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baby

Whale Shaped Diaper Cake

Whale Diaper Cake - Adorable idea for a baby showerThis has been a big year for babies in our family. I just became an auntie for the first time last week & I have a few cousins that are expecting soon as well. I have had and still have quite a few baby showers this year. A couple of months ago I was feeling brave & tried my hand at my first diaper cake.

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I had so much fun making it, that I was feeling brave again. My cousin is expecting a little boy in June. Her nursery has a whale theme, so in keeping with her theme, I decided to make a whale shaped diaper cake.

If you have ever thought of making a diaper cake, it can be a lot of fun, but it requires a little bit of patience & in the case of the whale, the ability to improvise.

What you will need:

A box of diapers (about 150 count)

Receiving blankets

Wash clothes

Paper towel roll core

Ribbon

String or yarn

Foam sheet (to make the face)

Pipe cleaners

Craft sticks

Safety pins

Glue gun

Directions:

Start with an empty paper towel roll. Wrap two rows of diapers side by side around the roll. Overlap the diapers slightly until they go all the way around. Secure in place with string or yarn. We used yarn.

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Wrap diapers around one end of the roll covering the hole & rounding the end. Layer them in different directions to achieve this. Secure with yarn. Secure with yarn after each layer.

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Wrap another layer of diaper around the first layer of diapers. Leave the rounded portion peeking out.

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Bend another paper towel roll & insert and glue into the existing roll. Be careful that you do not get glue on the diapers.

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Layer diapers around the new tube. Make this layer of diapers thinner than the others. Grab another paper towel tube & cut a 1/4 of it & glue & insert into the other. Place another smaller layer of diapers adjacent to the last layer.

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Our tail was formed from craft sticks. Glue 2 craft sticks in a wide “v’ shape to the top of 2 more craft sticks. Insert & glue the bottom sticks into the tube so that the “v’ shape is sticking out & let dry. Add another small layer of diapers.

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Add another layer of diapers down the center of the front portion of your whale, so that it covers the divide between the first two diaper layers. Do this all the way around. This will help round out the head more.

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Add another layer of diapers now running horizontally to the same front portion. Do this all the way around.

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Once you have achieved the whale shape that you want, you can begin decorating. Mai informed me that this looked like a plane, not a whale. I guess this would work as a plane as well. (Please excuse the messy work space.)

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Wrap the whale’s tail with a folded receiving blanket. Secure into place with yarn. Wrap a ribbon around the yarn. Secure it with a safety pin it at the bottom. Make sure not to pin the diapers.

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Wrap as many more blankets as you would like in the same fashion. Fold a couple of washcloths to form a fin. Tuck into an existing ribbon or add another ribbon. Form another fin for the other side. Wrap washcloths around the craft sticks to form the tail.

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Cut eyes and a mouth out of foam & glue them to the ribbon. Be careful not to drip glue on the blankets or diapers. Finish the whale off with a pipe cleaner water-spout.

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The whale was a huge success. My cousin loved it.

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Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

My First Attempt At A Diaper Cake & Sunday’s Best Linkup #19

4 Tiered Monkey Diaper cake _ Baby shower gifts

 

It is a big year for babies in my family. I have 3 cousins that are expecting & my sister-in-law is pregnant with her first baby. I am excited to become an auntie & for Mai to meet her first cousin. My sister-in-law’s baby shower was this weekend. I had wanted to try my hand a making a diaper cake for a while & thought that this was the perfect time to try it.

I was a little nervous. I had an idea in mind based on a combination of different diaper cakes that I had seen. I wanted to form a tiered diaper cake that looked like a monkey. Here goes nothing…

Form a base to carry your cake on. Cut a circle out of cardboard.

Cut out & cover your board in felt.

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Use an old paper towel roll. Place it in the middle of the circle & begin your cake by wrapping a diaper around the paper towel roll horizontally. Layer another diaper over it leaving about an inch or so of the original showing. Continue around in this manner.

