Not that you want your kids to be “yes” men, but sometimes hearing anything other than “no” would be a treat. Here is a breakdown of my morning the other day:   Me: “Ok, let’s get ready for school, let’s put on your pants.” Toddler: “NO!” Me: “Do you want some Cheerios?” Toddler: “NO!” Me: “Do you want to have breakfast?” Toddler: “NO! I want to play.” Me: “Do you want to see your friends.” Toddler: “NO!”   Then she thought about it for a little bit and asked if a particular friend would be there. When I assured her that yes, she would see that friend, she then said, “Yes!” I have been told …

This summer, we took our annual trip to the beach. Last year, my daughter was fine with the sand. Fine with the waves (to a degree). This year, a new fear of the tide was much stronger than I anticipated. It was moderate on our first trip to the beach. Then our second day, when a family member took her to the shoreline to ease her in, they were surprised by a rogue wave that caused a big splash. This sent the fear into a downward spiral. It took her a while to re-adjust. Naturally, anyone surprised by a large splash of cold water would be a little disgruntled. We finally got her to calm down …

Two natural disasters in one week is a lot for anyone to bear. And it made me, and I’m sure most of you, question how prepared we really are. With Tuesday’s earthquake, and subsequent tying up of phone lines everywhere, I found myself trapped at work with no communication to my daughter’s daycare. That is a scary place to be. It seemed the only communication that was going in and out was texting. Thankfully, my husband happened to be home that day and I texted him to go get our daughter. But being unable to communicate in a world where we over-communicate was pretty scary. Given the time of …

It goes without saying that kids change your focus. They change your interests. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Though my husband and I have managed to still continue a few of our own hobbies (jogging and biking) there is one that has been put on the back burner. Kayaking. We didn’t do white water kayaking or anything like that, but when we lived near the West River, we used to do it quite regularly. That was before kids. But it wasn’t just having a family that took away from one of our favorite past-times; it was also simply out of sight, out of mind. When we moved into our house six …

We recently took our daughter to Chincoteague for a quick beach trip. It had been a year since she was on an east coast beach with its ominous roar of ocean waves and miles of sandy beach. Last year she wasn’t walking yet, so she would just sit on the beach and run her hands through the sand and kick her feet to feel the texture. And since she sucks her finger, she inevitably got some of it in her mouth. This year, the only difference was that she could now toddle around. She found it challenging to walk in the deep, warm sand with her little feet. But once she sat down, shovel in hand, she …

Every time we see a bike. Any bike. Motorcycle. Bicyclist. Even a bike that had a broken wheel still chained to a bike rack. My daughter squeals with delight “Bike! Bike!” When a motorcycle drives past us she says, “Bike! Bike! More bike? More?” She also recently saw a segment on “Sesame Street” where Elmo’s dad teaches him how to ride a tricycle. And ever since has asked us to show it to her again, and again, and again … you get the picture. So this weekend, we decided to take her to Toys “R” Us. We’ve never really taken her to a big toy store like this, I mean, other than a Babies “R” Us …

It wasn’t that long ago that my daughter had one of her many knee scrapes. When I went to my cabinet I realized I only had a few bandages on hand. And sometimes, it takes more than a kiss to make things feel better. So I decided to stock up and get a few more boxes to have around. Then another incident happened at my mother-in-law’s house, and when a bump on the head ensued my mother-in-law came running out with sweet little character-themed ice packs that she had at the ready (we have two nephews that are a few years older). A bag of frozen veggies or a bag of ice would have done just fine, …

I’ve written before about eating out with my baby. And sometimes, a mess is left behind. But we are fortunate to have many eateries in Hyattsville that really make families feel welcome. I found myself thinking about this recently as I heard a news story about a restaurant in my hometown of Pittsburgh. A restaurant in the Monroeville part of town called McDains has put a ban on children under 6-years-old. According to an article on the website for KDKA, a Pittsburgh news affiliate, the owner said out of the emails he’s received about the decision, the majority have been in favor of this …

Earlier this summer we became “FONZ” members.  For those that don’t know (I didn’t until about a year ago) it means “Friends of the National Zoo”. There are all kinds of perks to being a FONZ member, but it seems the highlight for us is the free parking. If you go just three times, it seems to pay for itself. Knowing this, we have gone a number of times. And it’s great. Our daughter is at a great age for admiring the animals and trying to say what each one is. To her, lions  are “big meows”. A zebra is a “zeeba” and an elephant … well let’s just say she gets the syllables right. But it’s so …

I held off introducing juice to my daughter for quite a while, because I wanted her to develop a taste for water first. Now, when given the choice between juice and water, she chooses water. And until recently, "cookie" was not a popular word in her vocabulary and ice cream wasn’t something she was really interested in eating.  She did, however, go crazy for vanilla yogurt with strawberries from Yogi Castle. But this past week, combined with a visit to my aunt’s farm and introducing some traditional Fourth of July fare, she seems to have welcomed the world of sweets to her palette. After my …

