happy easter.

Easter has always been a favorite holiday of mine and every time it rolls around every year, I'm reminded of the fun memories I had when I was younger...

The excitement of shopping for a new Easter basket every year because there was no way you could use the old one from the year before.
The joy of getting together with my family and spending quality time with my cousins.
The smell and taste of the delicious food.
The pastel-colored outfits that our parents made us wear.
The impatient waiting we had to endure while the adults went and hid the eggs...
The even more impatient waiting we had to endure while the adults made us sit together and take pictures...in our pastel-colored outfits.
The rush of excitment when we finally were released to begin our search for eggs.
The chocolates, the treats, the money. The pure fun and joy of it all.

I truly do miss being a kid, especially around Easter time. What makes it even more joyous for me now is creating the same memories for my son. Seeing how much he has come to love the holiday as much as I did as a kid warms my heart more than he'll ever know. Happy Easter, son!

 

 

 

 

a clean home makes mommy happy.

Spring time calls for Spring Cleaning!

I've never been much of a "Spring Cleaning" type of gal, but I told myself that it was going to happen this year. Cleaning itself has always been therapeutic for me and that is exactly what my Saturday consisted of.

It's such a cleansing feeling to purge and reorganize everything. I absolutely hate clutter in the home and I refuse to hoarde things that we don't need. The best part of my Spring cleaning day was organizing my son's toys. Did I mention that I hate toys, too? My son has this obsession with trains and cars, specifically Hot Wheels. I didn't know how bad this was until I laid out all his toys on the floor...

It was the attack of the toy cars and my life was taken over by them. Thank goodness my wonderful son was out of the house for a couple of hours. What he won't know won't hurt him...

 

do you really need that?

They say kids say the darnest things. And it's true...they really do.

I was lucky enough to have the day off on Monday and of course, I spent it with my little man. He was excited to have some QT time with mommy as was I with him. After spending some time at Chuck E Cheese and having lunch, we decided to head over to the Dollar Store since I needed to pick up some essentials...

My son's new thing is throwing unnecessary items into the basket or cart when we're shopping. So he was up to his usual behavior as soon as we walked into the store.

"Don't just throw things into the basket, Dylan."

He still continues to put random items in the basket so I finally say, "Okay, these are things that we don't need so let's not put things that we don't need into the basket."

This is something that we are trying to teach him when we go shopping - our needs vs. wants.

He puts what he was holding back down, looks at me {with a little smirk on his face} and says, "But Mommy, you put chips in there. Do you NEED chips???"

I swear, this kid is too smart for his own good.

the sweetest boy

Over the weekend we moved into a new place so you can imagine how hectic and messy it was. The three of us were so pooped that we were lying in bed at 8pm and my son and boyfriend eventually fell asleep 30 minutes later. I thought, "Yay, I get to sleep early tonight for once, too!" I must have jinxed myself because I didn't sleep early at all. In fact, I laid there in bed for 3 hours trying to get myself to sleep.

I tossed.
I turned.
I went to the bathroom several times.

It was going to be one of those nights and I was already dreading the next day.

I woke up around 6am this morning to make breakfast and was not in a good mood since I ended up falling asleep around 1am. After feeding my son his breakfast, I quickly got dressed and went into the kitchen to eat my food when I heard, "Mommy you look so pretty."

Immediately I looked at him and felt so much better. I walked over to him, gave him a big huge hug and said, "You are the sweetest boy ever. You make sure to always tell girls how pretty they are...they will melt in your hands."

My little man just smiled. I love him to pieces.

wordless wednesday

{someone is ready for Halloween!}

Won't Back Down

When I finished high school ten years ago, about half of my class graduated. Half! My high school was on its way to failing and it was only getting worse. Ten years later, my high school is gone and has been replaced with a middle school. I'm not sure exactly what happened or if anyone tried to do anything about it. But if you ask me about it, it breaks my heart and it's very saddening. If this was happening to a high school in my city, what's to say it won't happen to the rest of the schools?

When I had my son I knew how I wanted to raise him, what foods I wanted to feed him and what not to feed him and what kind of bottles and diapers I was going to use. The one thing I didn't know was where we were going to put him in school. I knew for sure that it wasn't going to be in my hometown and that was one of the main reasons why we moved out of there. My son is almost 4 years old and elementary school is just around the corner and the thought of where to start his educational path scares me.

Where are the best teachers?
Where is the best eduation?
How far will I go to get him the best education he needs??