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You may use a string to loosely hold your tier in place & then tuck more diapers in under the string. Continue around until you achieve the desired width for your bottom tier.

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Start your second tier using the same method. Do the same for your remaining tiers. We did 4 total.

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I covered the cake with a folded blanket. We folded it with the print side folded in & then secured it to the front with a pin.

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For the monkey head & arms we used a tummy time play mat that we found. I secured the arms with a safety pin hugging the top 2 tiers.

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To form the banana, roll a white washcloth. Roll it so that it is thinner at top & fatter on the bottom.

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Wrap another washcloth around it. Make sure that one side is smooth & gather the excess around the back.

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To form the peel, fold a yellow washcloth at one of the corners.

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Make a diagonal fold on one side into the center of the initial fold.

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Fold the other side over in a similar fashion. Fold them in again the same way & repeat these steps with a second washcloth.

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Place both of the folded wash cloths around either end of the white washcloth.

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Cover the yellow & white cloths with another yellow cloth & smooth out the front & pull the excess to the back.

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Fold & tuck the back in to secure it & pull the peels down so they droop.

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Pull the bottom of the cloths up & secure by tucking in at the top.

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To make leaves, fold a green washcloth from corner to corner to form a triangle.

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Fold the edges in around the triangle, except at the bottom.

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Start on one of the sides & roll in toward the center. Do the same for the other end. You may secure with a rubber band if you like or just tuck it in somewhere on the cake.

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We used branches wrapped in yarn to form the tree branches & tucked the leaves in around them.

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My first diaper cake attempt was a hit. I can’t wait for the next shower.  Now on to our main event.

 

 
Welcome to Week 19 of  Mother 2 Mother’s Sunday’s Best Linkup This week we’re celebrating mothers around the world. We would like to wish each of our moms A Happy and Blessed Mother’s Day. 
 
May is the month to plant gardens and flowers, open pools, fire up backyard grills, makeover outdoor spaces, and turn the kids loose in the yard. I know you’re jumping for joy, right!  I
know I am.  
 
This week we’re looking for posts on Mother’s Day past and ideas for this Mother’s Day, activities for kids inside and outside, recipes, crafts, DIY, home makeover and gardening tips, SEO and blogging information, sewing projects, patio and deck makeovers, backyard projects, front porch makeovers, spring organization tips, and ideas for indoor flower arrangements.  
Blow the dust off your old posts and link those too. They’re great for inspiration. Don’t have posts that fit into the theme, link up whatever post you would like to share. We would love to have parenting tips, DIY projects, homesteading, homeschooling, and your posts on family and life. Your linkups and giveaways are welcome here too. Anything goes, as long as it’s family friendly and you may linkup as many posts as you would like. 

Each week your hosts will select their favorite post and it will be featured the following week. An image from your post will be used on my blog the following week with a link back to your blog. Be sure to check back to see if you’re a Sunday’s Best featured blogger. All Featured Bloggers will have their posts Pinned to the Sunday’s Best Pinterest Board.   



What’s New: We would like readers to select their favorite posts. Voting will start at noon every Friday until mid-night. We will be adding the post with the most votes from our readers to our Sunday’s Best featured bloggers. Be sure to have your blog readers and social media followers head over to vote for your post on Fridays. 

If you are interested in becoming a Sunday’s Best host, please contact me for details at rhonda@mother2motherblog.com or email one of our other hosts. 



                                             Your Hosts Are:


            Rhonda – Mother 2 Mother                Kim U. – Pinterested Parent         Kim M. – Life In A House of Testosterone


  

Here’s the rules, please connect with us on social media before you leave or subscribe to/follow our blogs:  


Mother 2 Mother: Please like my 
Facebook Page, follow me on Twitter,  Google+, PinterestBlogLovin or subscribe/join my blog on the right before you leave.   



The Pinterested Parent: Please like Kim’s Facebook Page, follow her on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Bloglovin before you leave.  



