My daughter already knows everything she needs to know about real beauty

I've been following the Dove "real beauty" discussions over whether the latest Dove campaign is groundbreaking, or just another take on idealizing one form of "beauty" as better than another.

I'm in the latter camp - I'm not so impressed with the Dove campaign. Business Insider has a good article on Why People Hate Dove's 'Real Beauty' Sketches, and there's plenty of other commentary as well. (If you wrote a post about this, please leave a link in the comments, I'd love to read it whatever your take.)

I'm more interested in campaigns that focus on something besides beauty, just like I'm not particularly interested in the seemingly daily headlines proclaiming "Can you believe [insert celebrity name] had three kids?" What's not to believe? Does being a mom automatically mean you can't look good? Sigh.

But I digress. All I'm really trying to say is these beauty values evolve over time, and I was reminded of this when I looked at my daughter's illustration of Halle Berry. It's not exactly flattering, but that's because she is just drawing what she sees, without all the Hollywood expectations and suggestions.

Also, in case you can't tell what's on Halle's right, it's an Oscar. Because although she's only seven, my daughter likes to celebrate what people achieve, not how they appear. Even if Halle Berry is pretty amazing looking, and can you believe it, also a mom?

What do you think? Love, hate or dont' really care about Dove's latest advertising campaign? And will it make you buy more Dove (which is Unilever) products?

US Weekly - Suitable for A Seven-Year-Old?

We got my daughter Kay a subscription to US Weekly for her seventh birthday.

She loves US Weekly.

She taught herself to read with US Weekly, which makes sense because it's probably written for a second-grade reading level, and I'm not even joking.

But a few recent headlines in the magazine have made me wonder, is seven too young to be reading US Weekly?

And if I have to swap her subscription, what magazines do you recommend?

Disclosure: Totally not compensated in case it looks like I was, I don't even like US Weekly. Except of course, the Fashion Police section, which I kinda sorta love.

It's the 100th day of school!

Do your kids celebrate the 100th day of school?

Mine do, and for the first few years I went insane (or more accurately pin-sane) trying to figure out the most clever project ever for my kid to commemorate the 100th day of school in a totally unique and memorable way.

Now, I just let them do what they want. For my daughter Kay this meant decorating 100 in 10 rows of 10.

Perfect.

Happy 100th day, Kay!

For plenty - possibly even too many - 100th day ideas, visit my 100th Day board on Pinterest.

Future Blogger

My daughter, age 7, clearly on the path to being a future blogger.

Already almost there, taking selfies in the bathroom mirror with my iPhone.

 

 

Also, for one of the funniest reads ever (even more so if you are a blogger, and even more, more so if you are mommy blogger) read Adult Children of Mom Bloggers' Support Group by Momma Be Thy Name.

Update: Kay and Big Duckie Are Emulating... Eric Conveys an Emotion!

Last week I posted these photos of my daughter, her bestie Doofy the Giraffe, and her other bestie, Big Duckie.

Kay is showing the emotions (clockwise from the upper left) of: sleepy, happy, excited, worried, and surprised.

She is emulating the once super-popular website, Eric Conveys an Emotion.

I used to love that website, and so did, like, everyone else. It even has its own Wikipedia Page.

But now, Eric and his emotions are all but forgotten. Oh Internet, you capricious soul.

Though I'm guessing Eric has gone on to new and awesome adventures, and is most likely the founder of some start-up in Silicon Valley, but still I can't believe how quickly that once popular site has faded from memory.

Now that I've revealed EmotionEric.com is the name of the site, does anyone remember it now?

Great Back to School Looks with Cookie's Kids

My daughters go back to school in a few weeks - I can hardly believe that summer is almost over, not to mention that come fall there will be a full-fledged 2nd-grader and 4th-grader in my house.

Time flies.

With school around the corner, we've started looking at what clothes still fit from last year, and what new things they'll need for the year ahead.

I was thrilled to join a program with Collective Bias to do some back to school shopping at CookiesKids.com to find some great pieces for my daughters.

The Cookie's Kids website has lots of options both for "regular" school clothes - what my kids wear to school - and school uniforms if that's what your kids need for the school year.

I went straight to the section labeled "Girl's Dept." which is easy to navigate by choices like tops, bottoms and shoes. Each item has easy drop-down boxes to see size and color availability.

For my daughter, Magpie - age 8 and soon-to-be fourth grader I picked out an orange and gray striped tee shirt (orange is her favorite color) for $8.99 and comfy gray leggings ($5.99) that will be perfect for days she has gym class.

For my almost-second grader, Kay, who likes fancier garb, I found a ruffly shirt that suited her fashion sensibilities while still being practical enough for school. The layer top ($7.99) came in a choice of black, purple or fuchsia, and after some deliberation I went for her favorite shade, fuchsia.

