New Jersey Moms Blog

With Kids, May is the New December

May and December are two of my favorite months. I'll be honest, it could be because of the gift-giving. Holiday gifts in December; Mother's Day brunch and my birthday in May. I look forward to the winter holidays all fall, and look forward to the end of the wintry and rainy weather all spring. When it comes to having kids in school, though, May and December feel the exact same. During both months, there's palpable excitment for the future, both include busy schedules for school, work and family life, and both months fly by like races toward the month-end holiday.

May: Kids can't wait to get outside and play in the sunshine.

December: Kids can't wait to get outside to play in the first wintry snowfall.

May: Multiple requests for various teacher and coach end-of-year gift donations.

December: Multiple requests for various teacher and coach end-of-year gift donations.

Raising a City Boy From The Suburbs

I take my son into Manhattan once or twice a week. We've been exploring NYC for the last two years together, taking in the sites, visiting the museums and parks, visiting his dad's office, going to a baseball game or children's show - I love it. So does my kiddo. Usually we take the train in from North Jersey, but sometimes the bus or sedan service, but rarely do I ever drive our car into the city, so he's had plenty of practice navigating public transportation around the Big Apple.

Having lived in different parts of the country (and not sure yet if we're settling in NJ for life, or simply passing through), we've grown accustomed to experiencing as a family all we can that makes each area unique. So when we moved to the NYC area, my objective has been to make sure that we take advantage of all that NYC offers that we wouldn't be able to experience elsewhere. So I take Li'l Boo to children's plays and shows, we identify the skyline buildings and bridges, we sit in Bryant Park, and ride the carousel in Central Park, walk through Times Square and visit the museums. In case we don't end up settling here for good, I don't want us to regret not having experienced something uniquely NYC while we're here. I don't want to look back on our time in the North Jersey suburbs living a life exactly as we could live in any other suburb around the country. We're near New York, after all.

Love Is In The Air . . . At Preschool?

The walk home from the kiddo's first day of preschool, I peppered him with questions; What'd you do today? What'd you have for a snack? All of his answers were as I expected: "You know mom - circle time, rug time with the duck book, pretzels." Then he surprised me when I asked Who'd you sit by? "My girlfriend." What?! "My girlfriend. Come on mom, let's run."

Wait, wait, who's your girlfriend, what's her name? He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know her name." I had to figure out who he was talking about - a teacher, a classmate? What does she look like? "You know, she has Tess Tyler's face." Tess Tyler? How do I know that name? Oh - from the movie Camp Rock.

The next day, I got the same answer - he sat by his girlfriend at snack time. I was baffled as we don't talk about girlfriends, and I was wondering where he was getting this at four years old. About two weeks later, I had him point out his girlfriend - whom I'll call A. Yes, she does resemble Meaghan Martin's character in Camp Rock.

Thereafter, he'd randomly mention his girlfriend about once a week, but I didn't want to make it an issue. He told me that one day another cute gal - I'll call her B - told him she liked him. What'd he say to that? "Thanks." He later told me that was because A's already his girlfriend, and I can't fault his loyalty.

What's With All These Earthquakes?

Yesterday I woke to the news that there was yet another major earthquake: this time in Turkey. So within the last eight weeks, a rattler was felt in the Chicago area, off the coast of California, Haiti, Chile and now Turkey. Not just the day-to-day barely noticeable shakes, but major earthquakes. I wonder what's going on with the earth's plates? Fault lines exist along the east coast. Will an earthquake hit here in New Jersey?

I didn't become frought with worry, but I did go so far as to hunt for our old earthquake emergency kit in the basement from our days living in California. I went through it with my four year old, explaining the strange treasures as we pulled them out one by one: solar blanket, solar radio, rain parkas, water boxes - these were all so foreign and funny to him. Had we remained in Cali, I would have shown him this kit before now, and we'd have purchased new ones every couple of years, replacing the food items as they approached their perishable dates and replacing our backup outfits and shoes every so often as well. (What really made me laugh was that my "backup outfit" were maternity clothes.)

My Morning Snow Day Routine

It starts with a phone call at dawn (between 6 or 6:30 a.m.) with the news that school is cancelled. I lie frozen in bed momentarily hoping the phone ringing didn't wake the kiddo, listening for any change in breathing or toss or turn coming from his room as I mentally run through all of the meetings or to-dos I had planned for work or home that day.

I note who I have to email to reschedule or cancel meetings with as I now have to remain home with the kiddo. I realize that this may be the only time all day that I'll have to complete a focused, coherent thought for writing, and jump out of bed adeptly tiptoeing around the creaks in the hardwood floor, stopping outside the kiddo's door to shut it a bit to block any light or noise and hopefully keep him sleeping a little longer. My mind races with what I can plan for us to do to give the day some structure.

