Here are the words that were on the back of Michael’s handprint:

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.

So here’s a little handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

(For more Wordful Wednesdays, visit Seven Clown Circus.)

5 Comments »

In the “Your Words” section of the January ‘09 Real Simple issue, the question for the month was “What is on your not-to-do list for 2009?” I’ll share more about my New Year goals/resolutions in a later post, but I just love that question!

My answer: Not to “throw my pearls to pigs”. Practically for me that means to not give what is precious/valuable to me (i.e. my time/energy/money/etc.) to those who are unwilling (or unable) to appreciate it. In 2008, I realized that doing so (in various areas of my life - personal/ work/ etc.) really drained me and prevented me from being my best overall.

So…what is on your not-to-do list for 2009?

2 Comments »

It has been eight weekdays since I last blogged. I’m happy to be back! So, here are eight things that have happened over at the Coleman household while I’ve been “on break”:

1. Sean scared me so much when he fell off the loveseat on to the floor. He and Michael were playing with all of the pillows from the sofa and loveseat piled up high. I had just told them to stop because (obviously) Sean doesn’t have the same balance as Michael. I turned away and then I heard a loud cry (Sean’s). I looked over to the loveseat. No Sean. He had fallen over. After making sure that he was alright (that boy’s angels work overtime!) and comforting him, I began to scold him and Michael for not listening to me. The “lesson” ended though when Michael (with his big, bright eyes) looked at me and earnestly said, “I didn’t see THAT coming.” We all had a good laugh and moved on…

2. My husband and I had the “adoption talk”. In a later post I’ll share with you how the economy is affecting our plans to adopt a little girl from Africa. (If anyone knows of any great adoption grant programs, please let me know - kcoleman@mominthecity.com)

3. I got upset with toy manufacturers on Christmas morning. No, it wasn’t the crazy amount of packaging. No, it wasn’t how difficult it is to put some toys together (as a mom friend of mine says: “I need an engineering degree to put together the kids’ toys”). It was the fact that the boxes which held the toys had all of these character images on them that were not included in the box. One toy, in particular, had 15 images on the box. Guess how many came with the set? ONE?! At first, instead of enjoying playing with the set, my son asked, “When can we get the rest of the figures?” At first, I was tempted to get upset with him for being an “ingrate” but I really do believe that the toy manufacturers can do a better job of setting kids up to be happy with what they get. I understand “upselling” and all, but they could include additional item choices with the instructions so the parents (not the kids!) could see them. I’ll get off my soapbox now…

4. I was able to do all of the things on my domestic “to-do before the New Year”. I’ve been in New York City practically half of my life, but I’m still a Southern gal at heart. Cleaning the entire house and having black-eyed peas are two traditions that I still carry with me. So on the cleaning side, we cleaned the entire apartment; went through all of the clothes that Michael has outgrown (a lot!); dropped off bags of clothes (from Michael and my husband) to charity; and (my favorite accomplishment) went through all of our paperwork and put everything in “its place”. (Whew! I need a vacation from my vacation!)

5. I was relieved when a “down to the wire” deal was met to keep several important channels on Time Warner (my cable provider) TV. I didn’t care so much about the possibility of losing MTV. My concern was losing Noggin! Even though that channel is not as popular around here as it once was (my kids tend to like PBS KIDS and Disney channel shows more), they still like “Little Bill” and “Blue’s Clues”.

6. On New Year’s Day, I cooked and had dinner with one of my best girlfriends in the world and her new boyfriend (great, HUGE deal!).

7. In my downtime, I had a chance to explore some social media sites. It was interesting. I will share my thoughts about that in a later post.

And

8. I won THREE contests (yay!).
-I won a $30 gift card to The Children’s Place from Amy at Selfish Mom. (That’s great since we spent a couple of hundred dollars there in the last couple of weeks on clothes for Michael - he outgrew many of his clothes!)

-I won a Sarah Pinto Planner from Kim at Busy Bee Lifestyle. (I love all things paper - so this is a great prize for me!)

And

-I won a $150 grocery gift card from New York City MomsLikeMe.com. (Although it’s relatively new, this site is a great place for NYC moms to connect. They also have great giveaways.) Anyway, I’m SO excited about this win. Since groceries are already in our budget, I’m going to take the $150 and get myself a new camera (that was the only thing on my Christmas list that I didn’t get it.) What’s even better is that I was looking at one of my neighbor’s Lucky magazine. This month, they have a special 25% off code for the KODAK EASYSHARE M1093 IS Digital Camera. It has 10MP (which is SO much better than my current 4MP camera). In addition, I found a “free shipping” code for Kodak, so my total came up to $149.95 (yes!).

