Category Archives: NYC

Happy Birthday Sophia!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.

Today is a very special day for me.  It’s my daughter’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Can I even call you that anymore?

Because today you’re 3 years old.

Your brilliance astounds us, you’re stubborn as a mule, your sweet, adorable face charms the wits out of people instantly, you’re fierce (just ask your big sister who you try to “lovingly” knock down), and you’re definitely a comedian in training, hence the picture above.

You keep me on my toes and make my nerves go haywire, but then you stretch your arms out wide and declare that you want a big hug, which is always followed up with a big, sloppy kiss on my cheek.  You coyly say “I love you Mami,” and melt my heart away.  I then want to devour you, figuratively speaking, of course (us mothers can’t help this feeling, it’s just there) and I tell you so, prompting you to say with a very serious face, “No Mami, you can’t eat me.”  Ok, maybe not today, so I tickle you instead.

You’re filling my mind with sweet memories and I hope I’ll never forget them.  Two days ago, we watched a squirrel munching away on something and you giggled with delight.  You have a love for animals and aren’t afraid to venture close enough.  Not even big dogs deter you.  You’re amazing.  On our way back from the supermarket, we spotted another squirrel.  He disappeared around the massive tree and you asked, “Where he go?” I told you to look up and there he was.  Suddenly, he turned and looked straight at us with his beady, little eyes.  I’ve never seen that before and I whispered to you, “he’s looking at us,” and you slowly backed away, making me laugh.  I couldn’t resist and said, “Run!”  We held hands and started running and laughing down the block.

You bring me joy, you drive me nuts, but most of all I’m so honored to be your mother.

I love you baby girl, ‘cause you’ll always be my baby, no matter how old you become.

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The many faces of my little girl.

There’s the “don’t-take-my-picture!” look, mischievous (that’s grandma’s lipstick on her face, which she secretly applied and got caught red-faced, HA!), and pure happiness!

Happy Birthday Sophia!  We love you!

🙂

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Spring is finally here…but I’m not ready to venture out!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.

Spring finally made an appearance yesterday, but in my opinion, it felt more like Summer.  It was hot.  I don’t like hot and my body and mind are not ready for this weather.  At least not yet.  My husband made a comment the other day that we don’t get to experience days that stay in the 60’s or 70’s weather wise.  No, it goes from 35 degrees one day to 80 degrees the next.  What the freak?  I haven’t even started packing away the winter clothes and looking for the summer ones.

It takes me awhile to adjust to the warmer weather because I’m an introvert, but my children prefer to be outside so I start negotiating with myself.  Take them outside for a little while because it’s nice.  At least 45 minutes, that’s not too bad.  You can handle that.  Repeat a couple of more times throughout the week until you’re ready to venture out more.  This is how my mind works.  This is how I convince myself to go outside, even though every fiber in my body wants to stay indoors, but I do it for my daughters because they do need some fresh air, sun, and outside playtime fun/exercise.  And I guess I need some of that as well, but don’t quote me, please.

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Speeding down the block

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Scooting and three wheeling

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Water station

As parents we sacrifice a lot and going outside your comfort zone may not seem like a big sacrifice (or deal) to some people, but it is to me.  I’m working on myself and trying to evolve for my little family.  I have a lot of quirks a.k.a. fears that I’m trying to conquer little by little, at my own pace, and I know it can be frustrating to some of my family members and friends, but in the famous words of Popeye (remember him?) “I yam what I yam.”

Please take it and don’t leave it.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

A glance at today’s school lunch from home

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Many thanks to those who liked my happy faces lunch.  I do enjoy making them for my daughters.  I wanted to share how I make my oldest daughter’s lunch for school.  At first, I was very scared of what I would pack for her since I’ve never packed a lunch before and I wanted to send her off to school with food that was healthy and, of course, that she liked.  This is what I packed for her today:

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I try to do as much as I can the night before.  When I’m making her Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches, I basically prep the bread by cutting the crust with a Good Bites cutter (yellow thingy above in the pic), then I seal it away in the sandwich container.  I do the same for the veggies.  I cut and place in the fridge.  In the morning I put the PB&J on the bread and a little bit of salad dressing on the veggies.  I also cut a piece of banana and put some peanut butter on it.  This is one of her faves.  I also include a snack like goldfish crackers with raisins.  As for her drink we do water one day and the next day I add a small juice box plus her water bottle so she drinks juice for lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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The containers that I use held baby food once from Target’s brand Up & Up.  They’re pretty handy and stack up well in my daughter’s lunch bag.

I try to stick to serving sizes because that’s important and I do change up the menu days so my daughter doesn’t get bored with the food.  I’m always on the look out for new food ideas to include in her lunch bag, especially healthy ones, and I’m doing my best with food labels, which can be tricky.  I’m not going to say that I don’t let my daughter indulge in sweets (lollipops, ice cream sandwiches, cookies, etc.) because that would be a lie, but my husband and I try to keep her active by taking her to the park, Saturday mornings they train in Judo, and every week-day, as long as the weather is cooperating, I take her scooter with me when I’m picking her up from school so she can scoot home.  Every little bit helps and counts.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Autism Awareness Month (April)

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autismSpeaks

http://www.autismspeaks.org

Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.

It’s Autism Awareness Month and I just made a donation to autismspeaks.org in honor of my little cousin, Nicholas, who has come very far and will go even further than the stars.  He is a wonderful little boy who is loved by many, but especially by his dedicated and super mom Rosie, his hard-working dad, Waymon, and his big bro/HERO, Gabriel.  I love hearing about Nico’s accomplishments, which have been many and I’m so proud of his mom, my cousin, who takes such good care of him.  It’s TOUGH, but she has kept her ground and the rewards of that bravery and pure love come in the form of smiles, hugs, words, and songs that come out of her little boy.

