Dedication and Persistance

Well, thankfully, the voting portion of the contest to be on the cover of Today's Parent Magazine came to a close last night and now it's time for the judges to decide who the final four will be! Glad I'm not in their seats, it's going to be a hard decision!

This contest certainly brought out the competitive side of me as well as the proud mommy side. Together those two sides made for one interesting month! 

I have to first say a HUGE thank you to all of my friends and family who voted, tried to vote and even helped to spread the word on the contest. There is no way I could have gotten 220 votes on my own. I am so thankful and grateful to have you folks in our lives. Even if Samantha doesn't make final four, I am so humbled to know that so many people cared enough to take time out of their own lives to vote!

As any crazy-mother, like myself, would, I did everything in my power to conjure as many votes as I could! I "spammed" every single person I knew on Facebook and Twitter...at least 3 times. In fact, Facebook actually thought I was a robot because I was private messaging so many people! I told complete strangers about the contest and I even reached out to every personal and business network that would listen. 

Curiously enough, other moms that I know, actually became upset with me asking for votes, since their child was also in the competition, yet would not speak to me about it...not even a simple message. Instead, they complained about their issue to others I know. I hope that they can understand that I was simply doing the same thing they were, reaching out to friends, family and acquaintances in hopes of getting a few more votes. And I really hope that this does not influence our friendship.

With my dedication and persistence, Samantha ended the voting period 23 out of 9779 entries! Maybe, I was wrong in asking everyone to vote, but that was the basis of the contest. I will not apologize for that. I do apologize, however, to those people who I literally asked every week to vote and hope that they understand that this is just one of those occasions where a mother would do anything for her child. 

Thankfully, I can return to normal mommy-mode and resume normal Facebook, Twitter and 99 Days of Laughter updates! Such as Samantha playing "peek-a-boo" with me this morning, which I have generously uploaded below for your enjoyment and laughter! 

*We now return to our regular scheduled programming*