Life In A House of Testosterone: Please like Kim’s Facebook Page, follow her on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Bloglovin, or Instagram before you leave. 


 

Mother 2 Mother Blog

Last, please help us grow by placing our button on your sidebar. If you are selected as a Featured Blogger please let your readers and followers know. They may want to join the party too! For those who have a Link Party list/directory, please add us. I appreciate your help in promoting the linkup with Re-tweets and shares.  If you have been featured – add this button to your blog & link to the week you were featured. 
featured blogger sundays best linkup

Now lets party! 

The Sunday’s Best Posts are:

Kim U. selected  Berry Delicious Cheesecake Fluff  from Dizzy, Busy and Hungry  

 




I selected Funny Face Seedlings from Made With Happy  





Kim M. selected – Who is Responsible? The Race Cards are on the Table from Living in Mommywood  


The Readers Choose: 





5 Tips for New Bloggers from J9 Designs




Congratulations to our featured bloggers! All of the posts were great, and I appreciate each of you linking up. I would like to invite all of you back to linkup your post(s) again, it could be selected this week. While you’re here take a minute to visit these great blogs. It’s a great way to meet and connect with new bloggers. Be sure to PIN or share any posts that you like, we all appreciate a little love. 


 

Pasta Baby Bundles

Pasta Baby Bundles - This would be so cute for a baby shower.April showers bring spring flowers. This spring also is bringing us some baby showers. With my sister-in-law, a good friend of mine & my cousin all expecting at roughly the same times, we will be busy shopping for these new little bundles. Our daughter is very excited to welcome all of the new babies.

I had the first of the baby showers this afternoon. This morning, I told Mai that mommy had to go to a baby shower today & she asked me “What’s a baby shower?” I explained to her that a shower is where you buy gifts for the new baby.

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She talked about her auntie’s baby.

Mai: “Cioci Melly’s baby will be my sister.”

Me: “Your Cioci’s baby will be your cousin”, I explained

Mai: “I have an idea. Let’s make pasta babies.”

Me: “Ummm ok!”

As you know my daughter loves to craft & she has been a great source of my inspiration lately. If pasta babies are what she wants to make, than that is what we would do.

What you will need:

For each baby made you will need…

1 Jumbo pasta shell

1 medium sized pasta shell

1 elbow macaroni

Acrylic paint

Glue gun – (adults should glue for safety)

For a girl – 1 bowtie pasta

For a boy – a few pieces of broken spaghetti

 

You may choose to assemble your babies first or paint the pieces first. It is your choice. We prefer to paint the pieces first & then glue together.

Paint the medium sized shells in a skin tone color.

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Paint the jumbo shells in the color of your choice. We went with traditional pink for the girl, blue for boy & neutral green. Paint the elbow in the same colors to match with the jumbo shells. Paint the bow for the girl. Paint the spaghetti strands in a hair color. Let the paint dry.

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For each baby that you will make, you will place a medium pasta shell under the jumbo shell as shown. Use a small elbow pasta to tuck into the bottom of the shell to just round off the bottom. Glue the bow to the head for a girl. Glue spaghetti pieces for hair for the boy. Paint faces onto the heads. Let dry.

 

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Mai painted these & wanted to make her own faces. She also painted a scoop of ice cream on the little boy’s blue blanket for him.

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Pasta Baby Bundles - This would be so cute for a baby shower.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

 

 

 

 

Footprint Easter Bunny Craft

Foot print Easter Bunny craft I just never get sick of my daughter’s cute little piggies. There is just something so cute about baby feet. With time racing by, she is quickly becoming less of a baby & more of a little girl. Mommy needs to preserve all these baby moments while I can. With Easter nearing, I thought it time for our first Easter craft.

What you will need:

Poster board

Plain white paper

Paint

Paint brush

Markers

Cotton Balls

Glue

Paper plate

Directions:

Spread paint on a paper plate.