When the Cookie's Kids package arrived, I showed my kids their new clothes and both girls were delighted. (Phew.)

I wonder how many more years I'll have the fun of picking out clothes for my girls as a surprise, and having them love there new things.

I'm guessing not too many, but hopefully a few more before the real teen years are here.

On Polyvore (my new addiction) I had a lot of fun putting together their new kids clothes from Cookie's Kids in a kids fashion collection - I can see creating a lot more of these in the future!

Happy Back to School everyone, here's to a great year!

Where do you like to shop for back to school clothes? What is your kid's style?

You can see more photos from my shopping experience at CookiesKids.com in my Google+ album here. You can also like Cookie's Kids on Facebook, follow them on Twitter @CookieKids or via the hashtag #CookiesKids.

A little background about Cookie's Kids - now in its 40th year!

In 1972, a young man named Cookie and his brother Marvin went into business together. They rented a 1600 square foot store in Jamaica, Queens, fixed it up, bought inventory and Summer and Fall, and opened a day after Thanksgiving with a full stock of holiday toys. The toys were a success and they put the extra money toward buying children's clothing for the next season. When that did well, they bought more clothing. The business was on it's way.

As the brothers Cookie, Marvin and Sonny, who had come in as a third partner in the business, began to open new stores in new locations, inventory expanded. Besides the latest fashions, our customers wanted shoes, toys, backpacks and accessories and we were prepared to deliver.

By the late 1990's there were six superstores throughout the NYC area, and though they previously had different names, by that time they were all named Cookie's Kids. Also in the late '90s came an important addition to Cookie's Kids' inventory: school uniforms. It was the steady success in uniform sales that paved the way for founding CookiesKids.com in 2007, which originally sold uniforms and soon after the entire Cookie's Kids Inventory.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and CookiesKids.com. #CBias #SocialFabric



Kay and Big Duckie

When we were on vacation at the beach we had one particularly long rainy day, so we spent part of the afternoon taking photos of Kay and Big Duckie (don't ask how that guy got to come along on our family vacation).

She's emulating a once (very) popular website, which I think goes back as far as the 1990s. I don't think we called it a blog back then, but that's what it was.

I just checked and the site is still alive, although the last two updates were once in 2008 and once in 2006. Let's hope he (or she) has gone on to bigger and better things.

Does anyone else remember this site, or am I the only one who was a fan?

Linking-up to Finding the Funny at Kelley's Breakroom and My Life and Kids. Check it out, you'll laugh (not cry).



Old Photo Friday: The Yellow Bikini

I keep forgetting about Old Photo Friday! Which I think means it's time to give it a rest for awhile, but first (or should it be last?) these now and then pics:

Me, in a yellow bikini, 1970-something.

My daughter, in a yellow bikini, 2012:

My milestone birthday has come and gone, so I'm ending the old photo thing for now. Instead, Fridays will now be a new feature I'm going to call "Giving the People What They Want." I'll let you know what that is this Friday.

A big thanks to everyone who followed along in my extended trip down memory lane.

Rookie USA: Great Clothing from Head to Toe for My Little Rookie

There's a new kids clothing store Rookie USA, and it's coming soon to New York City.

I'm thrilled to be working with Collective Bias to spread the word about Rookie USA, which will feature "kids' favorite brands, head to toe."

As part of the #RookieUSA campaign, my daughter Kay received a package of clothes from Rookie USA, which included incredible brands like Levi's, Converse and Nike.

Kay loves sports, and gym is her favorite thing about school.While she has always participated in a lot of sports from tennis to ice skating, it wasn't until this spring that she played her first team sport, softball.

Here she is on the last day of the softball season, wearing her participation medal with pride and enjoying her little brother's admiration of it.

However, even though Kay is very active, she also cares a lot about what she wears so I was interested to see what she would think of clothes that she didn't pick out herself, since she has been choosing her clothes and getting dressed by herself since she was a toddler.

I'm happy to be able to say that Kay was a big fan of all the clothing, but she especially loved this outfit - a Nike 6.0 tank top and Levi's Skimmer Shorts. It's a great summer outfit, but I think it's also perfect for back-to-school for those still-warm fall days.

These sports shorts from Nike 6.0 were also a hit with Kay, as was the pink tee from Converse.

These Levi's jeans and tee were another fantastic outfit, and will be ideal for school and the fall weather.

Makes you want to get some clothes for your Rookie, doesn't it?

The bad news is that Rookie USA isn't open yet.

