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Toddlers and Tiaras: Claire Edition

We do our best not to push our girls into stereotypical gender roles or characteristics. And while we would secretly love it if they turn into tomboys, we never force them to play (or not play) with certain toys and encourage them to allow their own preferences to develop. As it turns out, our 16-month-old Claire is becoming the exact opposite of a tomboy. She is, in fact, turning into a frilly girl. Our suspicions started about a month ago, when we began to let her "choose" her own clothes. (We give her an option of weather- and activity-appropriate clothes to choose from.) And wouldn't you know it — she would ALWAYS pick something pink. And just in case it was a fluke — "Why...

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Cool Tool Tuesdays: La Mer The Powder and The Powder Brush

Welcome to today’s installment of Cool Tool Tuesdays, where I feature a favorite item from my life and spotlight it so that others who are not familiar with the product may also benefit from it. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, hardware, material, or website that I have personally tried and love. Do you have any questions about today’s cool tool? Would you like an item featured in the future? Please leave a comment to this post, or send me a message via my contact form. Enjoy! As I looked around my room to find inspiration for today's Cool Tool Tuesdays, my eyes rested on a pair of products I have never written about before — and I couldn't believe I haven't,...

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New Directions, and A Call for Help

A few years ago, J casually said to me, "You know, you should really make your blog more mobile device friendly." "But that might ruin the design! And you know how hard I worked on it. Besides, less than 1% of my visitors are using a mobile device when they browse on over." Did I mention that J is a software engineer and tester? That he not only once worked for the big G, he is always up-to-date (and most of the times, ahead of the curve) on the latest web trends and companies — e.g., signed up for Yelp and Twitter long before anyone else I knew even heard of them, correctly predicting that they would "blow up" — and is...

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Reverent Sundays: Food for Thought

Welcome to today’s installment of Reverent Sundays, where I write about an aspect of my faith. This can deal with recent books I have read on Christianity, my thoughts on religion and current issues, as well as particular messages I find touching and/or powerful. I am aware that most of my readers are not religious, and that is fine — you are more than welcome to not read these posts if they make you uncomfortable, enrage you, or bore you to tears. I am open to debates and discussions in the comments section as long as everyone remains respectful. Enjoy! This weekend is a crazy one for our household (and I'm not only talking about the Superbowl). For this reason, today's Reverent...

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Thrush!

Last night, I noticed that Aerin's tongue was green.  8-O Okay, so it wasn't that bad. She has always had a white patch on her tongue, which is common in many babies due to their milk/forumla-only diet. But last night, when she happily stuck her tongue out at me during her bath, I noticed that the white patch had taken on a green tinge. It didn't seem to be bothering her so I did not feel it warranted a visit to the ER. But I did take her to the doctor first thing this morning to have it checked out, and my suspicions were confirmed: Aerin has thrush. If you can remember, Claire had a stubborn case of thrush when she was young. In...

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