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Dip your child’s feet in the paint.

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Press the paint covered foot on a piece of paper. Repeat with the other foot & let dry. Cut out the feet prints.

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Sketch out your bunny around the baby’s feet, using the feet as bunny feet

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Draw some egg shapes on a piece of paper & have your child paint on it.

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Cut out the eggs & set aside.

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Glue the eggs to the chest where the hands would be holding them.

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Cut out two oval shapes as hands & glue them down over the eggs to make it appear as if they are holding them. Draw lines on the paws.

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Paint/color your bunny’s ears, eyes, nose & tummy. Outline the mouth & whiskers.

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Squeeze glue on to the parts that you want fluffy, like the bunny ears.

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Spread cotton balls out across the glue.

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My daughter loves gluing. This is a part that you can do together.

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We chose to cut our bunny shape out & hang it on the refrigerator with magnets.

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We also made a smaller one with floppy ears. This looks a little more like a floppy earred dog than a bunny, but I still think it came out pretty cute.

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My daughter got a real kick out of making the paint foot prints. We made several set of foot prints because she thought it was so funny. We hung our craft on the refrigerator. Before bed this evening Mai ran up to it & said “Goodnight Bunny”. She is so cute.

‘The Story Of Us’ Told With Movie Titles

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                        ‘The Story of Us’ told in Movie Titles.

I was a ‘Single White Female’ who was sick of ‘Bad Boys’ that were ‘Clueless’ about how to treat a ‘Pretty Woman’.  I went to a ‘House Party’ and there I met ‘The Last Boy Scout’. I could ‘Say Anything’ to him. It was ‘Serendipity’. He gave me ‘The Butterfly Effect’ in my stomach.  It was ‘An Affair to Remember’. It was ‘Love Actually’. After about ‘9 ½ Weeks’, he took me home to ‘Meet the Parents’. On ‘Valentine’s Day’, he took me to the ‘Casino’ & gave me ‘The Rock’. I ‘Accepted’.  With my ‘Bridesmaids’ & some ‘Goodfellas’ standing up with us, we celebrated ‘One Fine Day’ ‘It’s A Wonderful Life‘ is what we said, while on our ‘European Vacation’ ‘In Bruges’. Then, I found out that I was ‘Knocked Up’. Soon I was ‘Big’ & people would point & say ‘She’s Having a Baby’. Before I knew it, it was my ‘Due Date’. I was so excited to hold ‘My Girl’.  All she did was ‘Scream’. I wondered if ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ My husband was away at the ‘Police Academy’ I was ‘Dazed & Confused’ without him. When him & the other ‘Super Troopers’ graduated, it was time for him to be ‘The Family Man’. Together, we’re ‘Bringing Up Baby’ & it is ‘Some Kind of Wonderful’ This is ‘As Good As It Gets’. I can’t wait to see what ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ brings.

Related Topics:

http://live1015phoenix.cbslocal.com/2014/03/07/5-most-anticipated-movies-of-summer-2014/

http://jemsloves.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/the-90s-in-a-snapshot-the-20-year-anniversary-of-reality-bites-what-im-reading-watching-and-listening-to/

http://bohemu.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/march-movie-madness-2014-week-one/

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Should We or Shouldn’t We? The 2nd Baby Debate

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When you are single, friends and family always want to know, “When are you going to meet a nice man?”

 

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Then, you find him, that man of your dreams & now you are in a serious relationship.

 

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Next it is…”When are the two of you going to get married?”

That magical day comes. You marry your best friend & are ready to start your lives together.

 

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No sooner than you throw the bouquet, someone is at your side saying, “Now it’s time for a baby.”

 

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When our daughter was born, I thought that was it. We are blissfully married, live in a house with a blue porch & a yard, have a dog & a daughter we adore.

Then it happens…”When are you going to have baby number 2?”

