As a parent of four children I have experienced all kinds of sleeping issues. I have been up with a child far past the time a child should be sleeping through the night. I have been up with a child experiencing nightmares. I have been invaded in my bed by a child who could not sleep alone. I have had the luxury of having a child who slept 12 hours from the time she was 8 weeks old. In addition, I have dealt with issues of night waking and putting a child to bed who resisted until sleep finally took … Continue reading →

It’s true, everyday I feel like one of THOSE Moms. You know the story. The ones that have a screaming child in the middle of the grocery store, or mall, or library, or wherever. You look over, and you think, “why can’t she get her kid under control?” or maybe you don’t think that. And, if you don’t, they you’re probably a Mom yourself. Now, that my “baby” is a willful two year old, I definitely have my hands full when shopping. He doesn’t like to sit in the front of the shopping cart anymore, so I tried letting him … Continue reading →

I’m not sure if I am an odd duck or if this is normal but I loved being in the hospital with my babies. In fact, the memories that make me want to cry and yearn for just one more minute are those of me holding my newborn in those first few days. Now, obviously, the moments after you give birth you are not the most comfortable and that can make for unpleasant memories. However, by next day I was always feeling better and ready to spend the whole day lying in bed holding my baby. I never dreamed something … Continue reading →

This is a story I like to call “The Sippy Cup Disaster.” It all started with a string of sippy cup disappearances. Over time, the replacements got cheaper and cheaper because I got so tired of dropping loads of cash on buying new sippy cups every week. I don’t know where they go. Some of them, I’m sure disappear into a black hole that exists underneath the seats in our mini van. Some of them are chewed up and it’s no mystery what has caused their fate (my son’s sharp teeth, of course.) Some of them are just plain gone … Continue reading →

As a mom of a toddler who has food allergies, I am always on the lookout for snack options. My son is allergic to multiple foods, which rules out most of the popular go-to items that most moms keep in the diaper bag, like Gold Fish crackers or animal crackers. For a long time, I relied on cereals like Cheerios, Rice Chex and Kashi Heart to Heart to act as substitutes for crackers and picked cereals like Trix to replace cookies. Rice, wheat and corn based cereals often do not contain milk, soy, eggs or nuts, which are the foods … Continue reading →

The difference between boys and girls in terms of behavior is pretty subjective and largely depends on who you are talking to. Some psychologists will tell you that our children are programmed by our expectations, not their genetics, and how we mold them based on those expectations. I firmly believe that is a load of…. diapers. I do think that families play a huge role in the behavior of the children who grow up in those families, but I also think that gender plays a very big role in their behavior as well. It wouldn’t be a stereotype if it … Continue reading →

This morning I had an extra hour and a half to myself. I started to get a little worried because my son tends to wake up every morning at seven like clock work, but this morning he did not wake up until 8:30. Finally, I heard him get out of bed, but no sooner did his feet hit the floor than he had begun to cry a soft, pitiful moan. As soon as I picked him up at his bedroom door, I could feel how warm his little body was. I stripped him down and got him into a warm … Continue reading →

One of the strategies that I use to make sure I get enough time to rest and get things done is I divide my to-do list into two categories: things I can do when my son is awake and things I must do while he is asleep. There are certain tasks, like washing dishes, that are best performed when he is awake. He can play in the kitchen, and if I give him a few clean pots and pans to play with, he is a happy camper. Writing is something I need to do when he is asleep. I need … Continue reading →

(Read part 1 and part 2 off this account first.) The aftermath of discovering my son’s food allergies was a blur of research and education. I was not only educating myself on the details of cooking and eating around a food allergy, but I was educating everyone in my son’s life that would be remotely involved in feeding him. If we went to a potluck, everyone there had to know that he could absolutely not have peanuts. People offer kids treats and cookies all the time at parties. I can tell you that I will never give a child food … Continue reading →

Read part 1 of this account of my son’s first major allergic reaction here. After about 24 hours and multiple doses of Benedryl, the last of the hives slowly disappeared, leaving us only with a frightful memory of the allergic reaction and a mission to find out the severity and scope of his allergies. We wondered, what else was he allergic to? Could the next reaction be fatal? Fortunately, his one-year well baby visit was that week, so we decided to deal with it at that visit. His pediatrician referred us to an allergist. The wait time was over a … Continue reading →