To all the moms out there—Happy Mother’s Day! We all need to take a moment to appreciate the good moments with our kids and give ourselves a pat on the back for all our hard work this year. Parenting is hard. I’d be lying if I didn’t say the last year of my life, raising two…
I’m really proud of my Italian heritage. Since today is Ellis Island Family History Day, I wanted to share just a little bit of history about my own family. My father is first generation Italian American. He is a full-blooded Italian, and with his marriage to my mother, that makes me half Italian. I’ve always…
Today is National Siblings Day. I feel very lucky to have a sibling that I also consider my friend. Things didn’t start out that way though. My sister and I were very different kids growing up. I don’t have very many memories of us playing together because we liked very different things. My earliest memories…
Jade heard on NPR that the poppies were going to be in full bloom this past weekend because of all the rain and warmer temperatures we’ve had this spring. So, we took a quick road trip to see the Pichacho Peak poppies on Saturday. We’ve never been down to Picacho Peak State Park. Since it’s only a…
My baby girl turned one recently. Happy Birthday Gigi! To celebrate, I wanted to decorate a bit, but didn’t want to do anything too time-consuming (like Rocco’s fire truck party). My time is really pressed with work and juggling the kids, so I only had one weekend to do her decorations, the cake, and her outfit….
My daughter turns one next month. So, I’ve been digging around on Pinterest, looking for cute first birthday ideas. I found so many cute baby girl birthday themes, it was hard to narrow them down. What I did find—a lot of pink. Don’t get me wrong, I love pink, but it was refreshing to find…
A lot has changed this year. Two biggies—my daughter Giada was born and we left California and moved back ‘home’. My favorite part about New Years Eve is reflecting on the year that’s gone by and making plans for the future. With reflection in mind, I looked back at all the blog posts from the year…
Merry Christmas! Tomorrow, we’re planning a low-key day with our little family. Our kids are still so young to really ‘get’ Christmas, but Rocco is starting to catch on. He recently found our Santa hat, and likes to wear that around the house, chanting ‘Santa hat, Santa hat’. He’s also really into Christmas lights. On…
I’m a rule follower by nature. When Rocco turned one, I immediately switched him to whole milk, per the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and others’ suggestion. But when he turned two in October, I broke the rules. For once, their advice just didn’t make sense to me. Is there a right time when to…
Last week, our friends at Toyota invited us to the Phoenix Zoo to get a preview of ZooLights, and also check out a few of their new cars for 2015. During the day, Jade put a ton of miles on a sporty 2015 Camry. The kids and I joined him later to see ZooLights, pretty much…
My baby boy, Rocco, turned two last month. For Rocco’s first birthday, I made him a low sugar smash cake decorated with cheerios. The cheerios were the dangling carrot to get him to try the cake. It worked, sort of. I’ve mentioned before that Rocco is a super picky eater. He doesn’t like overly sweet things….
It’s Rocco’s first Halloween where he will go out trick-or-treating. He doesn’t understand what Halloween is, but we are excited to bring him to our friends’ house to go out for the first time with their two kids who are a bit older than Rocco. When we first started thinking about what Rocco should be…
Recently, my work became a mancation of sorts, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Picture me rollin’. The dull pain in my head throbbed in time with my vibrating rear view mirror. Lil’ Wayne blurred the asphalt behind me in syncopated rhythm. It was afternoon and I was still burping up the…
Do parents treat their high needs babies differently when they are older? Do the early years with a difficult baby affect how you see or treat them moving forward? Do parents grow to resent their high needs child? We recently returned from a trip where my parents graciously agreed to watch our two young kids…
Besides a ripped seam or a missing button, I haven’t sewn anything since I was a teenager. Despite my hesitation, I’ve decided to make Rocco’s Halloween costume this year. I turned to Etsy and DIY blogs for inspiration. Per usual, I was impressed with what I found on Etsy. The selection of Etsy Baby Halloween…