Years ago, before my husband and I were even married, a college friend of his came to visit us in NYC with his wife. They were newlyweds at the time, living in Missouri, both in medical school. They were the first of my husband’s friends that I’d met, and much to my delight, we had [...]

Some friends of ours were having their four-year old son baptized last Saturday, at our local Catholic church. We were looking forward to it, it was a family affair, and personally? I am thrilled to share religious services at all churches, temples and synagogues with the girls. It’s that whole ‘keep an open mind thing,’ [...]

I am a control freak. It’s how I am wired, I’ve tried and tried to change it, but it is, essentially, me. And since having children, I’ve loosened up somewhat, but I’m never going to be the laid-back and flighty mom who is late to everything, backpack contents spilling out in a haze of disorganization [...]

Not that long ago, I stumbled onto a site called Bloesem. From there, I made my way to a site called Bloesem Kids. And from there, I found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow… Craft Projects by Arounna Khounnoraj, otherwise known as Bookhou. Since beginning preschool two weeks ago, Pea’s schedule [...]

I ordered a set of three ‘miniature’ cars by Automoblox about one month ago. I’d read so many glowing reviews of the larger ones, but didn’t want to spring for the $30 to $40 for one of those. But I could justify the $30 for a set of the three smaller ones. They are, after [...]

I ordered “Scribbles” for Pea a few weeks ago, after stumbling onto it accidentally while wasting time on Amazon. I liked it because while most coloring books I’ve seen over the years seem to be character-based, such as ‘Dora’ or ‘My Little Pony,’ this one is the polar opposite. It’s creativity taken to a whole [...]

Pea has been asking me for weeks now to make these little paper ‘Kelly’ bags for her. A friend forwarded me the link to their location, on the Hermes website. Click on the link, and go to the image of the little white bag with the orange scissors, and click on it. It’s in the [...]

One of my biggest regrets in life is that I didn’t get the painting / drawing gene. I cannot draw a doodle to save my life. And it wouldn’t seem like such a big deal, except that Pea is always asking me to draw her this or that, and I try, I really do, but [...]

In order to make these six weeks sans husband fly by, I just knew that I was going to have to book up the family’s social calendar. So it’s been a long string of play-dates and barbecues these past two weeks. It’s been a lot of fun, somewhat exhausting, and totally delightful to feel such [...]

This weekend, Pea and I had several art projects going on. One of them was paper mache bowls. That didn’t go over so well. It was very sticky and messy and she became very frustrated, very quickly. I ended up finishing her bowl for her. At least one of us had a great time. There [...]

There’s a song that’s stuck in my head. Almost constantly. I refer to it as the “boom boom” song. My favorite lyric goes something like this: “she’s so hot, she’s like curry. She’s so hot, I have to tell her how hot she is. But if I tell her how hot she is, she’ll think [...]

During my first pregnancy with Pea, I was reading every book under the sun about pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, etc., I was always reading about this intense urge to nest that was going to come over me, presumably in my third trimester. But it never happened. I was pregnant, and then I wasn’t. There was no [...]

My husband loves pizza. Almost as much as I do. And although his preference is for deep-dish, and my preference is for a simple New York slice, we do see eye to eye on one thing… It has to be good. Really good. No Tombstone frozen pies over here. And so as it happens, right [...]

My husband left very early this morning for Beijing. As in China. For six weeks. He’s on his way over there for the Olympics. And it was a really tough goodbye. We didn’t have a lot of time to make the decision whether or not he should go, so I’m not sure how much thought [...]

This morning, we made tin can caddies. One for Pea’s dad, to hold the pens on his desk. And another one, albeit larger, for Pea to keep her new collection of “Polly Pocket” horses in. Those pieces are so ridiculously tiny! The can we used for her daddy’s tin was formerly home to a 14-oz. [...]