phone (a machine would be too large to haul with me everywhere and I’m already pretty attached to my blackberry). You could simply enter a location and you would be “beamed” over there. (I guess I’m showing my age using the word “beamed”!!!) Then I wouldn’t care about the price of gas!

Has your definition of success changed since you became a Mom? If so, how?

Absolutely! I can’t really describe it. I think you have to experience it to truly know what I am talking about. The best way to describe it is “a change in focus”. I focus on my daughter’s successes! If she says a new word, if she’s happy, if she learns a new skill….those are now my success stories.

How well I remember my carefree 20’s. Well, they didn’t seem carefree then; I was trying to work through a failing marriage while making a start on my career. But, looking back from my vantage point of right now – with kids, a mortgage, aging parents, and a (different) husband with a cholesterol level of over 280 due to genetics – my memory is that they were relatively easy.

The other thing I remember being very easy in my 20’s was my ability to judge others. When you don’t know a whole lot about anything, judging is very easy to do.

In my childhood home, we have an old wooden plaque hanging in the kitchen that is engraved with this saying: “Before I judge a man, let me walk a mile in his moccasins.” The quote is attributed to an old Indian proverb. Given that we lived in Apache, Oklahoma and that the tenet of the saying makes sense, I never questioned it authenticity. In fact, I never really thought much about it.

Until I became a Mom.

And then, all sorts of judgments I’d made in the past – even subconscious ones that I’d never even articulated – would come rushing forth from time to time. Usually, these floodgates happened as I found myself in the exact situation I’d judged someone about years earlier.

Examples are:

• Why can’t my sister get my nephew to eat something other than chicken nuggets for the sixth night in a row?
• Why can’t that Mom get her baby to shush on this crowded plane?
• Why would anyone need a night nurse?
• Or – the worst one, that I still hate to admit I was capable of – why can’t that Mom stay late at work tonight to finish this report?

I’ll never forget a trip I made to Target when my first son was about 6 weeks old. I had left Jack at home sleeping with my husband on watch, while I made a short escape outside of our home, which at that point was feeling more like a prison. (More on what I now think was postpartum depression combined with misguided attachment parenting philosophy in later musings). As I walked through the store, I heard a ~2-3 yr old screaming at the top of his lungs about wanting some toy that his mom wouldn’t buy him.

Up to this point, I had always assumed that when kids acted this way in a store, it was due to a behavior of the parent. Maybe the parent had taken them out during naptime, or the kid needed a snack, or something. But as I listened to the tactics the Mom was using to try to get the kid to calm down, it struck me – every move she was making was something I would have tried. AND IT WASN’T WORKING! The kid just screamed harder until she ended up picking him up from the half-full shopping cart and taking him out of the store.

Witnessing that episode shook me to the core. I remember calling Jim from the parking lot, crying hysterically as I tried to describe the feeling of anxiety that had just come over me. I think it was the first time I really understood that when you have children, you give up the ability to control your own life. This was a hard lesson in reality for me, an ambitious control freak who had a grand design for my life that took me well into my nineties.

That was almost three years ago, and I’ve learned a lot since then. And as I’ve been walking in these “Motherhood Moccasins”, I’ve stopped a lot of my judgmental behaviors.

• The woman on the plane who’s trying to negotiate cramped aisles, diaper bags, and one (or – even worse – more than one) kid by herself? Here, please sit by me. I’ll be a sympathetic ear.
• The woman in the grocery store with a fussy pre-schooler? Here, let me try to redirect him through distraction. At the least, it will give you a chance to catch a breath.
• The woman who has to return to work after maternity leave whose husband travels for business during the week? Here, let me give you a great recommendation for a night nurse.
• The woman with a stroller trying to make her way onto an already over-full elevator? Here, let me help you get inside, giving up my own space if I need to.

That’s one of the beautiful things about being a Mom. You learn so much. You learn that raising kids takes more than two hands – even if those hands change a diaper or make a bottle differently than yours. You learn that children grow up to be smart/have allergies/be healthy by drinking breastmilk OR formula (and vice versa). You learn that well-adjusted, happy and secure kids can be the product of stay at home Moms, nannies, or day-care. You learn that it’s not nature OR nurture – it’s both.

