Tag Archives: Girls

Birthday Presents For A 6-Year-Old Girl

Between a My Little Pony, a different My Little Pony or another My Little Pony, buying my soon to be 6-year-old birthday gifts have been a breeze… until this year.
My little girl Talia decided just a week ago that My Little Pony figures were no longer her favorite toys. Unfortunately, her birthday is in a few days…

Buying Birthday Presents For A 6-Year-Old Girl

Now what? Birthday present shopping was supposed to be easy. Why, all of a sudden then did she change her tune? Although not sure, I wondered… Maybe she is so smart (I mean seriously, she is wicked (can you tell I am from Boston) smart! (crickets) )… As I was saying, I wondered… maybe she is is so smart that she deliberately tried to throw me off my game this year! Maybe so, or… maybe she is just getting bored with the same old same old. Needless to say, her taste in toys went from this…

To this…
To this…
Then this…
Finally asking for… THIS…

I have no words. ((puzzled))

Posted in Children, Family, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Shopping, Women | Tagged birthday, dog, furrReal, Girls, my little pony, ponies, pony, presents, puppy, rake, yard | Leave a comment

Totsy Sales And Amazing Shopping For Mom And Kids!

Totsy… an adorable name for an adorable and affordable website! Clearly, I am a shopaholic. Lately though, my shopping tendencies have been tame. Realizing that my shopping tendencies were on the verge of needing psychiatric help, I took a baby step back to assess the situation. The results… compulsive shopper and spendthrift. Knowing full well that I needed to change my ways, I resorted to watching my wallet a bit more. Really though, that meant not taking my wallet with me… anywhere.

Although I clearly needed to reduce my spending habits, having two growing children, (girls to boot) I could not put a complete halt to purchasing clothes and accessories. That said, I needed to budget, more so though, I needed to budget smart and get the most out of my money. On a mission, yet, still thinking of bags full of new and fun clothes and accessories, I got really lucky. I was introduced to an amazing website called Totsy!

Totsy is all about the latest trends… at a discount off course. I realize there are a few sites similar. Heck, I am a member of them! Regardless though, Totsy is different compared to them. The difference… selection. All I needed to do was sign up to realize what I had been missing. After I signed up (which, by the way is free, and only took a second), I was able to browse through their long… long list of brands and items for sale… big sales might I add! After about 15 minutes of sheer enjoyment, and a tired computer, I was able to order a large quantity of clothing and more for my little ones and not feel a big dent in my wallet! Let’s just say that this whole money management/budget thing may not cramp my style after all! Check it out! To get these deals, all you have to do is click on the link and remember, it’s FREE to join!

Posted in Children, Family, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Shopping, Uncategorized, Women | Tagged accessories, boys, brand, brands, Children, clothes, fashion, Girls, Kids, malls, Mom, Parenting, sales, school, shop, Shopping, stores, style, tots, trending, trends | Leave a comment

Switching Things Up

My two daughters may look like one another but, they could not be more different. Talia, my oldest, is always doing exactly what she is supposed to. She is a great listener and is always ready to please. Julia, my youngest, on the other hand, has a mind of her own. She does things as she pleases and comes across quite lazy. Julia is always trying to find a way to get Talia to do her dirty work. Talia, with much complaining, usually succumbs to Julia’s orders. Not sure if they are trying to mess with me or just changing, but, they have mixed things up a bit, thus, making me realize that I may not know my children as well as I thought I did.

Two very strange things happened this weekend in the Cotter household. First… I noticed my lovely Talia. She recently had a hair cut. Her hair looked great. Saturday, I gave my angel baby a bath. Wouldn’t you know it, as I was brushing her hair, I noticed something just a bit out of sorts. She had bangs. She has not had bangs in 3 years. So, the question was, where did they come from. At first, I thought maybe she was growing new hair and I didn’t realize it. Then, I came back to reality and realized they were clearly cut. My next thought was that my mother cut bangs and told Talia not to tell me. I asked Talia if her grandmother did that to her and she responded with a stern no! I prodded and prodded, trying to get her to rat out my mom and she continued to tell me that she was not the culprit. So, I asked again… “Talia, what happened to your bangs?” She caved. ”Mom,” she said, “I cut them.” I couldn’t believe it! I asked her why and her response was even more amusing. ”Well,” she said, “remember that chewy gooey yummy rainbow treat you gave me? Well, it was really gooey and it got stuck in my hair, so I cut it out.” Well, the chewy gooey thing she was referring to was her first fruit roll up. I asked Talia to please never ever cut her own hair again. She agreed that she never would. As I checked out her bangs, I realized that she actually did quite a good job. I could not help but compliment her by saying, “even though mommy never wants you to do that again, you did a pretty good job.” Talia’s response… “Obviously mom, I was looking in the mirror and being really careful.”