Not that we haven’t thought about it of course. I actually would really love to try for another. It has been an on-going discussion for the past year, but are we ready? There are mixed feelings about this in our house. Here are the reasons against and then for having a second child as outlined by my husband & I.

 

The Cons:

 1.Reliving the infant stageOur daughter is a wonderful toddler. She is smart, sweet, affectionate & funny. While she still can be a handful at times, for the most part she is a joy, but as an infant she was a nightmare. I know this sounds harsh to say, but it is the brutal and honest truth. She spent the first six months of her life sleepless and in tears & so did I. What if baby number 2 follows in her footsteps or is even worse?

 

2. The financial burden. Money is tighter now than it has ever been. While we used to live quite comfortably, we now have to pinch our pennies. I left my career to take a year off from work to stay home with Mai. When I rejoined the work force, we were lucky enough that my fabulous mother-in-law took on our child care. Would we be able to afford me taking off another year to be a stay at home mommy?

 

3. Sharing our love. Our daughter is the light of our lives. Neither of us could imagine a life without her. How could we possibly love another child as much as we already love her? How would it affect Mai when attention must be given to a new baby?

 

4. Pregnancy & labor again. I know some women just adore being pregnant. They are beautiful & they glow and are able to run marathons and work while they are going into labor. I am not one of those women. Other than a few moments of enjoyment with feeling the kicks of my little one, I hated being pregnant. The weight gain, the ligament pain & the heartburn were not fun for me.

 

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The Pros

 

1. Sibling love. I know that not everyone has the ideal relationship with their siblings & that is unfortunate. My husband & I have both been blessed with brothers & sister that are both siblings & friends. My husband & I have both lost a parent. We turned to our families during those hard times. I am not sure I would have gotten through our mother’s passing without my sister’s love and support. Even with an 11 year age difference, we are as close as two sisters can be. Chris & I know the importance of siblings & wanted this for Mai.

 

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2. Double the love. As I explained earlier, one reason I am wary of having another child is that I am afraid that I could not possibly love another child as much as my little girl. What if I am wrong? Everyone with multiple children insists that I am. What if having a second bundle of love fills our lives with just that much more joy?

 

3. Reliving the milestones. I always used to find it funny when parents would say “Enjoy it! It goes by so fast.” I never understood what that meant. Time goes by the same for all of us. Wrong! Our clocks may all tick at the same pace but when you have a child, time truly does seem to move at warp speed. In a blink you are a new mommy. You are scared, insecure & in charge of this tiny life. You open your eyes and that tiny life has grown and is walking & talking and kissing you goodnight. If you are at all like me, you reach a point where you wish you could freeze them at the age they are in. As my daughter is quickly evolving before my eyes, I find myself missing certain stages. I even miss the infant stage occasionally.

 

4. Learning & socialization. Not only would having a new baby bring a playmate to your child in later years, it will teach them a lot of important values, such as sharing, dealing with conflict and basic socialization.

 

These are our arguments. We both agree that these are the pros & cons but my view is that the pros outweigh the cons, whereas my husband views it the opposite.

 

What are your thoughts? We would love to hear your input, maybe some of your stories will help sway us into the same direction.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

 

Related topics:

http://belleonboard.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/better-late-than-never/

http://thebusybaby.wordpress.com/

 http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?post=2229652327&group=0&frame_type=b&blog=2358705&link=aHR0cDovL3Rob3VnaHRzZnJvbXBvZWtpdHRlbi5ibG9nc3BvdC5jb20vMjAxNC8wMS90aG91Z2h0cy1vbi1oYXZpbmctYW5vdGhlci1jaGlsZC5odG1s&frame=1&click=0&user=0

http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?post=2246628397&group=0&frame_type=a&blog=3233271&link=aHR0cDovL2pheXNvbmFuZGFzaGxleS5ibG9nc3BvdC5jb20vMjAxNC8wMS90cmFpbnMtYW5kLXRoaW5ncy5odG1s&frame=1&click=0&user=0