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a screening of Won't Back Down the other night in San Francisco thanks to Circle of Moms. Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, and Holly Hunter, the movie is about two mothers who decide to drastically change their children's failing inner-city school. The task itself isn't easy and throughout the movie you see how they are tested but continue to strive to make a difference in not only their children's lives, but the whole community.

I hadn't heard of the movie before the screening but I'm so glad I was introduced to it. When I saw the preview I knew it was going to be a powerful movie! And it was. It wasn't only powerful, but it was one of the most touching and heartwarming movies I've seen in a long time. Any movie that can make me cry gets two thumbs up in my book. Seeing the struggle and frustration Maggie Gyllenhaal's character Jamie had with her daughter's school was a reminder that you can't just put your kids in any school and expect them to have the best education.

Being a mother myself, I couldn't help but feel every emotion that the two mothers went through. Their pain, their dedication, their tears, their fight, and their joy. It was all there and it was for their children! I don't think I've ever felt this much admiration for two characters in a movie before. They did what they could and sacrficied everything to give their children the best. And isn't that what motherhood is all about, sacrifice?

Won't Back Down is a reality check that our children only have one life to live and that we shouldn't back down when it comes their future. Maggie Gyllenhall and Viola Davis delivered an outstanding performance. This movie give mothers everywhere hope and it is truly inspiring from beginning to end!

FTC DISCLOSURE: A Mommy's Lifestyle aims to provide unbiased editorials. However, I wish to disclose that from time to time I may receive free products or other compensation from companies for blogger reviews.

wordless wednesday

March 2009 - 3 months old

{can we please rewind time??}

wordless wednesday

{someone didn't want to leave the LEGO store...}

a perfect ending

It was Dylan's last day of soccer for the summer season last Saturday and it ended better than any mommy could ask for. Of course they don't play actual games, but just games for fun - no goalies, no scores. So on the last "fun game", my son got hold of the ball and he started kicking it. His team and the other team were trailing behind him.

"Go Dylan, go!" we yelled.

He kept kicking and running and getting closer to the goal. He did one final kick and the ball went straight in! He threw his fist in the air out of pure excitement and came running to us as we gave him the biggest high-fives ever. We were so proud of him!!!

We told him he deserved a prize for doing such a great job. What did he ask for?

Macarons.

Oh, he is so my son.

soccer kicks & disneyland dreams

This Saturday will be my son's last day of soccer for the summer. I'm so happy that he's having so much fun playing the game. The kids are so cute and entertaining to watch! We enjoyed it so much that we signed him up for the Fall season!


The other night as I was putting him to bed...

Mommy: It's time for us to go to sleep now. I'm gonna close my eyes and dream of Disneyland.
Dylan: Ok. I'm gonna dream of Disneyland, too. I'll meet you there!

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

{my little Giants fan!}

flowers for mommy

My boyfriend had the day off yesterday so he and my son had a fun-filled day together...while Mommy had to work. {Yay.} Their day started off with a Starbucks breakfast together - Chai Tea Latte & a sausage breakfast sandwich for Daddy, hot cocoa and a blueberry muffin for baby. 

Since I didn't get to spend the day with them, my boyfriend sent me pictures throughout the day. This is the usual for us whenever one of us is missing out on something. The first picture was of my son standing outside Costco. 

A few minutes later, I received this picture...

Along with this text: 

He said, "Daddy, I wanna buy flowers for Mommy." 

Even when he's away from me, he never fails to melt my heart! I come home after work and I say, "Dylan, where are my flowers?" His response...

"They're at Costco."

wordless wednesday

{little man running back to Daddy}

a tale of two fishies

My mom was kind enough to buy two little goldfishes for my son yesterday. Dylan has asked us for a pet, one of them being a fish. I know it would be a great way to teach him responsibility, but in the back of my mind I always think that I'll be the one who ends up feeding and taking care of a pet.


So, the fishies were there. In their little bowl. In our home.


I told him that he needed to feed them in the morning and at night and that it would be his job. After he went to bed last night, I said to my boyfriend, "I don't mind the fishies, but having goldfish makes me nervous. Every time I had one as a kid, they never lived for very long..." I probably had 5 goldfish before I decided that I shouldn't own them anymore.


This morning as I was getting ready for work, I noticed one of the fishies at the bottom of the bowl. I checked and sure enough, it was dead. I didn't have the heart to throw it out just yet. Dylan wasn't awake yet and we didn't know what to tell him.