Now to Julia. Julia, my daughter who refuses to lift a finger in the house. She pretends to clean while she secretly plays. She complains every time you ask her to do anything. Her typical response, “uh, I always have to do everything for everyone!” Unbelievable as she rarely does anything for anyone, including herself. This weekend was a little different. I asked the girls to pick up their room. To my amazement, Julia was moving around like a kid in fast motion. My little peanut might as well have had roller skates on as she cruised through her bedroom and even the rest of the house cleaning away. She even put a pretty dress on her play table and decorated it… I commended her and told her how proud I was that she was working so hard. Julia’s response, “thanks mom! I decided to start being good.” Enough said.

Posted in Apps, Children, Family, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Women | Tagged blogging, Children, clean, daughters, Family, funny, Girls, haircut, i-stuff, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mom, tech, write, write now | 1 Comment

Adidas Shelltoe… Old Meets New

Remember the days of Adidas shell toe sneakers? My shelltoes were the coolest shoes back in the day! When Adidas first came out with the famous low top Superstar Shelltoe, my friends and I had to have them! Mine were white with 3 fantastic blue stripes!

Recently, my daughter Talia and I went shopping for sneakers. Having grown out of hers, she was excited for a new pair. Unfortunately, the only ones she was interested in were not available in her size. To my surprise, her first choices were not predominantly pink in color, nor were they very girly looking. Once home, she asked if we could go looking again the following day. I really did not want to see another disappointed look on her face if we had no luck again so, I whipped out my iPad and asked her to sit next to me. Off we were, browsing through a myriad of shoe sites on the web. The Zappos website offered a great selection of sneakers for my little one but, even better, I could browse by shoe size. As I scrolled down the page showing size 12 shoes for Talia, she pointed out a few she liked. Then came page 4, second row down… she stopped the page and slammed her finger down on the shoes! Immediately, the picture of her favorite shoe popped up in full form on my iPad! I could not believe my eyes! Superstar Adidas Shelltoe sneakers in silver! Simply awesome! It took me no time at all to press the purchase button for her! The shoes are now on Talia’s feet and a constant reminder of how much I loved my old school shelltoes and how much my daughter once again, has the same impeccable taste her mother does. If you enjoyed reading this, feel free to subscribe to my blog by email!

Posted in Apps, Children, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Photography, Shopping, Tomorrow's Heirlooms | Tagged adidas, Girls, i-stuff, iPad, iPhone, iPod, SHOES, shop, SNEAKERS, superstar, tech, zappos | 2 Comments

The Morning Hustle And Our Families Clothes War

The Ideal Morning

6:30am Mom’s alarm goes off
6:35am Mom gets into the shower
6:45am Mom gets out of the shower and dressed for the day
6:55am Quick makeup application for mom
7:00am Mom wakes up the kids
7:00am-7:15 The girls go to the bathroom, brush their teeth and get dressed for the day while mom makes breakfast
7:15am-7:30am The girls eat their breakfast with a little time to waste
7:45am Off to school we go with big smiles!

My Morning

6:30am My alarm went off and I hit snooze.
6:40am My alarm went off and I hit snooze.
6:50am My alarm went off and I hit snooze.
7:00am My alarm went off on my phone and my head. I sat up.
7:02am I called the girls names from my room to wake up… and called again, and again.
7:10am I went into the girls rooms to wake them up.
7:15am The clothes war began.
7:40am The clothes war was still going on even though they were picked the night before.
7:45am I had enough, threw the clothes on the bed, and began getting ready myself.
7:50am No time for a shower at this point… Fantastic! Put my clothes on, makeup applied and ready to face the battle again.
7:55am One child had all her clothes on and the other, had a school skirt, no shirt, arms crossed and a pout.
8:00am Fully clothed and still angry. No time for a quiet morning breakfast. A gogurt and a banana to go… and cannot forget the milk! Thank goodness for to go cups.
8:05am Off to school in the car, huffing, puffing and late for school again.

