A Budding Fashionista

I never set out to raise a girly girl. I'm a child of the 80s and never owned a Cabbage Patch doll. People gave me Barbies as gifts but I kept them in a zip up case and brought them out upon request when friends came over. I did like My Little Ponies and Rainbow Bright and I remember having bedding with those characters. So when I became a mom of a girl I just assumed she'd be like me - kind of middle of the road on the girliness factor. We both love nature and I'm not afraid of touching worms, frogs or lizards so I'm pretty sure her love of animals and general curiosity is from me.

Sure, I love fashion and even considered majoring in Fashion Design in college. But her love of princesses and Barbie is so foreign to me. It seems her obsession with the over the top girly stuff began when we took her to a live Nick Jr show that included a scene with Dora becoming a princess. After that it was princess mania which evolved once she discovered the Disney characters. I'm not even sure how Barbie permeated my protective force field. In the last 6 months she's acquired enough Barbie dolls and accessories to require a case on wheels to house them. And those minuscule accessories! For her birthday she only wanted one gift: the Barbie Jet. This thing came with "ice cubes" that are almost microscopic!

Anyway... most of her dolls are usually nude because she is constantly switching their clothing. She was out of school for Winter Break this week so when I get home she is so excited to see me. She greets me at the door with "Mommy, will you play with me?" So I had to think of an activity we could do together. I was simultaneously trying to prepare dinner and noticed some colorful tissue paper leftover from her recent birthday."Why don't we make dresses for your Barbies with these?" I said holding them up. Her eyes lit up so I know I had a winning idea! "YES!" And she went to work. I let her use the tape dispenser which is usually out of her reach and she felt so grown up. We made "shoes" out of strips of paper wrapped around their feet in mummy style bandages. She corrected me and said they were socks, not shoes. I loved finding ways to re-use things we normally throw away - like crumpled tissue paper from a gift. I think we did an awesome job. How about you?

Bummed Out About Her Birthday

I hope this post will prove to be therapeutic. I am dreading my daughter's birthday in 9 days. I love my birthday, I must admit. It is my favorite holiday. But I'm easy to please. Requirements for a successful birthday celebration for me: good company and great food. But the older my daughter gets (turning 4 soon) the more pressure I feel to give her an awesome birthday. Her first birthday involved a pink tutu and family members singing and clapping which scared the bejesus outta my kid. You can see how red her face is after she finished crying and I helped her taste her cake.

See how simple this was? So the next year, we had a little house party. Mostly family (adults) because our friends' kids aren't close to her age. Here's a fun video of dancing in the living room. She has some good moves! Yes, she got a few gifts. We put up some streamers and served some home cooked food. Simple.

When she turned three is where I think it got a little out of hand. Last year she fell in love with Disney princesses and especially Tiana from Princess and the Frog. My husband hired an Princess Tiana impersonator. (video here) We (my husband) bought Tiana themed balloons and paper goods. We ordered pizza and wings because my husband said it didn't make sense for me to make pizza and stress myself out. We had abut 10 kids and their parents plus the usual suspects (family). We set-up my brothers dj sound equipment. The one thing I am most proud of was that was a huge hit with all the kids was that I baked cupcakes and set up a decorating station. They piped their own icing and added all kinds of toppings and I even had clear to-go containers so they could take their creations home. Some of the kids really got into the decorating and made intricate designs. We gave out goodie bags (I'll get to that), broke a pinata, played Twister... Sure it was fun and memorable but I was exhausted after and I still had to clean up.

Now, brace yourself... this is where I get all grumpy. When did it become "the right thing to do" to give your party guests gift bags? I don't remember getting gift bags when I was attending other people's parties as a child. But now it seems a given. I thought the tradition is that the birthday honoree gets the gifts? So the host plans a party, provides food, and now I need to give all the little attendees and additional gift? I just don't get it. I will give your kid a gift when its their birthday. I'm assuming this 'tradition' was born out of some child attending another kid's birthday party and being upset because the birthday kid got all the presents and they felt left out? It just feels weird to leave with a goodie bag when I attend another child's party. Like our attendance was being bought or we're getting a consolation prize. Hey, the cake and ice cream was plenty. You don't have to give my daughter more candy and dollar store fodder that will end up floating around in my car or confetti on my living room floor. There's a recession going on for goodness sake. Save your money!