Do we throw it out and tell him it actually died? Or do we replace it with another one?


He woke up a few minutes later and the first thing he did was run up to the fish bowl to say "Good morning fishies!!" I felt sad for him because he had no idea.


We came home this evening and I was prepared to tell him that one of his fishies had died. To my surprise, I looked inside the bowl and found BOTH fishies floating in the water. He ran up to the bowl and said, "Mommy, the fishies are dead!" We told him it would be okay and that we'd get him some new fishies. I said, "Okay, let's say goodbye and flush them down the toilet!" What did he say? 


"Ooh, I wanna do it!!!"

So long fishies, you will be missed!

an afternoon bike ride

Last Saturday was such a beautiful day that we decided to take our son to go bike-riding in the city. Our plan was to run beside him and at first, we thought our chances of running were not very high...we didn't think he'd be fast on his little training bike...but to our surprise, he was zooming past us and we were the ones trying to catch up with him. We stopped halfway to enjoy lunch and some desserts. I can't wait till there are longer stretches of sunny and warm weather...

Racing his Daddy to the end of the pier...

Lunch time!!

Little man trying to sneak some macarons...

wordless wednesday

{the first set of work/artwork brought home from preschool}

4 am wake up call

I have been potty-training my son for a year now and I must say, it has been the hardest thing I've had to deal with as a parent...so far. It's frustrating, it's time-consuming, and it's exhausting. There have been times where I felt like giving up. There have been times where I wished babies were born potty-trained. I've heard potty-training a boy takes hard work and a lot of devoted time and patience, which sometimes I run out of. 

It's been a inconsistent and a consistent challenge. 

This past weekend was surprisingly consistent. He kept his pull-up dry for long periods of time and even while we were out, he said "Mommy, I have to go potty!" This is something he hardly ever does. We're usually the ones asking him if he needs to go. Not this time. He was very vocal and in control of his "potty needs". 

At bedtime last night I put an extra blanket underneath him just in case he wet his pants, which is something he usually does during the night. 

I wake up to him nudging me on the arm and standing next to my bed. It was 4 am and I had to wake up for work in 2 hours. "Oh please don't wake me up right now", I thought. I looked at him and he said, "Mommy, I pee-peed." I got up and immediately started feeling his pants and to my surprise, he was completely dry. I said, "No you didn't." Then he said, "I did! In the potty!" 

I couldn't believe it! I was so happy and so proud of him. He has never woken up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. And I was so surprised that he didn't even bother to wake me up. 

He's growing up way too fast!

Sponsored Video: Check out the latest Horizon Organic Video

Before I had my son, the word "organic" and "healthy" never even crossed my mind. I used to be someone who never really worried about healthy foods. My diet consisted of: junk food and maybe the occasional fruits and veggies. Since becoming a mommy, my outlook on food has changed drastically. Stuffing myself with pizza, cupcakes, and even more pastries has now been replaced with the necessary fruits, veggies and other healthy food products. Not only is it important for my son to have healthy eating habits, it's also important for him to see his parents doing the same just so he knows how good it really is for him. Monkey see, monkey do, right? One of the types of foods we try extremely hard to stay away from is processed foods. Stocking our fridge with more natural food products is definitely the way to go.


Our favorite organic brand is Horizon Organic. Drinking milk is an important part of our health so any time we need milk, Horizon Organic is the answer. Getting my son to drink it is sometimes a hard task, but when it comes to Horizon Organic, it's such a breeze. Not only is it healthy and natural, but they have different flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Healthy flavored milk? Yes please! They also come in handy to-go packs, which my son loves!


Knowing that my son loves this stuff is even more of an incentive when choosing Horizon Organic. Kids love it and so should we!

This post is sponsored by Horizon Organic.

who's the father?

My son is in preschool part time so on his off days, he spends a lot of his time with my mom. She always says, "Kids are like sponges." And boy, is she right.

The other day during his nighttime prayer he said: "Dear God, please bless my mommy and daddy. And the other daddy. And the other daddy."


(Hmm??)


Immediately confused, I said: "What other daddy??"
My boyfriend said: "Yeah, who are you talking about?"


We let the moment pass and let him finish his prayer. Then he gets up and says to his daddy, "You are NOT the father!!"


Still confused, I said: "What are you talking about?" Suddenly, it dawns on me! My mom has been watching TOO much of Maury Povich around him! 


I could not. stop. laughing.


Thanks, Maury!!