Posted in Children, Family, Flummery, Funnies, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Shopping, Uncategorized, Women | Tagged blogging, child, Children, clothes, fight, Girls, Mom, mommy, morning, mother, Motherhood, Parenting, parents, school, social, today, trend, trending, trends, twitter, uniforms, war, website, wordpress, write, writer | Leave a comment

Children | Sports | Activities | When Do You Draw The Line?

In my case, draw the line is quite the opposite. Instead of having my girls in too many activities, I don’t have them in enough. Currently, it’s dance. That is it. I work full-time, my husband works full-time, and most activities for my daughter’s age group occur while we are working.

That is not the whole reason though. I, unfortunately, may have a fear of commitment when it comes to extracurricular activities for my girls. I have signed them up on a few occasions and not followed through with the class. What I mean, is that I schlep them to 3 to 5 classes and then the desire fizzles out… Does that make me a bad person? NO! It means that my children were not overly enthusiastic about the activity, it didn’t fit well into any of our schedules and personally, not a top priority at the time.

I am changing though. I chose to commit to one, which I go to every week regardless of what plans may come our way. It is a priority, like school and we are sticking to it. My problem is a bit different. My daughters are 4 and 5. They go to school all week, are tired and love spending quality time with mom and dad over the weekend. Many of their friends on the other hand are involved in numerous activities all week-long. My plan is to start them in gymnastics and soccer when the next season starts. Initially, I thought about waiting another year until they settled into the newness of long school days. I did not want to overdo it. Unfortunately, I have decided against that. The reasoning… I do not want my girls to feel inferior or loose some self-esteem because all of the other children, the same age as my girls, will have had a few years under their belt in the same activities, and be able to participate on a different level.

Tough decision for sure. I have two options though… I just hope the decision I have made ends up being the right one.

Posted in Apps, Children, Family, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Shopping, Uncategorized, Women | Tagged activities, ballet, Children, dance, fun, Girls, gymnastics, Kids, parents, play, school, season, soccer, sports | Leave a comment

My Beautiful Little Girl & Some Family Magic

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SOUND

Today, and almost everyday for that matter, I have the pleasure of spending amazing time with my children. More than that, I watch them. I see them with delight in their eyes every morning wondering what their day will bring. I have the luxury of holding them at night before they drift off to sleep. We make tents out of their comforters, on their beds and read with a flashlight. Even the simplicity of watching a movie with all of our hands heading for the popcorn bowl at the same time is a joy. Our family is close, my girls, inseparable. They are growing up quickly though. I am trying to embrace each day. Not focused on the past or the future. I just want to savor in every moment I have with my little ones. Parenting is hard enough. I cannot look back at the things I “could” have done differently. I may not make the right decision tomorrow either. Heck, even if I think I should have dealt with a situation a certain way, if the same one occurs in three weeks, I may not handle it the way I believe I should have in the first place. Regardless, whether I am a great parent in some ways, and not so perfect in others, I don’t mind. These are not the things I want to dwell on. I cannot focus on things like that when I am spending quality time with my girls. Today, like many other days, I had the luxury of listening to something beautiful. My daughter Talia. Every time Talia sits down for a meal and starts eating, we have the pleasure of listening to a soft, sweet little voice hum a tune. Usually, it is the same every time. Today was different. As she sat and ate her breakfast, I heard a familiar hum, just not the one I normally hear. Somehow, she remembered a little tune I used to hum to both of my daughters when they were babies. The last time I recall humming my made up lullaby to either of them was about two years ago. Listening to Talia and amazed at her memory, my eyes welled up just a bit and I smiled ever so slightly. It’s little moments like this that make being a parent absolutely magical.

Posted in Apps, Children, Family, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Uncategorized, Women | Tagged Blogology, Children, Girls, hum, humming, laughter, listen, love, Mom, momblog, Motherhood, music, Parenting, singing, songs, tunes, write, writing | Leave a comment

Giving – More than Me Foundation – Beautiful Cause

I AM A MOTHER. MY CHILDREN ARE MY WORLD. I HAVE BEEN TOUCHED BY THE MORE THAN ME FOUNDATION… FORTUNATELY.
I HAVE TWO DAUGHTERS
I thought about what I would feel if my daughters weren’t given the chance to receive an education or, if they walked the streets in fear, not knowing what may happen to them. What if they had to watch their backs constantly, worrying they may be abused or violated, even in daylight? That is something I could not imagine being faced with. Unfortunately, the girls MTM support are faced with just that every day.