I creep down the stairs and quickly check out the windows to judge how badly the snow is in our neighborhood. I quietly put together a cup of tea or a light coffee drink and I check the cupboards for ingredients we have on hand to find something we can make together muffins or cookies or pizza? I fire up my laptop to email the people I had things scheduled with or something due to submit. Only I usually get distracted by an interesting email or Twitter follower and within 10 to 30 minutes of being out of bed, I hear the kiddo plop down from bed and pad into our bedroom to check if his dad's home from travel or a late night of work, then the stairs begin to creak as he pads downstairs to me. Do I go greet him at the bottom of the stairs, or do I let him find me at the dining room table? The latter. I can sign off this email and hit send if I sit here these six seconds while he looks around and follows the lights to me. Goodbye me-time.

Don’t fast forward, it’s my favorite commercial!

It’s amazing to me how the television viewing experience has changed during my lifetime. As a young girl, I remember turning a dial on the front of the TV to change channels – including a “U” channel (what did that do anyway?) Then I remember how excited I was and how cool we felt getting a new television with a touchpad on the front of the TV to change the channels. Today, I won’t let my son near the TV, telling him to stay away from our flat screen TV – “no jumping around the TV” and definitely “no touching” it!

I grew up using commercials as an opportunity to use the bathroom, get dressed, or put on my pj’s, step into the kitchen for a drink, or do a chore like unloading the dishwasher. Today, my son rarely views commercials, and I’m beginning to think that he’s developed the notion that the commercials are cooler than the programs. Seriously.

After dinner the other day, I was sitting reading with my son, and when we had finished, I turned on TV and began to fast-forward through a commercial block to catch up on the news of the day when Li’l Boo stopped me. “No! Wait – I want to see that!” As the images flashed by. “That’s my favorite commercial!” I rewound slowly. “Yeah, that – Vesicare! It’s my favorite!”

I'm Now That Parent

You know the one. The one the cabbies always shake their heads about, "Vegas is no place for kids," they'd say. The one we all notice while on couples getaways or bachelorette weekends and shake our heads saying, "Who would do that? I'd never bring my kids to Las Vegas." And then an opportunity arises for work, and I'm suddenly THAT parent. The one who took her kid along to Vegas.

It wasn't something I planned, it was actually a compromise. My husband had to take off of work to stay home with my son while I traveled to Vegas for CES earlier this month. Over the holidays as we got closer to the trip, and we learned of more people my husband worked with who would also be at the show, he started thinking, well why don't he and the kiddo join me in Vegas, and he'll watch our son there?

I Want My Food Network and HGTV

Ahhh . . . the new year: 2010. Birds chirping as we awake, heads full of idealism and hope for fresh slates and restarts. I ventured downstairs with my son to turn on the TV as I started to make what was sure to be a fantastic New Year's breakfast surprise: Emeril's bananas foster french toast. Zzzssh . . . . .What?! No Food Network on TV? Cablevision and Scripps are in a distribution dispute? No HGTV either?? Darn it all - four days nesting at home as a family, and no go-to lazy afternoon entertainment.

What I find most disappointing about the loss of Food Network and HGTV from our Cablevision line-up is that these are two family-friendly channels. We have hundreds of channels, but only a handful that I can trust to have on throughout the day as a parent. PBS, Disney, and Nick Jr. are great for the kiddo, but as a WAHM, I'm often compelled to have the TV on in the background as I go about my day - something that complements my routines. Admittedly, several days a week you can find me in my own "Mr. Mom" moment of making lunch and talking back to the television in the kitchen. I can rarely resist an Ace of Cakes or Iron Chef afternoon marathon (as long as it's not during college football season).

Confessions of an Online Shopping Addict

I confess: I'm addicted to online shopping.

I try to control my addiction throughout the year. I set a holiday budget, and begin purchasing items to gift for the following year, while deep discounts still exist immediately following Christmas. I have an entire closet of "future gifts" and have perfected my gift-giving so much that I finish my shopping for everyone on our list around Halloween - definitely by Thanksgiving each year. But it's at that time that the enticing emails start pouring in. . . .

Black Friday Doorbuster Deep Discounts!

Cyber Monday Steals: Buy The Hottest Gifts Before They Run Out!

ONE DAY ONLY: Up to 75% off in store or online!

I work on my laptop all day long, so there's really no escaping the emails. I could opt-out of the store emails, but then I'd miss all of these fantastic deals! I'd lose money if I opted-out of them, right? It makes me smile and I get practically giddy to see these sales in my inbox, just as the trees go barren and the landscape goes gray and dreary out my office window.

That's MY toy!

"Hey:- be careful with that. That's MY toy!" I told my four year old as he tapped the screen of my Nintendo DSi harder than I would have liked.

My sweet, angelic son came back with "No it's not. Moms don't have toys. You're too old for toys."

Really? My back was turned to him so he didn't see me pause at the audacity of his statement while picking up the childrens books strewn all over the floor in front of the bookshelf. Where do I begin? I wanted him to know that the toy he was playing with really is mine. Oh yeah . . . and that I'm not old.