What is your toddler bedtime routine like? Do you struggle to get your kids to go to bed? No matter how much tough love I try to show them, they will not stay in bed! We’ve tried shifting their bedtime to later, but that doesn’t help, they still won’t go to sleep. Instead, they get…
How do you know if your child is ready for kindergarten? My son turns 5 in October. I’ve been contemplating if I should send my 4-year-old to kindergarten because he seems ready. The hard part is, I’m not sure if I’m the best judge of his readiness because I’m his mom. Of course, I think…
For Thanksgiving, we bravely decided to take our two toddlers on a California road trip. We hadn’t seen most of my husband’s family in over two years since we moved to Arizona. We figured it was time to make the trek so our kids could meet their extended family. They had yet to meet their aunts and…
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SuperAbsorbent #CollectiveBias Traveling with a baby can be really stressful. I have a lot of experience traveling with infants and toddlers and I totally didn’t do it right the first couple times. As a mom who has been there…
Can peaches grow in Phoenix? That’s the question I asked myself when I heard about the Phoenix Peach Festival. It seemed unlikely to me that peaches could grow in such an arid climate, but apparently they can. My friend brought her kids last year, so I thought it would be a fun event to check…
Just a couple weeks ago my son started asking why, why, why for everything! Literally any time we ask him to do something, he asks why. Asking why all the time can definitely get on my husband’s and my nerves. I don’t want to have to explain myself all the time, however, there are a…
This is my 4th Mother’s Day, so I’m thinking about my mom goals for the year. It’s still rather hard for me to imagine that Rocco is almost four, but at the same time, it’s getting more difficult to remember my married life before kids. Sure, I have strong memories of my childhood and early…
Raising Siblings to be Friends Siblings play together, without a parent around, from the beginning, right? Wrong! I had no clue how long it would take. I am so grateful my kids are finally there. I mean, finally! Yay! It seems like it’s been forever. I had no idea just how tough it would be…
My baby girl just turned two (more on that next week!) and Rocco is already three. I can’t believe I’ve been a parent for three years already! There are times when I miss my life before kids, but most times, I can’t imagine my life without them. Parenting taught me many things, and I’ve learned…
I was confronted by my own mortality the other day. Long story short, it got me thinking about what would happen if I wasn’t here. In a flash, my eyes welled up at the thought of not getting to watch my kids grow up, to not be an integral part of their young lives and…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Rocco is at an age where he is constantly trying to assert his independence. Jade and I nurture his independence through free-play and letting him explore as much as we can. Despite our best attempts, there is at least one daily battle, usually more, because we won’t let him get his way. The primary tantrum-inducing…