Let’s start with some statistics …

LIBERIA, WEST AFRICA

85% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

60% OF THEIR POPULATION IS UNDER THE AGE OF 25

FERTILITY RATE WAS 5.9 BIRTHS PER WOMAN IN 2009

20.4% OF CHILDREN UNDER AGE 5 WERE MALNOURISHED IN 2007

ONLY 17% OF THE POPULATION HAD ACCESS TO ADEQUATE SANITATION FACILITIES IN 2008!

THE POPULATION IS APPROXIMATELY 3.5 MILLION

AREA – 43,000 SQUARE MILES – SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN OHIO

West Point is one of the poorest slums in the country of Liberia.

MORE THAN ME FOUNDATION

If you have not had the opportunity to learn about the More Than Me Foundation, you are in for a really incredible story enhanced by some pretty amazing people!

I stumbled upon More Than Me by sheer luck! While researching and learning about the many organizations dedicated to helping and giving to others, More than Me stood out for a few reasons:

*MISSION

GETTING GIRLS OFF THE STREET AND INTO SCHOOL IN ONE OF THE POOREST SLUMS IN THE WORLD IN LIBERIA, WEST AFRICA.

Browsing through www.morethanme.org was a blessing for me. We all hear stories all the time about some person who experienced something that changed them forever and now they want to do something for others. Often, these are just stories or dreams. It is rare that people like Katie Meyler, founder of MTM actually turn these dreams and hopes into a reality. Katie has done more than that though, her dreams encompass their whole organization, making them quite a force! Reading everyone’s bio’s made my eyes well up. Here is a group of people, who have their own lives outside of the organization, whether families with young children, busy careers and more, they share a similar goal. They are truly helping those in need and are focused.

On so many occasions, I have given to charities and other organizations not really knowing if the money or any of my contributions are going towards the cause. Similar to a black hole situation. MTM is different. There is a strong purpose, and the purpose is achieved with each contribution. They don’t make promises they cannot keep. Their goal is to not only to educate these wonderful little beings but to keep them safe. They are a like a family. It is awful and causes heartache when things beyond the foundation’s control happen to these innocent children. Amazingly enough, the MTM foundation doesn’t try to hide anything. They say it like it is. Their words and website make us aware of the reality of living in Liberia, the slums, and the awful things the children living there are faced with daily. On the flip side, the organization gives one the opportunity to witness the love and hope the young girls have for both MTM and themselves. It is about giving them a chance they probably would not have had. After reading about MTM and learning more about Liberia and the girls that MTM support, the reality of all things we take for granted surfaces. One realizes how much these children do not have that many of us just could not dream of being without. It is hard to believe that even in 2012, children are deprived of educations. They consider receiving one a luxury. Although I am a strong believer in education, it has always been mandatory. It is hard to believe that while some of our children complain about going to school, girls in Liberia would give anything to have that opportunity.

After all of my reading and research, I decided to contact MTM. I sent an email and received a response fairly quick. The email I received was sent by Stephanie Hood, a member of their organization. A few things she wrote truly stood out. In my email, I asked how I could help. 90% of the time I have tried to get involved in an organization, the first thing I am asked to do is contribute money. This time, the response was quite different. This group wants to get the word out! They believe that educating others about their organization and making people aware of what they are trying to do and what the girls of Liberia are going through is just as important as collecting funds. Stephanie was not only pleasant to deal with but offered to let me use any of the information, including pictures posted on their website to spread the word. This may sound ridiculous to some, but genuinely, it is a rarity. Stephanie allowed me to feel like I was a part of something no matter what I contributed and she welcomed it. I wish more charitable organizations were like this but more so, that more people in this world had the same care and love in them like the men and women involved in MTM.

If anything, please take the time to view their webpage, read some stories, donate if you can and really, get the word out. Many people may not know about MTM, but if made aware, I genuinely believe they would want to help.

Educating these girls is so important! Why girls? Below are just a few reasons presented by The MTM Foundation on their website:

When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.
When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
These statistics are pretty amazing if you ask me!