I love this family so much!

If you are able to, please contribute to this cause.  Thank you!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Welcome Spring!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.

Some mornings are very hectic in my household even when I try to have things laid out already.  Time is a sneaky little monster that jumps out horribly at you when you’re trying to put shoes on, zip up sweaters, wrap scarves around, and place hats on two little girls with ants in their pants.  Oh, and don’t forget bundling yourself up.  Today was a good day.  I was able to leave the house on time and actually walk my daughter to school instead of jogging/running with her there before they slam close the doors.  She doesn’t mind the fast pace though because in her case she BOUNCES her way to school with excitement practically every day.  My kid doesn’t do walking, unless there’s three feet of snow in which then she wants to drag her feet and bask in the glory of snow heaven.  Other than that, it’s all running everywhere.

This morning my daughter was EXTRA excited because they were going to dye eggs in her classroom.  Her teacher asked that the kids bring in two hard-boiled eggs and I was brainstorming yesterday night on how I was going to transport these eggs without them cracking in her bag.  I thought, “Why not use the egg carton itself?” so I cut off one of the ends of the styrofoam carton and placed the eggs like this:

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Then I put it into a food storage container that fit perfectly and off to school she went with her eggs safely in her backpack.  I don’t really remember if I ever dyed Easter eggs with my mom or even in school, but this year we’re definitely going to be dyeing some eggs come Easter week-end.  I just have to remember to be patient and have fun, no matter what messes occur.  Let the cracked eggs and spilled paint fall where they may.  That’s what brooms and paper towels are made for, but just in case I will repeat silently this little mantra, “Just let go and make sweet memories.  That’s all that matters!”

Today is the start of Spring so lets welcome it with open arms even if we’re still bundled up over here in Brooklyn.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Hippity Hop, Easter’s on its way!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well.  Next week is spring recess (schools are closed), but before that happens my daughter’s class is going to have an Easter celebration this Friday coming.  Her teacher asked for students to bring in a treat to share.  I decided to do the same thing I did for Valentine’s Day.  I just changed it to Easter.  I went online and googled easter bunny coloring page and picked this image:

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http://www.ikidspage.com/55-happy-easter-from-bunny

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I printed out six bunnies to a page and cut them out.  I inserted one bunny and a pack of mixed fruit gummies into a treat bag for my daughter’s classmates.  Now they can enjoy a treat and color a cute bunny with an Easter egg.  Simple and hopefully everyone will enjoy!

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Guilt

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Hello everybody!

I hope you guys are well.

I want to talk about guilt.  Nowadays, I feel guilty pretty much about anything.  Yesterday, I felt guilty because my daughter wasn’t feeling well and I was trying my best to make her better.  Plus, she was missing school.  Now today, she’s still missing school.   We didn’t make it.  There’s a snowstorm outside and I was determined to take her to school because she woke up feeling better.  I was fortunate enough to be able to leave my youngest with my friend downstairs.  We made it halfway to the school before my daughter tripped and fell, body forward, on wet snow.  I was even holding her hand at the time, but she still fell over and her pants and coat got completely drenched.  I couldn’t take her to school and leave her like that.  I would be at home feeling guilty as heck because her pants were soaking wet and who knows how long it would have taken to dry.  We had to turn around and go back home and once we did, with time ticking away making us late for school and my friend not being able to stay longer with my youngest, I made the decision to stay home.

Guilt.

It squats in my mind and travels down and pangs at my heart repeatedly.  I try to brush it off.  I tell myself, “It happens to a lot of people.  It’s not the end of the world.”   But even if I let it go, it only last for mere seconds and then I’m right back to feeling guilty.  So I try to figure out why the guilt?  Well, in this instance, it’s because other kids made it to school, in the snowstorm.  Other parents were able to take their children, in the snowstorm.  I failed.  That’s how I feel at the moment.  I can definitely wallow in it, but I really don’t want to so instead I go online and print out several worksheets for my daughter to work on at home.  We also read books and we practice her sight words.  It’s the least that I can do and I always include these worksheets in her folder so her teacher can see them.  This makes me feel better, but the guilt is always going to be there.  It’s part of being a mom.  I don’t particularly like it and I wish that I could just switch it off in my brain, but it’s just not who I am.  I wish things could fall into place perfectly.  Wishful thinking, I know, but then maybe guilt wouldn’t seep in.  Or does guilt serve a purpose?  I don’t know.  I just want the best for my daughter and I don’t want to fail her.  It is my responsibility to take good care of her and make sure that she’s in school learning.  I don’t want to mess her future up so since I can’t do away with guilt completely, I can at least try to give it all I’ve got and when things just don’t work out, find ways to calm the guilt down and know in my heart that it’s ok.

It’s really ok.

Take good care all.

Until next time…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Hello everybody!  I hope you guys are well and having a great Valentine’s Day!

Instead of chocolate covered strawberries, I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  Everyone loved them!  As for my husband’s gift, which I couldn’t show you before because he’s a follower, here’s what I gave him.

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I gave him my HEART!

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I got this cutie at www.uncommongoods.com.  He’s soft, cuddly, and definitely unique!

My daughters loved their Valentine gifts and my oldest had a blast at school celebrating with her teacher and classmates.  Flower vendors were stationed outside of her school selling roses and my daughter asked if she could have a rose.  I said, “Of course, you’re one of my valentines.”

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A rose for her, a big smile for me.

This was definitely a great Valentines Day.

Take good care all.

Until next time…