Dear Whoever the hell makes Cabbage Patch Kids these days,

My daughter turned two in April. She is starting to get really into baby dolls. She loves to pick them up, carry them around, feed them, burp them, and throw them on their face. As a little girl I had a plethora of Cabbage Patch Kids, because if we are being honest, they were the shit in the 80′s and early 90′s when dolls were my thing.

So for her second birthday I got her a set of her very first Cabbage Patch twins. The surprise gender dolls were perfect for her. They were a complete hit. Especially with her big brother who is five. What I did not bargain for was the household obsession with the damn dolls. (more…)

Photo: Flickr/Pmillera4

I knew the day would come when I had to make a choice regarding organized sports. We have three kids, and their father was always heavily involved in whatever sport his parents would allow. And growing up I played softball, basketball and soccer, loving every moment of it. (For the most part)

I knew sooner or later the registration forms would start to come home from kindergarten, and in the past month we have got two. One for little league, which I am rooting for. The other for springtime soccer. But now we have to decide, do we pick one, both, none?

Is he interested enough to register for any? (more…)

Parents, let’s face it. The worst part of being a parent is bedtime. Not the actual act of our angelic children sleeping, but the process in which they become satanic beasts and whale on until they fall asleep.

Oh, bedtime doesn’t consist of those kind of hysterics in your house? Well LA-DE-DA aren’t you fucking lucky?

When I had one child, which was a short 17 months in my house, I would rock my oldest son to sleep. Humming to him and wasting hours on end on bed time. And I didn’t care. I had not a care in the world. But once our second, and then third child surfaced, bed time turned into pure chaos. (more…)

New trend in the parenting community?

Elf on the Shelf haters. No, I am totally serious with you. People online that are actually putting down parents for using Elf on the Shelf as part of their Christmas tradition. Some bullshit about being able to parent their children so they don’t have to threaten their kids with an Elf or Santa.

To them all I have to say is get off your damn high horse and have a little fun. DAMN!

There is no need to take everything in life so seriously. Jesus!

The fact that people are even taking this little damn doll and book seriously enough to question another parents parenting skills because they choose to have a watchful Christmas eye in the house is something that just brings the whole mom wars to a whole new, and extremely pathetic level. (more…)

If the first month of school didn’t convince me that I am officially the mother of a kindergarten student in public school, last night certainly did!

Since late August when school related events started popping up on our family calendar, I wasn’t really phased by it. First was bus safety day, then an ice cream social (which was SO cool!) and finally last night was the “Back to School Night” for parents. Basically a fancy name for what was called open house when I was a kid.

I can’t even tell you how in love I am with my kids school community. The ladies in the PTO rocked my socks off last night. We signed up to be a part of the PTO, The Father’s Club (which my neighbor runs), The Yearbook, and of course the Halloween Spooktacular!  (more…)

Time for my weekly edition of This Week on Babble!  For the most part my posts were pretty laid back, not the most exciting… well if you don’t count me calling myself a bad mom.

Yup, I went there and did it in the most snarky way I could. I just had to because I am kind of sick of the backhanded comments about certain aspects of parenthood. The judgment, you know how it goes. If you are a mother, you will encounter it at some point in time. (more…)

At the beginning of the summer a new family moved into our small, and very tight knit neighborhood. They live on the same side of the road as us, and two houses up.

All of our back yards connect, so over the course of the summer, while playing with the neighbors on either side of us, our sons were introduced to the new little boy and his two older sisters.

The boys weren’t really interested in playing with them till about three weeks ago. Right around the same time my oldest son learned that the little boy would also be in his Kindergarten class. I was really excited because I knew this would be great for him.

When I was a kid, my best friend lived right across the street from me, and we were inseparable. Which is how Camden became with this little boy, very quickly. (more…)

Photo Credit: Spearmint Baby

When I had my oldest son, and of course my daughter Addison, I had the decision of what to do for a nursery. With Camden there was a goodnight theme bedding set I had fallen in love with and decorated his entire bedroom around that.

He had the same theme until Benjamin joined our family and we tweeked the room to accommodate both boys.

With Addison our office turned into her bedroom and I did the owl theme I became obsessed with from the moment I found out I was pregnant.

But going through Pinterest, and new copies of various parenting and pregnancy magazines, I have found a growing trend. White nurseries.

Just like that perfect and kinda sterile looking room over there to the right. (more…)

What is it with people constantly throwing fathers under the bus? It seems like commercials on television, mainstream media and now fathers themselves are trying to lower their own value and frankly, it pisses me off.

Yesterday I came across a post on The Stir which I shared with my husband. By the time he was done reading it, he looked at me and said “Fuck you” because of course he thought the sole purpose of me sharing it was to accuse him of only being a great farter and creating a never ending supply of laundry and stains. (more…)

What matters the most in life?

Is it our children, money, fancy cars and nice things? Or is it the moments that shape us as people… families. The moments that truly make us who we are.

I admit I get caught up in the stress of motherhood, and I honestly think any mother who does not admit to being stressed out often is probably lying pretty bad. Motherhood isn’t easy, especially in the early years. But it is one of the most rewarding jobs we will have. (more…)

This is Camden… he is four. He is also my oldest child. Everyone say Hi to Camden!

Now that all the new readers who don’t know about him are introduced let me get on with the point of my post.

So my oldest son is four, well four and a half almost. He is a December baby. He started pre-school in the fall and has excelled. I am extremely proud, but I am also super new to it all. We learned that Kindergarten registration was taking place over the winter so my husband and I went to the elementary school he will be attending in the fall to get him registered.

It was completely bittersweet, but at the same point in time I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Why? Because I am new to it all. (more…)

I have tattoos…

I have more than just a hand full of small girly tattoos, I have some that haters would describe as manly or ugly and even trashy… but to me they are all beautiful and rich with meaning.

I have always gone by the Mike Ness rule… Nothing below the cuff or above the collar, so all can be covered if need be. Or of course if I want to.
Not that I have wanted to. (more…)

With our oldest son, we co-slept with him inside our bed. The second we learned our lesson and had him in a co-sleeper then he went right into his own bed. It worked fantastically.

But the oldest, well having him co-sleep inside our bed backfired. Badly. To the point where he took over my husband’s side of the bed and my husband was forced out onto the couch. We all just couldn’t fit in one bed.

Finally when I was pregnant with Addison we got him into his own bed in anticipation of a new baby in the house, but I knew right then and there — no matter how much I wanted Addie sleeping WITH us… it would not be happening because I was not getting stuck in the above situation again. (more…)

My oldest son turned four years old in December.

He is always amazing me in new ways. And a couple weeks ago he said the sweetest thing to me while I was packing up some hand me down clothes for a friend of mine expecting a little girl this spring.

He picked up a little shoe out of the pile and said : (more…)