A mysterious fall virus has struck our home. Scratch that, it’s really the annual fall virus that comes for my little guy every September keeping him out of school and sports and gives everyone in our house a case of cabin fever before it’s done. Having had some experience with this unwelcome visitor, I’ve got some tricks in my Mommy nurse-bag if your want to mix-it-up–no disrespect to the honorable chicken noodle soup. Try these on for size to cheer your flush-cheeked, sweaty, clammy, feverish, achy, sore-throaty, mush-face…and I’m always looking for more ideas so, please do share!
Category: Kids
Mustache Themed Gifts
My daughter is obsessed with mustaches. Yep, those handlebar, thick mustaches that we used to use to play disguise. Who knew they would become a fashion statement, but here it is 2012 and it is. Yesterday, she went to a birthday party and as I was picking up gifts for that event, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw so many cute mustache items all over the Upper West Side–I had pulled together a little mustache giftie to surprise my girlie just because (and socked a few away for another day for good measure)!
When she returned from her party last night she said: Mom, you should do a post on mustache themed gifts… And right she was, so here it is.
Gifts For Gleeks
I’m a Gleek. I’m 37 years old and I can’t wait to find out what happens to Rachel and Finn, how New York (the city I love and live in) will be written into the show, and I nearly died when I stumbled onto this post on Vulture giving some juicy insights into the next season. Yep, I’m a Gleek and proud of it.
My dream episode would be an entire hour dedicated to the genius that is Stephen Sondheim and I think these kids nail handle it (are you listening Ryan Murphy?). Just picture it… Kurt singing “Not A Day Goes By,” Blaine singing “Being Alive,” Mr. Shoe singing “Children Will Listen” and of course Rachel singing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.” I would pre-order that baby on iTunes right now.
With only nine days before the season premiere, I thought it would be appropriate to come up with fun Glee-themed gifts for the Gleek in your life (I have a few also). Happy listening!
Back to School Deals
I’m a sucker for a deal. As a mom, there are a few shopping tent poles that hit me the hardest: Holiday (Christmas and Chanukah), summer shopping and back to school — the latter being probably the biggest in our house because it’s replacing pretty much everything: supplies, clothes, shoes and accessories. Because it’s such a huge shopping extravaganza I look for as many sales as I possibly can find, so I thought I would share the love and let you in on the deals I found. Hope some help you out, and note there are some time sensitivities noted — deals listed in order of expiration.
Gifts When Kids Get Braces
My son got braces today, and he was a real trooper I was so proud of him. It was no easy feat either, he had unbelievable patience, fortitude, courage and managed a cheesy smile. Now I know what you’re thinking: millions of people do this all the time…and you’d be right…but this is my little guy so I wanted to do something special for him after. We went to Modell’s and he picked out a couple cool things then we had some ice cream followed by a Motrin shooter but here are some other ideas, for boys and girls (since my daughter will soon be following).
25 Moon and Space Themed Gifts
Neil Armstrong was one of those luminaries I didn’t think about every day–he didn’t trend on twitter, didn’t have a reality show or make the Yahoo homepage until the other day (pathetic that this is the barometer, but that’s another post). But when I heard of his passing I, like many others, was very sad. Here’s one possible reason why (I think): one of his most notable achievements debunked an impossible dream. Entire generations had grown up believing that a lunar landing, let alone a walk was a pipe dream, a fantasy, and then all of a sudden it wasn’t anymore. Anything was possible, even walking on the moon. Now, of course it wasn’t “all of a sudden.” There was hard work and training and time that went into the Moon Landing, but what that event represented and what that taught us all was that you (we/me) can do anything.
Continue reading
Gifts for Back to School II: Tech Gear
In my day I begged my mother for a Trapper Keeper…anyone else remember those? Mine had kittens on them — similar to the image below with the puppies but with, well kittens) — and I LOVED it. Today middle schoolers at my daughters school are encouraged to have laptops, that’s right laptops and both my kids are connected with phones, tablets and computers and we are in constant connection with them from the moment they leave the house until the moment we come home from work. So the real question was what cases should they get this year?
Trapper Keeper circa early ’80s
mine had kitties
As I was browsing the web in search of picks to surprise my own mini technophiles with, I made note of some of my faves to share with you…(yes, I know, some could work even for me).
Gifts for Back to School
My husbands favorite commercial is that Staples Back to school spot where the Dad is dancing in the aisle to the holiday tune “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year” and the kids look miserable drudging behind him. Every year he waits for that commercial to begin airing again because it makes him laugh out loud and it does mean school is almost back in session and normalcy can return to our home. But even will I miss the lazy days of letting them sleep late (so I get to sleep a bit late too), a later routine so dinner isn’t at 5:30 which means, as a working mom, I get a shot at eating with my family and the promise of a sun-kissed weekend.
I don’t believe in buying comfort or joy, but I think it’s always nice to kick off back to school with a thematic gift that the kids can use during the year. Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, that Staples commercial is at the bottom of all my picks… enjoy 🙂
Discount Gift Card Shopping Sites
Ok, don’t take this the wrong way…but I’m a sucker for a deal. Case and point, I spent about an hour trolling the aisles at DSW earlier this afternoon. So how psyched was I when I found out there are sites to buy discounted GIFT CARDS…yep, you read that correctly. Gift cards. Apparently it’s a whole amazing exchange system that I won’t go into (but I do link off to resources that will tell you more if you’re interested) which can result in some serious savings if you do your research right.
The other part of the process, which I’m not going to focus on because its not the bent of my blog but file under “nice to know” is that you can sell those gift cards you’re never going to use on most of these sites and get cashola back in your possession for stuff you really want. Ok, moving on…
Summer’s Top Rated Toys Ages 0-13: August 2012
As promised, here are more top toy picks culled from Amazon. This time I selected five gems in each age group based on customer ratings (my sorting was 4+ stars–many with 5–and most had to have at least 100 reviews). I also tried make sure not to duplicate any products featured back in July–but feel free to check out that post again here. I’ve also included some personal gifts i gave to my own kids this month that did not make the top five list, but did make my family very happy. Enjoy!
The Gifting Whisperer 