And, as for the moments of criticism that still flare up, I have noticed something – they tend to happen when I’m watching something I haven’t had to deal with personally yet. They are for bridges I haven’t crossed yet: public vs. private school, select athletics, how early is too early for a cell phone. I just hope when I reach those stages with my own kids, I won’t judge myself (or anyone else) too harshly for any choice they’ve made.

Even among children’s characters, he would not be the first mentioned in a panel discussion of who’s the smartest. Velma (of Scoobie Doo fame), Charlie Brown (or Snoopy), even Bugs Bunny would likely rank higher on an intelligence scale. In fact, the Barney & Friends show has been criticized for its lack of educational value.

I will admit, I’ve never found Barney to be especially insightful, although I appreciate the lessons in friendship and getting along he tries to teach children. OK, so there’s not a lot of math, but who can argue with a theme song that says: “I love you / You love me / We’re a happy family?”

So this morning, when I read a new (to us) Barney book to Jack, you can imagine my surprise when I found a piece of profound wisdom in something Barney said.

In this particular story, a little girl named Lori was feeling anxious about her family moving to a new town. Barney (surprisingly) came to life to comfort her and help her imagine all the good things about the new place where they would be living. What he told her first was:

Barney demonstrated to Lori that everyday she grew up on the outside. Really, Barney, even my 2 year old knows that. So no insight there. But then, he went on to tell her:

“Every time you try something new, you grow on the inside.”

This is so true, whether you are an-almost-three-year-old who is starting swim lessons (as Jack is), or an-almost-forty-year-old who is starting a business (like me).

Why does change make you grow? Well, because it’s not easy. It uses different muscles of your body or your brain (or both) that may not be used to a workout. It takes energy, because not only are you engaging in the new activity, you are pushing against inertia, one of the most powerful forces of the universe. It requires imagination, a bit of courage, and a healthy dose of humility – because, hey, you just might fall flat on your face.

Later this same day, the Barney book long forgotten after the flurry of morning activities of home and work, I spoke to an old boss at a former employer. (I feel quite certain that he will never read this blog, since he didn’t even ask me what I was doing with my life now. . . although he did reference my new leisurely full-time Mom life a couple of times during the few moments the conversation ever drifted to being about me. OK, secret’s out as to one of the reasons I left.) This person proceeded to tell me all of the latest news from this employer, dirty laundry and all. As I listened to his monologue about the recent happenings, I thought: “Wow. Nothing has changed at all. We could have had this exact same conversation a year ago and it all would have applied.”

That’s when the Barney message came back to the forefront of my mind. I could have stayed in my job, in my company, in my environment, in my cocoon, and not entered this uncertain world of business ownership. The safe route. The comfortable route. The boring route. And again, I thought, I’m so glad I’m trying something different. I’m so glad I’m using different muscles. I’m so glad I’m growing from the inside. Because no matter what happens with my business, I am becoming a better and stronger person. (Plus I’m having fun!)

I think of my sons, to whom every day brings something new, whether it be in small ways (like feeding Luke a grilled cheese for the first time) or in bigger ones (potty-training for Jack). Learning to be adaptable to change is a key quality that they will need to have a happy life, because the only thing that is certain is that things will change. They don’t have a choice about many things now (except maybe what pajamas to wear at night, or whether to have tacos or fish sticks for dinner). I hope when they do have choices, they will take the harder path – which is usually going to be the one that is new. But that is the path that will help them grow.

For that reason, I think it’s wise to teach kids, even from a young age, that change is good. So, yeah, I guess Barney is pretty smart.

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T-shirt bought on Woot.com, $10 & up

I had to figure out a way to work www.woot.com into this blog entry on Father’s Day gift ideas and I finally did it – they have T-shirts for sale!! And they are really funny shirts – or at least I think my husband would think so; after all, he has a slightly deranged, dry sense of humor and likes to wear somewhat, shall we say, unusual shirts and caps.

I recently discovered www.woot.com by striking up a conversation with a very cool mom at PetsMart (hey, Tiffany!) whose son, a little older than Jack, was wearing a kid-sized Home Depot apron that was just so cute. (They had just been to one of the free Saturday seminars and made a birdhouse or something.) Turns out her husband works at woot.com in Carrollton, which I had never heard of. BUT – when I mentioned it to Jim that evening, his eyes lit up and he got a sort of dreamy look about all the cool gadgets on the site. And, every 30-yr+ old man I’ve mentioned it to since has had the same reaction, while every woman I’ve mentioned it to has stared at me blankly. Woot clearly has their target market nailed!

