With our family’s different schedules, the time that we’re all together during our waking hours seem very short. Little Miss S is in school for most of the day now. My husband’s schedule is inconsistent week to week. Some days, in order to make it to work on time, he leaves just as the kids are waking up. On those days, no thanks to bus and Metro delays, he arrives home right after the kids fall asleep. The rest of the week he works the closing shift and doesn’t arrive home until way after bedtime. Me? I work until the wee hours at my desk. That leaves exactly one day a week we’re all …

As Little Miss S becomes older, she’s become more vocal about how she dresses. When she was around 2½ or 3 years old, she asked to wear only pink clothes, to my chagrin. Then she went through a dresses-only phase. Not just any kind of dress, but long, ankle-length dresses, because that’s what princesses wore. For a year or so, she purposely wore mismatched socks. And she wore her shoes on the wrong feet. Recently, I have not been allowed to give any input on what she chooses to wear each day. The only time she’ll consider my fashion advice is if she’s outgrown her skirt or pants. I remind her…

Our first week of kindergarten has come and gone, and we survived!The evening before, we prepared for everything. Little Miss S picked out her clothes for her first day of school. I tried to persuade her toward clothes that coordinated instead of the light pink shirt and teal and black plaid skirt she chose, but she was adamant. There are bigger battles to pick, and it’s her way of expressing herself.Together we labeled and packed up her crayons, scissors and other school supplies. She carefully placed them in her backpack, which we hung by the front door. I even packed her lunch after we had…

What an exciting week it has been in the D.C. metro area! First we were hit by a 5.8 earthquake. My first earthquake experience left not only my heart racing, but I scared poor Little Miss S. She had no idea what was going on and my slight panic scared her.After my initial panic about the earthquake, I immediately turned to Twitter for updates. I also turned on our local news. I thought Little Miss S’s heart would jump out of her chest, she was so scared. To calm her down, I turned her attention to her favorite subject: science.As we watched the news, we discussed the science of earthquakes. …

With less than one week to kindergarten, I’ve been keeping an eye open for lunch box ideas for Little Miss S. Her welcome packet listed the lunch menu for the first week of school and the only thing on it I know she’ll eat is the cheese pizza. Not exactly healthy.I’ve been saving all those parenting magazines with headlines that scream “10 Quick School Lunches” or “Healthy Lunches Your Kid Will Love.” I keep meaning to read the articles, but they pile up on my coffee table until Lil J knocks over a cup of milk and ruins them.It seems that I have more to worry about that what to pack in Little…

With the summer winding down, I’m running out of ways to keep the kids entertained. We’ve become quite familiar with our usual haunts, like the White Oak Library, Ikea’s Smaland and Chick-Fil-A’s romper room. Though the weather has cooled down a few degrees, we’re still spending quite a bit of time indoors.It’s super-easy for me to fall into the trap of using the television as a babysitter. Whenever I ask Little Miss S to turn off the television, she immediately asks when she can turn it back on again. Yikes. I have been too lax in regulating her screen time this summer.My answer to weaning …

Back-to-school season is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s not because Little Miss S starts kindergarten in three weeks and I will only be responsible for one child during the day. (Not that I’m counting or anything.) The reason is a bit more superficial.I love buying school supplies. I buy supplies for my home office. I buy supplies for our arts and crafts projects at home. At least this year I can use Little Miss S as my reason to stock up on crayons, cute mechanical pens and pencil boxes. Every Sunday for the past few weeks, I sat at my desk and flipped through the ads from our …

There’s no denying it: It’s hot out. In the eight years I’ve lived in the D.C. metro area, I don’t remember having so many code orange and code red days. I might have complained how the heat is keeping our family indoors, but I’m running out of ideas to keep the kids entertained.Instead of the usual kids indoor gym or bounce place, I’m trying something different. Living in such culturally rich area, we take for granted all the history, monuments and museums D.C. has to offer. For the rest of the summer, I’m plan on looking at D.C. with the eyes of a tourist.A few weeks ago we took a family …

Last week, three of my friends emailed me the link to the same story. An editorial piece from CNN editor Rose Arce, titled "I’m Her Mom, Not the Nanny," shares Arce’s parenting experience in New York. Because she’s Latina and her daughter has straight hair and has a lighter skin tone, Arce is commonly mistaken for the babysitter.This situation isn’t unique to New York City or Rose Arce.One of the reasons my husband and I chose to live in the D.C. metro area, despite the high cost of living, is because of the area’s diversity. We especially enjoy Silver Spring. A drive around town reveals its …

Summer is half over already. The weeks before preschool graduation, I wondered what I was going to do with Little Miss S all summer. My only set plan for her was the four weeks at her new elementary school’s summer enrichment program. I didn’t sign her up for any camps because it’s not in our family budget. I didn’t sign her up for any classes because I didn’t want to drive anywhere for a one- to two-hour class. It didn’t seem worth the effort to pack her and Lil J in the car then fight traffic to get her to class.I'll just play it by ear, I told everyone. Inside I was a little concerned. How…