I'd love to maybe do an activity with our immediate family but I feel guilty because people will ask why they weren't invited. Or they will inquire what we did to celebrate and I worry they will think (well I invited you to my kid's party, the least you could do is return the favor). I have a hard enough time choosing a birthday give for my own loved ones. My daughter is very girly through no intentions on my part.I wanted to spend the day at this kiddie spa in CT with my daughter and her 2 grandmothers. It ain't cheap but I know she'd love it. But she is old enough to know what a party is and hears how excited her friends get about their parties. She's been planning her guest list for months. I don't want to deny her that and I won't but I don't like getting sucked into these "must do's" and restrictions. It's stressing me out. I'm worried I'll forget to invite someone or my party will be "lame". I hate to feel that I need to prove myself to others but isn't that what we're trying to do... out-do the last party we went to? Where can I draw the line without being labeled a birthday grinch?

Do any of you buck the system? Is this goodie bag thing just in the Northeast (I'm not from here) or is it a new generation thing? (I'm in my 30s) Is it just who I grew up around, or did we NOT get parting gifts in the 1980s when we attended someone else's birthday party?

Crazy for Cuties

Seriously, I love this company! I'm not a big citrus fruit eater. My mom told me that she ate a lot of oranges when she was pregnant with me. Maybe that's why? But my daughter loves oranges and tangerines. We began seeing tv commercials about Cuties easy to peel mandarins and my daughter would say "Mommy, let's get those". And before I could buy them myself, my mother bought some and gave them to us. They are the perfect size for little hands and really are easy to peel. So, one day I went to their website and they have these fun video contests and great prizes. I have tons of videos of my daughter on my computer. I began uploading videos that fit the different contests themes. And I've won the daily prize 3 times. You get an email if you are the daily winner to let you know a prize is on the way. (You provide your address when you sign up.) Then a few days later a package shows up. So far I've won a t-shirt which will fit my 4 yr old perfectly this summer. And I won two lunch boxes. So, I want to giveaway one of them to spread the love. Details at the bottom.

This is the last one I entered in their "Holiday Cuties" contest. The voting has ended for that particular one and sadly we didn't win the grand prize (Xbox 360 + Kinect & $500 DonorsChoose.org Gift Card). I know! Sweet, right? I wasn't excited for the Xbox. We already have a Wii that rarely gets played, lol. But that leads me to the DonorsChoose.org folks.

When you upload an acceptable video, the Cuties people email you a code to use on DonorsChoose. You can give that $10 to any school/project you want. I searched for local schools. Most projects are posted by public school teachers who need supplies for their students. I uploaded at least 5 videos in as many recent weeks, so I've donated $50 (not out of my own pocket mind you) to local causes. That feels great!!! I even get thank you notes from teachers. I really wanted to win that $500 donation to give to some Bridgeport schools in need. I am giving away this metal lunchbox with same image on both sides.

Earn up to 11 entries by doing tasks like Liking our FB page and Twitter, etc ENTER HERE. Winner will be drawn randomly on Wednesday, Feb 8 at 12:01 pm EST and I'll contact the winner the next day to get their mailing address.Thanks for playing!


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The Best Day Ever!

My daughter told me today was "the best day ever". I admit, it warmed my heart on such a frigid day. I thought my allergies were to blame for my stuffy nose the last few days. But today my nose was dripping like a faucet and I feel "under the weather" for sure. How come no one ever says "above the weather" when they feel great? But I digress...

So the northeast got dumped with snow yesterday and since I don't live on a main road, my street doesn't get priority plowing. So I knew we'd be indoors today. I woke up and we made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Then, I snuck back upstairs for a quick nap while my daughter (soon to be 4) watched tv with her dad. About an hour later I emerged from the bedroom and I was immediately bombarded with requests to go outside. My daughter's agenda: snow angel, snowman, snowball fight. Previous winters I was able to distract her and avoid snow activities but this year it was unavoidable. Thankfully, we have had much snow this winter. So I bundle her up. When I was zipping up her coat I thought to ask if she needed to potty. Thankfully not. But she kept falling down outside and couldn't get up without my help. She was cracking up!

Disclaimer: its been at least 20 years since I made a snowman. I'm from the Midwest. I don't remember snow being so powdery. It wouldn't stick together to make a ball so we pressed it into a hill. Can I get an A for effort?

Snow lady: we found vines with red berries so we gave her lips and hair.

We came in for hot cocoa and that's when she said this was "the best day ever" lol. I felt like an awesome mom. But now I'm using the heating pad on my back from all the bending I did earlier. It was totally worth it. Its supposed to rain tomorrow. I hope she won't take it too hard when her "snow lady" washes away.