But... the good news is you can go to the Rookie USA homepage at RookieUSA.com, and sign up to receive a free $20 gift card that is good for your first in-store purchase. Just enter your email address and choose a password of at least eight characters, click "join" and you're done.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Rookie USA. My little Rookie and I can't wait to go shopping.

For more photos of the clothes from Rookie USA, please visit my Google+ photo album.

To learn more about Rookie USA, follow them on Twitter @RookieUSA and via the hashtag #RookieUSA. You can also like them on Facebook.

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Rookie USA. #CBias #SocialFabric

As always, all opinions are my own.

Old Photo Friday: Last Day of School

Here are my daughters on their last day of pre-school in Manhattan, just about four years ago today. In a few months we would move to the suburbs, but when this photo was taken we didn't know that yet.

It was an odd day - there was a big storm the night before and trees were down everywhere, though you can't see them here.

Next week, I'll have a rising fourth grader and a rising second grader, not to mention an almost-three-year-old.

And the stuffed animal on the left? Yeah, Lodo is still around - though not every single moment of every single day like he used to be, but around just the same.

I post old photos on Fridays, in anticipation of a milestone birthday this summer. Once it passes, I'm on to something new.

A Yarnbombing Comes to Town

I've made no secret of my love of yarnbombing, so I was beyond happy when a yarnbombing came to my own little town in New Jersey last weekend.

I had the pleasure of meeting the organizer, who was every bit as lovely as you would think a person who organizes yarnbombings - or as this was called CommuKnitty- would be:

And then I made a collage of the yarnbombing awesomeness for Barista Kids:

And then, I was feeling so inspired I did my ultimate act of devotion, I created an Animoto video. Enjoy.

If you're local, you can learn more about Rebel Yarns: A Community Art Action, here.

Old Photo Friday: At the Zoo

Here's a photo from three years ago, when Kay was almost four and Magpie was six.

I remember the day fondly. I had made sure the kids looked their super-cute best because we were meeting friends at the zoo, and we didn't see them very often.

Don't the kids look super-cute?

Now, look a little closer.

Kay is wearing tights, just tights - we had completely forgotten to put a skirt on her.

I decided there was something sort-of edgy and punk rock about her outfit.

But of course I also knew she was a toddler wearing tights, just tights.

I like to dig around my old photos on Fridays. If you have an old photo post, please share in the comments. Old Photo Friday loves company!

I linked-up this old post to this week's Nov. 28 Finding the Funny. Check it out at Kelley's Breakroom and My Life and Kids for lots o'funny!

Old Photo Friday: Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom.

Not my favorite holiday, but definitely my favorite mom.

On Friday's I post old photos, usually of my family. You can see them all here.

Handprint Craft for Mother's Day

My daughter Kay was nice enough to let me trace her hands to make this easy Mother's Day craft.

To make it, all you have to do is fold a sheet of paper in half, and trace one hand with the thumb and second finger handing over the side of the crease a little:

Then, when you cut out the hand, you get two hands and a bonus heart between them.

Kay added the little hearts and the precious words.

And the truly best part, Kay let me have her creation early so I could use it for my post on New Jersey Family about how to make this very craft.

And if that isn't the true spirit of Mother's Day, I don't know what is.

Read the full instructions at Handprints and Hearts Craft for Mother's Day.

Found (He)art

Happy Valentine's Day

Crafts and Snowflakes with Q-Tips

My daughter Kay was home today with a hurt hand - an injury she received while crouching by the side of the ATM and invoking her favorite alternate persona, Baby Fish. Unfortunately for Kay Baby Fish, while crouched she nudged a big piece of marble that fell on her hand, er or would that actually be her fin?



Ironically enough, this all happened on the way to a well-child visit to the pediatrician. But instead we came into the waiting room like it was an ER with Kay (Baby Fish had swam away by now) sobbing hysterically and her hand already swelled up to the size and color of a boxing glove.



Anyway, the hand still isn't quite right (although thankfully an x-ray revealed no break) so she stayed home today with me. 



As you may recall, last time she was home from school we made toothpick art:

Not to be outdone, today I brought out the Q-tips.



She made a bunch of cool designs:

and this awesome snowflake:

And while I will admit I sorta think she should've gone to school, as long as Kay Baby Fish was home, I'm glad we got to spend some time together and make these q-tip crafts.



For more fun snowflake crafts you can make with clever items like price tag stickers check out Simple & Striking Snowflake Crafts for Kids.


And yes, you can learn how to make a handprint snowflake here.

Glad I Made It: Homemade Valentine's Day Cards

Due 100% to Pinterest's complete and utter bad influence, I showed my kids ideas for homemade Valentine's Day cards, and let them pick what they wanted to make to give out to their classmates.