When I registered Little Miss S for kindergarten, I was excited to learn her elementary school offered a summer enrichment program. For three hours every morning, Monday through Friday in July, she could attend “mini-school” as we called it. I’m happy for the program. Every day she is picked up at the bus stop. Once she arrives, the school feeds her and the other children breakfast. They head to their classes for a little learning, they're given lunch and bussed home.The best part? The program is free, paid for by tax dollars.We just finished our first week. Little Miss S comes off the bus …

Before school let out, I had a lofty goal: visit a new-to-us park each week.I have failed miserably.I thought by giving myself that goal we would enjoy more outdoor play. As an apartment dweller, I don’t have the luxury of a backyard. I can’t just open the back door and let the kids run through sprinklers, dig in the dirt and chase each other through the grass.It takes a little more effort. I pack snacks, cold water and sunblock. Then I chase Lil J around with clean clothes until I can capture him and dress him. After prodding Little Miss S for 10 minutes to brush her teeth, I find that she …

Like most families, we are on a tight budget. I’m constantly searching for free and low-cost activities for our family to do in the summer. While we pack a lunch and hit the park fairly often, some days it’s too hot to hang out there, or we need a change of pace.Last summer I planned weekly visits to our local library, White Oak Library. Little Miss S would grab some new books and DVDs to borrow while I picked up some new board books for Little J. Sometimes Little Miss S played educational kid-friendly games at the children’s computers. I even packed headphones for her since there aren’t any …

Sunday was a flurry of activity in our home, not because it was Father’s Day, but because Little Miss S started her first ever summer camp yesterday. Who knew there was so much preparation for a 5-year-old’s day camp?We ran around town looking for a hat that fit Little Miss S and her head of curls. Apparently June is too late to shop for summer hats. After the fifth or sixth store, we lucked out and actually found some hats. Thankfully, they were hats that she liked and they fit.  I bought two of them, just to be safe.Yesterday was a big milestone for Little Miss S. It’s the first time she’ll…

I’m not sure why they call it the terrible twos. For both Little Miss S and Little J, it started much earlier, around 18 months of age. He can be quite the little monster.I totally get why toddlers are so frustrated. They’re walking, probably running most of the time. They have a limited vocabulary but are beginning to realize that they are an independent person, separate from mom and dad. Toddlers are curious about everything around them and want to explore. Meanwhile, they have mom and dad setting boundaries, limits and saying “NO!”It’s a tough life.When Little J has trouble expressing his …

My husband and I are native Louisianians—Southerners without the drawl, we tell our friends. Some residents might claim that the D.C. metro area is the south, but I beg to differ. My husband’s test of whether we live in the south is simple: Is sweet tea available in most restaurants? Here, the answer would be: not consistently. McDonald’s doesn’t count.Since we moved from southern Louisiana to Syracuse to Silver Spring, my husband and I have made more of an effort to stay connected to our Louisiana culture. Since we’re Southern, that usually involves food.Though we can’t celebrate Mardi Gras …

Last week, I traveled to New York City and embraced my inner nerd. As a bookaholic, I’ve always wanted to attend Book Expo America. Now that I’ve taken over management of an online book club, I had the perfect excuse to attend BEA and the Book Blogger Conference immediately following BEA.For three days I was in book heaven. For three days I was also away from my family. I don’t travel overnight for work very often. Little Miss S always cries when I leave and repeatedly reminds her dad how much she misses me the duration that I’m away. Poor Little J missed me terribly, especially at night.I …

I have a sleeping problem. It’s not insomnia or sleep apnea. Nothing quite so severe. Like many parents of young children, I don’t get enough sleep. It’s entirely my fault. I know I should go to bed earlier, but I can’t bring myself to do it. There's always so much to be done.Little J (formerly known as Baby J) still wakes up a couple of times during the night even though he’s now 18 months. Little Miss S stalls and stretches out bedtime preparations as much as she can. On a good night, I can get both kids in bed by 7:30 p.m. at the latest. Little Miss S will fall asleep as soon as I can get …

I always worry that my kids are picky eaters.The only sandwiches that Little Miss S will eat are creamy peanut butter with the crusts cut off. No jelly, no honey, no banana and definitely not crunchy peanut butter. She also doesn’t like any kind of sauce. No sauce on her pasta (just butter and grated Parmesan cheese) and no sauce or toppings on her cheese pizza. She only recently asked for ketchup with her french fries.Baby J, on the other hand, wants ketchup on everything. He would put ketchup on his ketchup if we let him. If I cut up his food in bite-sized pieces, he yells for the full-…

As of last week, I’ve officially begun my foray into public education.Little Miss S and the rest of the family attended her kindergarten orientation. We’ve talked about kindergarten quite a bit, in order to prepare her. She was a bit unsure about being at school all day since her preschool is only half-day. Hand in hand, Little Miss S and I walked up to her future elementary school’s doors. Her hand squeezed mine harder as we approached closer to the front door. “I’m nervous, Mommy,” she announced, as if I couldn’t tell. I, too, felt nervous. I had scrambled to get all the appropriate …