I just spent half an hour laughing on the site, reading the blog, and looking at the t-shirts (the website for the shirts is shirt.woot.com, but you can link to it through the home page on the right hand side). Buy your man something from woot.com and he’ll be impressed with how cool and hip you are!

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MagWear® Handyman’s Helper Magnetic Wristband, $19.95 + $6 S&H

I saw this item around Christmas-time in Real Simple last year. So did thousands of other people, apparently, because by the time I got around to ordering it, they were sold out and backordered until, well, maybe just now. I thought it was an ingenious idea, and since a frequent item on my honey-do list for Jim is hanging stuff around the house, I thought it might be an encouragement to tackle those items faster. (I have not been able to prove that theory out yet, as I just ordered it today for him from www.spoonsisters.com. Maybe by the end of summer I’ll be able to report back on any faster response time.)

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RoboGrip Auto-Adjusting Pliers, $17 + S&H

At most gift-giving occasions, I checkout Home Depot or Lowe’s to find (and usually purchase) whatever new and interesting tool they are pushing for that season. Black and Decker usually comes through with a new tool launched just at the holidays or early summer (Christmas / Father’s Day – get it?). From their end cap display, which invariably gets prominent front-of-store placement so that you have to trip over it to go anywhere else in the store, I have purchased some very cool items for Jim, including the Cordless PivotDriver Screwdriver, the Auto Wrench Adjusting Wrench, and the Bullseye Crosshair Leveling Laser. BUT – when you ask Jim which tool he uses most (after the PivotDriver, which I have even gotten the hang of because it is so easy and effective), he says it’s the RoboGrip Auto-Adjusting Pliers. Don’t ask me what he does with them, but he says he uses it a lot and it’s his second-most favorite tool (again, after the PivotDriver). So why didn’t I include the PivotDriver, you ask?? Good question: here’s a pic:

Black & Decker PivotDriver Screwdriver, ~$25

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Hyloft Ceiling Storage Unit – $59.99 + S&H

If your home storage space is as challenged as ours is, and your bank account is challenged as well, you may want to consider a “poor-woman’s” garage organizational system. One year, I bought Jim 2 of these ceiling storage units, a pegboard and pegboard hangers, and a set of steel shelves. For about $150, we got a more organized garage….that still can only hold one car, but at least that car is mine. ☺ This is not my truck, by the way – because as you all know, I drive a mini-van! The best price I found on this online was at www.Target.com, but the Hyloft storage shelves are available at Lowe’s (where I bought Jim’s) and probably Home Depot as well.

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Fly a “real” Flight Simulator! $25/hour to $299 and up

This would be a great gift for anyone who would love to test their “wings” but you want to keep safe. There are two places where I found this to be available. The first – www.fsfe.us (“Flight Simulators for Everyone” based in Southlake) – is more affordable, but only gives you the option of flying small planes or helicopters. Their prices seem very reasonable.

So, it might be a good test option to see if you want to go to the more expensive option of www.flyasim.com (“Fly-a-Sim” at DFW airport). Here you get to fly a real Boeing 7-something jet simulator, and was described by one dad I know as “an amazing experience.”

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Anything with your child’s own handprint, footprint, or drawing on it. Priceless.

And – saving the best for last – now that we have kids, every year for every gift-giving occasion, Jim and I give each other at least one item that was “created” by them. I imagine the novelty of this wears off over time (maybe?), but right now, these are my favorite gifts (and I hope his, too). The picture above was of my favorite gift from Jim for Mother’s Day. Jim bought washable poster paint and used it to get the boys to put their hand- and foot-prints on 4”x6” white cardstock. He then framed these prints, along with their pictures, in a collage wall frame that he bought at Target. Total cost was under $25, but it’s a gift I will treasure for a lifetime. (Jack appreciated it, too, because by measuring his foot – right at 6” – we determined he needed some new shoes!)

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Hope this gives you all some good ideas for Father’s Day!!!