I am just as guilty as most moms. I would try to hang on to everything that was pre-baby in my wardrobe and would swear I’d be able to fit into it soon.  But then it doesn’t quite fit the same, no matter how hard I work out. And who enjoys shopping for clothes when you still haven’t quite gotten used to your post-baby body? It’s much more fun to shop for the baby. But then, you are faced with important dinner meetings for your job and conferences. Then, the stuff I wear everyday in my casual office doesn’t quite do the trick. This was a recent dilemma of mine. I really wanted to go shopping …

The other day I was sitting on a friend's front steps as our little toddlers played together in the front yard. They couldn’t make up their mind as to whether they wanted to keep their feet in the teeny tiny baby pool or run around in the yard. So the only option of course was no shoes. It was the perfect, innocent summer evening. The kind you might remember yourself as a kid but wonder what the world would really be like when your children are that age. For a worrier like me, outside time finds me worrying about ticks. Worrying about cars going too fast on the street. About knees getting …

I’m trying to make sure my daughter doesn’t inherit my extremely ridiculous fear of all bugs. It’s not really working. The other night as we were reading books, she looked on the ceiling and saw the tiniest bug. I guess her eyesight is fine. She kept saying “bug! Bug!” Her voice was a little more concerned than excited. She didn’t start to cry, but I could tell she didn’t quite know what to think. She kept a close watch on the bug until my husband came in to remove the intruder to which she eagerly said “Bye bug!” I am not a big fan of bugs. I almost fainted once after stepping on a spider in…

So far this summer we’ve been all about exploring the local parks and trails. And this long weekend was no exception. This is in part because our daughter is older this year and more aware of nature but also because I’ve been training for my first half marathon, and I am trying to include her in my long weekend runs. I used to do the long six-mile-plus runs with training groups on the weekends, but when I saw families pushing strollers, I got really sad that I was spending an hour or two of my precious weekend time away from my daughter when she could really be enjoying it with me. I was …

I think my daughter is destined to be a softball pitcher. Not only can she get some distance when she throws a ball, but also when she throws food. Just the other night, as we ate chicken parmesan, I saw spaghetti pieces fly across the table. I felt like I was in that scene from the Diane Keaton film Baby Boom when they give the little baby a full plate of spaghetti and as she stands back to see the baby enjoy it, she gets smacked with a fist full of saucy noodles. My daughter has had spaghetti many times, so eating it is not new. But lately, she likes to test her throwing arm with whatever …

So just the other day my daughter had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. It was just a check up, so she wasn’t actually sick (Hooray!). After the appointment, it was about 3 p.m., so I wasn’t going to take her to daycare and go back to work (don’t tell on me). I kept my phone near to answer calls and emails, but we went to Magruder Park to play with some friends. It started to rain. Rain a lot. So as we all huddled under the pavilion to listen to the rain, my daughter and one of the little friends we were at the park with slowly crept to the edge of the pavilion to let the rain hit …

Every day is Mother’s Day. By this, I don’t mean that I get breakfast made for me by my husband everyday and homemade cards from my daughter, but just by being a mom--every day is Mother’s Day. Whenever I hear “Mama!” both in a happy, cheerful tone or when comfort is needed, it makes my day. It’s what makes being a mom worth it among the balance of work and life and among the toddler tantrums. Nine times out of 10, they ask for you. Because you are the right one for the job. Would you have it any other way? It’s an honor to hold the title, something I wanted for a long time and not a single …

This week is Teacher Appreciation week. It's a time of year to make sure the educators and child care professionals know just how much you appreciate all they do for you and your children. When my daughter first started daycare, I immediately Googled this event so I wouldn’t be the newbie that missed it completely. I would have caught on or another mom would have helped me, I’m sure. But it was something I didn’t want to miss. So I ended up giving the teachers in my daughter’s class a hand written thank you note and a small Starbucks gift card. They all told me how much they appreciated the …

This past Easter we did something very different. We went to Hershey Park. Friends started this tradition last year, so we decided to join them since they live out of town and we don’t see them very often. It was our daughter’s first trip to any kind of amusement park, so we weren’t sure how she’d do with all the commotion and distractions. Is an 18-month-old too young for a theme park? I had heard from other parents that if we were to take her anywhere, this was the place to go. It was really family friendly. It's true, because she did great. Really great. She rode a few age appropriate …

We recently took my daughter to her first Easter egg hunt. Due to the very rainy weather, the event was moved to the park’s community room. We were out of town, in a quiet suburb near where my parents live. There was a decent turnout despite the rain location. As we waited in the lobby, one of the volunteers blew a whistle and said that shortly they’d be opening the doors to the room. Once we entered, we were to line up along the inside wall. At this point, it seemed the parents were more anxious than the kids. My daughter was just fascinated by the energy and activity, talking to kids and …