Ages & Stages

4 Reasons To Give A Kid A Camera Last Christmas I was talking with some friends about Christmas gifts for our kids when one recommended a toddler camera. I loved the idea! I remember getting my first "real camera." It was a purple Minnie Mouse camera that used 110 film and needed flash cubes. I'm sure it could get costly to buy film, flash cubes and pay for processing. Then there was the wait the time to get those photos developed. While all of that is probably a foreign concept to some, the prevalence of digital cameras makes getting one for a toddler, preschooler or young child much more reasonable and accessible. My kiddo was 3 that Christmas and it seemed like...

Dear Teen Mom, I See You I’ll never forget seeing those two pink lines. I was 16. I’d had a few different boyfriends since I turned 14, but this was my first serious relationship. He was thrilled. I was, understandably, terrified. After a very difficult pregnancy, we welcomed our first son two weeks before my 17th birthday. Of course, it was love at first sight. We had an awesome support system, and I know for a fact the days would have been a lot harder without the help and love we received from grandparents. I don’t take that for granted one bit; they were a saving grace on many nights when I wanted to give up from lack of sleep. In...

Coping With My College Kid Being So Far Away I know it’s often said that parents shouldn’t be friends with their kids. But it happened. My daughter messed around and became one of my very best friends. She was the first person to know me from the inside out. The first person I was fully responsible for and to. The first person who I have experienced their entire life with. She has brought my husband and me so much joy over the past 19 years and while some look forward to sending their adult children on their journey, I have dreaded it. She's a dancer who has always dreamed of living in Los Angeles, but selfishly, I would have been...

Property Brothers :: Money, Mercy, and Monopoly Flashback to New Year’s Eve, 2021. That night, we stayed in as Covid cases had spiked and gifted us with the Omicron variant. I would eventually become well-acquainted with Omicron a few weeks later. But on this quiet and cozy evening playing board games, laughing, and enjoying the “Mini Sweet Tooth Buffet” I’d pulled together following a last-minute Target run, I looked around and felt better than I’d felt in months. I could have sworn I tasted a bit of sweet hope intermingled with the sour gummy worms. That night we played Monopoly as a family for the first time. It had been at least a decade since I’d opened the game, and pulling that...

In Defense Of Public Schools Public or private? This seems to be a very hot topic nowadays. It’s easy to see why. We want our kids to have the best of the best, don’t we? We want them afforded every opportunity available to them so they grow into mature, responsible, HAPPY adults, right? That’s the goal! My family and I are very fortunate to live in a great public school district where we know they’ll thrive, but the question of public or private honestly never came up in discussions about education when our kids were babies. After all, my husband and I both went through the public school system and had no solid complaints. So here’s some reasons we LOVE our public...