2 Comments »

On December 31st of 2007, I wrote a post called “I Resolve to Make My Own Goals in 2008″. In it, I laid out two of my major goals for 2008. They were the following:

1. “So, that’s one of my inner motivated goals for 2008 - to be at my pre-baby “fighting weight” before I turn 35 on May 21st.” I did reach my pre-baby weight and stayed at (or below!) it for the most part all year. Mainly, that was due to exercise though. (I love the Wii active games, Tae-bo, etc.) This year, I want to focus on the nutrition/food aspect of health. Now, it’s about being my best physically - not reaching a number on the scale.

And

2. “I will learn to drive.” Well, I did start learning to drive. I still have more to learn (how to make a three-point turn, highway driving, etc.). My 2009 goal is to get comfortable driving and to get my driver’s license by May 21st (my birthday and the day that my learner’s permit expires!).

So…how did you do with your goals/resolutions/whatever you call it for 2008?

No Comments »

I will be taking a little break to spend some time with my husband and two sons. I’ll be back to writing on Monday, January 5th. Meanwhile…

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY KWANZAA!

AND

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

5 Comments »

ART (MENORAH)


MUSIC (CHANUKAH DREIDEL SONG - audio only)

2 Comments »

On Wednesday, I participated in a panel at Pepsico’s digital media summit. The panel was called “Social Mom: What Mom is Talking About in the Value – Focused Economy”. I’m not really going to go into the specifics since it was a brand-specific panel. I would like to highlight the other women that were on the panel though:

-Jory Des Jardins, Co-Founder, Blogher
-Stacy DeBroff, CEO MomCentral
-Aliza Freud, CEO SheSpeaks
And
-Liz Gumbiner, Mom101 / Cool Mom Picks

(I was very fortunate to be in the company of such brilliant women!)

The only other comment that I want to make is that Pepsico’s Purchase corporate offices are huge - I (literally) got lost! I’ve mentioned in the past how I have a really bad sense of (physical) direction. When the guard had to take me through three different buildings to get to the area where the panel was being held, I knew that I would have trouble finding my way back to the front desk if not escorted. After the panel, I needed to leave right away, so there was no one to take me back. I asked a man who worked there how to get back to the front and he said that he always has to go outside in order to figure it out himself. So, that’s what I did. Big mistake! There’s all this land and several different sidewalks/grassy areas/parking lots. I felt like I was in the movie, “The Shining” – there was no clear way out. Also, once you’re outside, you can’t get back in without an employee card. I was starting to get a little antsy, because I didn’t want to miss my car service pick-up. Finally, I saw a woman talking outside on her cell. She didn’t know how to get to the front either, but at least I was able to get back inside one of the buildings. Once inside, a kind man directed me to the front lobby area. Whew!

6 Comments »

Last year after taking the photo for our holiday cards, I made a mental note that I should stick with a professional photographer in the future. I guess that I’m a glutton for punishment though, because for some reason, I thought that it would be easier to take the boys’ picture for our holiday card this year. “They’re older/better able to take direction,” I (erroneously) reasoned.

So, on Saturday evening my husband and I “tackled” the holiday picture. We dressed the boys in their new, cute Coco Bonbons outfits and we were all set. Or so, we thought. I think that the boys must have drunk some “silly juice” right before the shoot. Michael kept making faces. Sean kept running away. Then, they started laughing and wrestling each other. My husband was trying to act like he was a photographer – using the camera to try to get a good shot. (He didn’t get one.) Meanwhile, I went the Flip route. Even though the resolution of Flip “photos from video” isn’t as great as shots from a regular camera, I reasoned that I would at least get one good frame in the midst of the madness. I did! It took many different shots to get one though.

We took:
-horizontal shots / vertical shots
-shots in front of / to the left of / to the right of the Christmas tree
-shots of the kids leaning against the sofa with their backs to the tree

Here are a couple of the outtakes:

(Suffice it to say, we won’t be trading in our “day jobs” in order to become children’s photographers!)

At the end of the day, we were able to get one (that’s all that we needed!) picture that we liked enough to use.

(I even like the “vintage” feel of the picture due to it being from the Flip camcorder.)

Happy Holidays!

(To see what other moms around the web are “tackling” today visit Tackle it Tuesday).

10 Comments »

I’m feeling really happy. I’m all caught up holiday-wise. We had our annual “White Elephant” Christmas party last Thursday and it was so much fun. We have the photo cards being processed and we’ve completed our gift shopping. I just have a few people who I need to figure out what to do for:

Question #1: Should I tip them?

