Are any foods “off-limits” in your house? If you don’t ban “off- limit” foods in your pantry, you will not be able to control yourself? Not me, and this is why.  Read here....

Since the holidays just ended, it is time to thank those who generously gave to us. Another year end review is this popular post, Thank you Cards. Thank you! These two little words mean so much. I was taught early on when you receive a gift, you send a hand written thank you card. As a kid, I thought this was a major pain in the rear, especially when you rather play with your toys instead of writing hand written thank you notes. But, we did it because it was required. As an adult, I have tried to maintain this practice and instill the importance behind writing thank you cards in my kids. Yes, sometimes life gets in the way and I do not always get hand written thank you cards out, but I try. Even though my kids are 3 years old and  now 15 mos. old (originally 12 months old when the post was written), they have been required to participate in creating their own thank you cards. My son has colored on each card that goes out since he has been 15 months old – putting his own touches on it.  For my daughter, she painted her own thank you cards for her first birthday.  Here is how we did it and how you can recreate them for your own family. Supplies Needed 1 Roll of Painter’s tape 1 Box of plain cards and/or paper (card stock) 1 paint brush or the kids can use their fingers 1 washable paint (colors of your choice) 1 paper plate for the paints Directions Get out your blank cards out. If you are using card stock paper, cut the paper down the middle; leaving two pieces of paper. Then fold each paper in half...

Thank you! These two little words mean so much. I was taught early on when you receive a gift, you send a hand written thank you card. As a kid, I thought this was a major pain in the bum, especially when you rather play with your toys instead of writing hand written thank you notes. But, we did it because it was required. As an adult, I have tried to maintain this practice and instill the importance of thank you cards with my kids. Yes, sometimes life gets in the way and I do not always get hand written thank you cards out, but I try. Even though my kids are 3 years old and 12 months old, they have been required to participate in creating their own thank you cards. My son has colored on each card that goes out since he has been 15 months old – putting his own touches on it.  For my daughter, she painted her own thank you cards for her first birthday.  Here is how we did it and how you can recreate them for your own family. Supplies Needed 1 Roll of Painter’s tape 1 Box of plain cards and/or paper (card stock) 1 paint brush or the kids can use their fingers 1 washable paint (colors of your choice) 1 paper plate for the paints Directions Get out your blank cards out. If you are using card stock paper, cut the paper down the middle; leaving two pieces of paper. Then fold each paper in half making two cards. Make your child’s first initial of their name with Painter’s tape on the front of the card. Have your child paint the front of the card over the tape. Depending on the age of your...

This week for this first time, I realized how quickly people are to place blame on little boys and classify them as “bad”, “naughty”,” aggressive”, etc.  Here is what I witnessed.  My son C2 – newly turned 3 years old – and his little girl friend were playing around; they are always so excited to see one another. His little friend kept pulling at C2 shirt collar and pushing him to get his attention and C2 repeating asked her to stop. She persisted and finally C2 hit her.  At that moment, the teacher scolded C2 for pushing his little friend. Now, I do agree his behavior needed correcting and hitting wasn’t warranted, but what I do not agree with is that the little girl received no correction and/or direction from the teacher.   The teacher and I watched the entire scenario unfold and of course, I did correct C2 as soon as I saw him hit his little friend, but I was stunned by how the teacher reacted.  She physically gasped at C2 and made an ugly, disgusted face before correcting him, when she clearly could have stepped in and told the little girl that C2 asked her to stop.  C2 friend’s mom did correct her and both C2 and his little friend said their apologies, hugged and ran off to play. And at that very moment, I finally got it; this is how little boys get such a bad rap. As a parent, my job is to help C2 learn how to cope and find other ways handle his emotions. But, my job also is to protect my children until they can protect themselves. Prior to having a son, I really never gave credence to how little boys are treated or perceived in school...

Does your Au Pair travel? Does your Au Pair stay in cheap hotels/motels or hostels?  Most likely the answer to these questions are yes.  Has your Au Pair heard of bed bugs?  The most likely answer to this question is no and if they have heard of bed bugs it is because the commonly  used phrased by parents worldwide when tucking their children into bed. “Sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs bite.” This is no longer just a phrase. This past August our Au Pair had friends visit that frequented several hostels while traveling the United States East Coast.   Not only did her friends stay at our home, but they left some uninvited guests – bed bugs. According to Orkin Pest Control, they have seen a 33% rise in bed bugs since 2011.  As of 2012, New York (ranked 10th in the country) and Washington, DC (ranked 7th in the county), of course two of the places my Au Pair’s and their friends frequented. Every morning for about a week, our Au Pair would wake up with bug bites all over her legs, neck and back. We thought at first that they were mosquito bites and then perhaps spider bites finally my husband – who lived in New York – said that we might have bed bugs.  Of course I was mortified and automatically started itching. I knew nothing about bed bugs, so immediately I did research, but my husband did.  You can’t get rid of bed bugs with RAID and normal spray…it does nothing; over the years bed bugs have become more resistant to pesticides.  First, we found a reputable bed bug exterminator and one that used canines to detect if we had these little mites. Low and behold, the dog detected...