Let me fill you in on a little secret that no one tells you when you are enjoying Pinterest in your own crafty mom fantasy land: yours won't look even a little like whatever it is you're eyeing. (This is a lesson I should have remembered from my last Pinterest-inspired bout of creativity. But alas, I did not.)

Luckily for me, my kids are too young to notice (or they're just really, really polite). Here's what we made:

Kay "I sometimes go to first-grade" chose to make Play Doh Valentines. This involved a grown-up printing a circular label to go on top of the Play Doh container (we went with Tic Tac Doh! Be My Valentine!),

adding a heart sticker, and Kay signing her name.

Someone also needed to cut-out the label and affix it to the Play Doh container with a glue dot. This someone was supposed to be the child in my mind, but apparently it was me in her mind, so yes... it is mostly my handiwork.

Making these Play Doh Valentines was totally easy. But making them look good? Not so easy. Here is our Pin-spiration from Random Thoughts of a SUPERMOM!:

And here is our finished product:

With the Play Doh Valentines complete, next up was making Valentines that would be suitable for third-grader "I'm too cool for Valentines" Magpie. Her only criteria was not to include a message that could in any way imply she ever liked anyone at anytime, anywhere or in anyway. Her choice? You Rock! Valentines.

Again, the easy factor on making these classmate Valentine's Day cards is high. I cut out old-school hearts by folding pieces of construction paper in half, and Magpie used a glue dot to affix a rock or two to the heart. And, Magpie even wrote the Valentine's Day greetings all by herself.

I thought they looked pretty great:

But great as they are three-grade handwriting and all, they are nothing like the original Pin-spiration from Fiskars.com:

And last, my two-year-old Ziggy needed Valentines, but just a few. His preschool is Jewish, so there isn't any of that St. Valentine's Day stuff going on there, Baruch Hashem.

I made Ziggy's Valentines for him, using recycled crayon hearts we still had from when we made them last year for Earth Day. The heart crayon-size is just right for toddler hands, and I was happy these Crayon Heart Valentines only took a few minutes to make. Once again I just needed to cut-out a construction paper heart, glue-dot on the heart crayon, add a few stickers and write Happy Valentine's Day!

And while I couldn't be happier with how ours turned out, it sure doesn't compare to the original pin-spiration from WhipperBerry (or to a similar crayon Valentine that has been repinned over 16,000 times).

If you'd like more ideas for homemade Valentines, there are lots more here at Valentines That Make the Grade in the Classroom and on my Valentine's Day Ideas Pinterest Board.

Also? I will never degrade the value of a store-bought Valentine's Day card again.

A Day in the Life of Big Duckie

My daughter Kay - she's six - has a large stuffed animal duck. Quite creatively, she calls her Big Duckie. Big Duckie goes everywhere we go. And today I thought, why keep the joy that is a life lived with Big Duckie to myself? Let me share the love that is Big Duckie with you all.

Here's Big Duckie the day Kay liberated her from the toy store Corduroy Bear-style:

Kay is just a wee bit enthused.

We take Big Duckie on a victory lap around the toy store before leaving:

Then Kay insists Big Duckie must get buckled-in for the drive home:

Now Big Duckie lives a life of leisure. Lounging on the chaise:

Playing the piano (she really has an incredible ear, especially for a stuffed duck):

Going on trips to the grocery store, who doesn't love those tiny carts:

Next installment: Big Duckie plays with Squinkies and makes a duck tape necklace!

P.S. Big Duckie has her own Pinterest Board. I have no idea why.

Glad I Made It: Q-Tip Snowflakes

My daughter Kay was home today with a hurt hand - an injury she received while crouching by the side of the ATM and invoking her favorite alternate persona, Baby Fish. Unfortunately for Kay Baby Fish, while crouched she nudged a big piece of marble that fell on her hand, er or would that actually be her fin?

Ironically enough, this all happened on the way to a well-patient visit to the pediatrician. But instead we came into the waiting room like it was an ER with Kay (Baby Fish had swam away by now) sobbing hysterically and her hand already swelled up to the size and color of a boxing glove.

Anyway, the hand still isn't quite right (although thankfully an x-ray revealed no break) so she stayed home today with me. 

As you may recall, last time she was home from school we made toothpick art:

Not to be outdone, today I brought out the Q-tips.

She made a bunch of cool designs:

and this awesome snowflake:

And while I will admit I sorta think she should've gone to school, as long as Kay Baby Fish was home, I'm glad we got to spend some time together and make these q-tip crafts.

For more fun snowflake crafts you can make with clever items like price tag stickers check out Simple & Striking Snowflake Crafts for Kids. And yes, you can learn how to make a handprint snowflake here.

Disclosure: Glad I Made It is a total rip-off of Glad I Saw It