-Letter carriers/ Package Carriers: I get a lot of packages because of my Mom in the City work. I really like my UPS guy, so I’m definitely giving him a tip. The FedEx/DHL people constantly change, so I probably won’t get them anything. I keep going back and forth in regards to whether or not to give my mail lady a gift. Normally, I do give mail carriers a holiday gift. However, my mail person/local post office has been pretty bad this year. (Besides losing a couple of packages, my mail lady has left an “I’m sorry I missed you” notice in my mailbox when I’ve been home several times. She just didn’t take the time to call-up/check. One time, I happened to “catch her” getting ready to do that again. Her excuse: “She had a lot of mail that day.” I don’t want to be unsympathetic, but it has happened many times this year. It’s a pain having to make an extra trip to the post office to pick up things!) What do you think…tip or no tip?

-My superintendent and his assistant: Once again, I normally tip my super. However, my super hasn’t been so “super” this year. I don’t blame him for things that he can’t control (i.e. the heat/ bad air circulation, etc.) – that’s a building thing/why we’re moving in the summer. What do you do though when your super’s attitude isn’t great? His assistant is much more personable and helpful. I can’t tip the assistant without tipping the superintendent though…can I? Would you?

Question #2: If I do tip, how much should I tip?
This was the easy part. I turned to my top three hospitality type magazines that I like (Real Simple, Oprah & Martha Stewart).

The general consensus:
-Doorman, Superintendent, Building Staff: Tip from $20 to $200

-Letter Carrier, Package Courier: Postal carriers can accept gifts (no cash or checks) worth up to $20. FedEx allows workers to accept cash or gifts worth up to $75. UPS does not have a policy - their workers can accept cash or gifts.

If you have any tipping questions, you can also check out their articles:
-Real Simple’s Holiday Tipping: Who? How Much?
-Oprah’s Guide to Tipping
And
-Martha Stewart’s Holiday Tip Sheet

1 Comment »

I do several types of parenting writing – for newspapers, for websites and (of course) here on the Mom in the City blog. As I have focused more on blogging consistently this year, the response has amazed me. As a result, I’ve met (or e-met) so many great moms, mom bloggers, marketers, etc. I’ve also been able to share what I’ve learned/am learning at various events, panels and such. On Wednesday night, I was honored to be on the NYC Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) “Mother Knows Best: Meet the Mommy Media” panel with the following (amazing!) mom bloggers:

-Sarah Caron: Voice of Mom (It turns out that Sarah went to Barnard, my alma mater’s sister school. Neither of us works in the field of our liberal arts majors…)

-Stacy DeBroff: Mom Central (She is a walking encyclopedia of all things mom media. I took notes!)

-Nicole Feliciano: Mom Trends (She was very warm and welcoming. I need to check out her contributions to Babble.com.)

-Victoria Pericon: Savvy Mommy (I have run into her at various blogger events. She is so sweet and positive. Her “Top 12 Ways to Annoy This Mommy Blogger” post made me laugh. It’s so true!)

(Also, a special thanks to Erica Saviano Tsioutas for pulling everything together and Heidi Hovland, our moderator.)

Basically, the panel was geared towards helping PR professionals figure out how to work best with mom bloggers. The conversation was especially timely due to the whole “Motrin Mom” incident which was one of the items that we addressed. (In case you don’t know what I’m talking about – you can read this USA Today article on the topic. I’m not going to rehash what happened, because it has been written about so much already – on blogs and in “traditional” media. Frankly, I’m sick of reading about it.) Basically, all of the panelists thought that this could have been avoided if Motrin had sought input from the very women that they were trying to target (baby-wearing moms) before putting the ad out. My “two cents”: I have “worn” both of my kids – mainly because I hate using strollers on the subway. Yes, it hurts sometimes – Sean is 26 pounds. However, I would not think to take a Motrin for my occasional back pain because like many other baby-wearing moms, I breastfeed. As such, I don’t like to put a lot of medicines/drugs in my system. Now perhaps if Motrin would have pointed out the safety of taking their product while breastfeeding (if it is safe – I don’t know. I don’t use Motrin), the pitch would have been a bit more interesting…

Moving on … the question and answer part was my favorite. It’s so encouraging to see how many pr people want to get it right. (The room was full!) The majority of questions seemed to be about pitching items/ experiences for review. I thought that the panelists gave some great responses. What I noticed most of all is that you can’t put bloggers in a “box”. Even on our panel of five moms, we had different views on things that we were interested in reviewing. For instance one of the moms mentioned how excited she was to get a package that included some dirty tiles and a cleaning agent because its interactive nature caught her attention. (Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “No one should ever send me any dirty tiles. I have a hard enough time keeping the tiles in my own bathroom clean!”) In any event, it was also great to be able to put some faces to names of pr people whom I have only had e-conversations with in the past.

Personally, I always like to take away a couple of “to do” items for myself whenever I’m a part of a conference/ panel/ etc. On my list from this outing:

1. Get listed in Cision.
2. Read the book Groundswell.
And
3. Write up a clear “Review” and “Giveaway” policy for Mom in the City and have it posted by 1/1/09.

2 Comments »