Sleep training is one of my least favorite things to do as a parent. I understand the importance of teaching your baby how to sleep, but like most parents the crying can be unbearable.  With C2 (now almost three year old), I swaddled him until he was 7 months old. Being first time parents, we did not really sleep train our son until he was a nearly a year old.  I thought the “Cry It Out” method seemed mean, more because I could not handle the crying. It broke my heart. My husband graciously allowed me to take the lead on sleep training because I was the one reading all the books and spending more time with our son at night. To be fair, my husband thought we should of sleep trained our son much sooner, but I was not ready.  However, finally at 12 months I was ready and we went to the “Cry It Out” or “Ferberizing“. We all needed sleep desperately.  Yes, I do know there are several types of sleep training methods and I tried them. With my daughter Ace who is nearly 5 months old, we began sleep training her around 4 months old.  The circumstances were different and yes, as the experts say, every child is different. Plus as parents for the second time, we were more comfortable sleep training her earlier.  My daughter is a much bigger baby than my son and much longer; she no longer fits in the Halo Swaddle Sleeper. Moreover, at nap time she lasted 20-30 minutes and at night she was getting up every hour or hour and half and not because she was hungry or wet, she just wanted to sleep being held.  We would lay her in her crib and...

This is trending on the Internet today, and I thought it was awesome post. Especially because Brett and I are trying to raise C2 to be a good man that respects himself and others and to be a great contributor to society. C2 this is for you!     TWENTY THINGS A MOM SHOULD TELL HER SON 1. Play a sport. It will teach you how to win honorably, lose gracefully, respect authority, work with others, manage your time and stay out of trouble. And maybe even throw or catch. Of course, if you are anything like your mommy and daddy you will also like to win. 2. You will set the tone for the sexual relationship, so don’t take something away from her that you can’t give back. 3. Use careful aim when you pee. Somebody’s got to clean that up, you know. You won’t be happy when you have to start cleaning the bathroom. 4. Save money when you’re young because you’re going to need it someday. I really want you to be a good saver and investor because I was not and it has made for some tough times. 5. Allow me to introduce you to the dishwasher, oven, washing machine, iron, vacuum, mop and broom. Now please go use them. Thank goodness you think cleaning is fun now, but I am sure this won’t last. 6. Pray and be a spiritual leader. Remember, this does not mean that you have to belong to a church or a certain affiliation to be spiritual and/or to pray. Not, that I am dissuading you, but I want you to chose your own path. 7. Don’t ever be a bully and don’t ever start a fight, but if some idiot clocks you, please defend...

Does your toddler get sand chafing while playing on the beach? Mine does. After spending a couple of days at the beach with my son who loves to play in the sand and the water, I needed to come up with a solution to fix his sand chafing rash. After playing in the sand for two hours with a wet swim diaper from the salt water, my son would come home with bright red chafing rash on the inside of both his little legs. He would tell me, “That hurts me” when I put him in the bath. Being an athlete and having to deal with chafing issues myself, I knew what I did to prevent chafing while running, on a bike, etc; I would use body glide, Aquaphor or chemise cream. So the next day before going to the beach, I put Boudreaux’s Butt Paste® where he was getting the rash. Then lathered him in sunscreen, got the swim diaper, shirt and swim trunks on and we were off. Low and behold after spending two hours digging and building sand castles in the dirt – no rash. The next day, I repeated the same steps, but with Aquaphor Healing Ointment and it worked as well. After trial and error, both Boudreaux’s Butt Paste or Aquaphor work well to prevent sand chafing. Ensure you put the chafing prevention ointment on prior to putting their sunscreen on; apply the sunscreen afterwards. Good luck and happy beach...

Finding a care giver you can trust and leaving your baby in the hands of someone else is difficult. There are several things to be taken into account before you plan to hire a babysitter. Questions like whether your baby would be safe in the hands of the babysitter or if he or she would be happy with the babysitter would bother you. To find the perfect answer to these questions you need to do a bit of homework to zero in on the perfect babysitter. The first and foremost, while searching for a babysitter think about how long you want to leave your children with the babysitter. The best references generally come from your friends and relatives. Your office colleagues can also be of good help while you are searching for a babysitter. Funny enough, I remember babysitting at 14 years old, but I do not find many parents now willing to leave their baby to a 14 year old – myself included. I much prefer that I have someone capable of driving in case there is an emergency; yes, I know there is 911, but it makes me as a mom feel better that my babysitter has a license. However, if you are in a situation where none of your family, friends and neighbors do not have good suggestions for babysitters, consider looking into the following websites Care.com, SitterCity.com and/or CareNovate to help navigate through the world of babysitters.  Provided below are key benefits for Care.com and SitterCity, but unfortunately I have nothing yet on CareNovate because they were just launched in October 2011. Care.com Key Benefits Secure sitter service but smaller database which can affect more remote towns. Background checks and references available Instant access to sitter profiles Reviews from other...

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, I wanted to share this awesome commercial from Procter & Gamble (P&G) honoring everything that all moms do to help their children succeed by showcasing the amazing moms behind Olympic athletes at the London 2012 Olympic Games. The hardest job in the world is truly the best job in the world. “Being a mom is the hardest job in the world. But it’s also the best.”...