Donation Link:

http://morethanme.org/donate.html

Video Link:
http://vimeo.com/31349402
MTM also has a very active Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/morethanme
*direct quote from http://www.morethanme.org

photo credits: all photos contained in this post are from http://www.morethanme.org

Posted in Apps, Children, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Uncategorized, Women | Tagged africa, business, buy, charity, Children, computer, Education, feed, Girls, google, help, i-stuff, iPad, learning, liberia, life, love, Mom, momblog, mommy, moms, Parenting, parents, photography, poor, poverty, school, slums, social networking, tech, today, trend, trends, website, wordpress, write | Leave a comment

Sisterly Love And A Stomach Bug…

Winter and germs… what can I say… it was only a matter of time before the stomach bug hit our home. This time, it was Julia.

Saturday morning, while laying in my bed partially awake, I heard little feet go into the bathroom and then back into the bedroom. A few minutes later, I heard them again only this time, the length of time spent in the bathroom was a little longer. Still nothing out of the ordinary… or so I thought. Next, baby Julia was on the side of my bed and we stared at each other for a moment. Out of her mouth came something completely unexpected… ”Mom”, she said. ”Um, I just did pukes in the bathroom and before that I did some in my bed but I cleaned them up… it was only a little bit in my bed though.” She is FOUR! I was horrified and sad at the same time. Why hadn’t she woke me up? Why didn’t she tell me that she felt like throwing up? Why did she clean it by herself? Why didn’t I know!!! I gave her a big hug and asked why she didn’t tell me! She replied, “it’s ok mommy, I wasn’t scared.” I was broken-hearted!

Understandably, my children are growing up but I never expected nor wanted something like this to happen! In a selfish way, I don’t want my girls not to need me for things yet but more so, I wanted so much to be there for Julia while she was taking care of herself. She and I sat on the couch together for the next few hours and I cuddled her, stroked her forehead, gave her numerous kisses, allowed her to have a little juice and held her hair back for her every time she threw up. She never cried, complained or made a peep. She would just smile up at me and say thank you mom. It never ceases to amaze me how strong little ones are.

A little while later, I noticed Julia feeling a little better and gave her a bath. Just after, it was time to disinfect the house. Starting with laundry, and the bedrooms, I continued through the house, opened windows and cleaned… Wandering back into the living room, I stumbled upon something even more amazing! Talia, the angel that she is, was playing the role of mommy. I couldn’t believe my eyes (well, sort of)… Talia is a true humanist. she is a care taker and feels everyone’s pain. I genuinely believe she could be the next Mother Theresa… and that is not a joke. Her compassion is beyond words and our family is fortunate to have such amazing little girls in our lives! I had to share this picture since it depicts true sisterly love and my daughters!

Posted in Children, Family, Girls, Kids, Mom, Motherhood, Parenting, Uncategorized, Women | Tagged blogging, Blogology, bug, care, Children, dad, Family, flu, Girls, love, Mom, momblog, mommy, Parenting, puke, sick, sister, sisters, stomach, write, writenow | 1 Comment

TERRIBLE 2′S, 3′S OR 4′S?

Before I had my little ones, I remember mothers referring to the terrible 2′s… Then came Talia. Mother’s and Grandmother’s then started telling me that it really wasn’t the 2′s but that they should be called the terrible 3′s… Then came Julia…

The 2′s were a breeze, the 3′s a little harder… We are now on the 4′s. If someone told me how difficult the 4′s would be, I may have taken a leave of absence from parenting. Well, not so much but I may have prepared myself better during the 3′s so the 4′s were easier. These are the things I would have done differently:

I would not have bought skinny pants or leggings for Julia,
I would not have purchased dresses for Julia,
I would not have allowed my mother in law to buy her cowboy boots,
I would never have allowed her to wear her sister’s shoes,
I would not have allowed her to paint her nails just that once,
I would never have bought her clip on earings for Halloween,
I would not have shown her where I kept my makeup,
I would not have let her spray a little perfume on herself,
I would not have let her borrow any of my jewelery for play,
I would not have let her get away with not cleaning up after herself.

The list goes on and the phrase “I would not have” has many more endings in reference to Julia. Instead of boring you, I am going to stop writing now and leave you with this… My daughter is beautiful, bright, amazing, makes me smile every day and is the cause of numerous gray hairs sprouting from my head as well as the probable cause for me so desperately wanting to ask my doctor to prescribe me medication to get through my weekends when I have no escape for my baby Jules!