Oh No They Didn't!

photo source: OhNoTheyDidnt

According to the latest US Weekly, these two crazy kids just bought themselves a $200,000 sonogram machine so they can take a look at little E.T. anytime they want. Earth to Katie, comeback!

Murphy's Law

Thou shalt find snow boots when the snow begins to melt and sledding is impossible.

DKNY Metallic Copper Hobo

My Mom just bought this bag...and now I want it too. The copper color is perfect for holiday parties or any party for that matter. It's the ultimate "go with any outfit bag". It's made of pure leather and lined with tweed on the inside. I love how the intricate roses on the back and front of the bag make it look like you are carrying a work of art. The zip closure is ideal as well, to make sure your makeup won't slide out if you turn your bag upside down. (I've had lip pencils slide out of the top of my snap-flap envelope style clutches, it was embarrassing having to gather all my things.) For $245, it is really not such an outrageous price for such a bag. The bag is being sold exclusively at eLuxury.com.

Update on the Snowsuit Saga

I finally found snowsuits for the kids! My son's was found on the clearance rack of a department store here for $40 bucks. It was the last toddler boys snowsuit left and it was a size 4T by Osh Kosh. My son currently wears 3T but I figured, if I'm going to buy a snowsuit for $40 on clearance, it damn well better last me thru next year's winter as well. Now on to the twins. They currently wear 18 months size but since I already bought my son a suit one size up, I might as well buy theirs the same way. The hunt for toddler girls snowsuits in a size 2T ended at Amazon.com (and they also happened to be Osh Kosh....thank you Osh Kosh B'gosh for thinking ahead and creating an extra supply of snowsuits.). No store in the whole city had a size 2T or even 18 month snowsuit for girls! It must be true, females outnumber the male population. I ended up having to pay $10 in shipping charges but I finally found snowsuits for all the kids that they can use next year as well. Now I need to finish up my quest for toddler snowboots.

By the way, if you need a swimsuit for this summer, better shop now (even though it's 18 degrees outside). By the time summer rolls around, the stores are only going to be selling winter coats.

Why we're stuck with the Moron-in-Chief

I normally don't like to talk about politics because everyone has a very strong opinion about one topic or the other and it usually ends up in a heated debate that makes everyone wish they were talking about something else (at least the non-confrontational people like me). But I think I am not alone in my thinking that President Bush is a complete moron. Don't you wish this was tomorrow's headline?



There's alot of talk of impeachment these days, especially since it was released that Dubya's been playing Big Brother for the past four years. However, as much as we would like to impeach Bush, we can't. Because if we impeach Bush, Dick Cheney automatically becomes Leader of the Free World. Yeah, I'm shuddering just thinking about that one. And should we be able to impeach Cheney as well, the Bitch-in-Chief Condi Rice becomes President. Double shudder. Yeah, sorry folks. Even though we hate him, for the good of the country, we have to stick it out with this idiot for two more years. He is the lesser of two evils, and I think he knows it too, that's why he keeps smiling in front of the cameras. The joke is really on us. [photo source]

Where the snowsuits be at???... ( bitches!!!)

It is not even officially winter, yet all the stores here in New York have run out of snowsuits and snow boots, especially in the toddler sizes. What's going on? My parents have a great yard for sledding and I want to take the kids out to enjoy the wintery weather of the Upstate I grew up in, yet finding a snowsuit and boots even at Walmart is becoming mission impossible. There are tons of sleds, but no outerwear available. The salespeople said they were all gone in September, when it was sunny and 70 degrees outside. Now that it is freezing and snowing outside, stores are fully stocked with swimsuits, shorts, and spring clothes. What kind of skewed logic is this? It's winter, shouldn't I be able to by winter clothes in the store?? I'm being forced to look online (where I'm facing slim pickings as well) and pay extra for rush delivery so we can sled before we go back home (where we barely have a yard).

Stunning!

Bollywood actress Urmila was the epitome of glamour when she recently attended a star studded wedding in Mumbai. I never knew rust and blue could work so well together, I'm going to have to try that next time I go to a party. I also like how she didn't wear a typical Indian "set" with this, just earrings and a cuff so the focus could be on her sari (which is probably a Manish Malhotra original). For me, the piece de resistance is her Louis Vuitton clutch, which can be purchased at eLuxury.com for $580.

Kickin' it with Joe

I watch Blues Clues with my kids at least 6 times a day, so it's only natural that I have become completely enamored with the cute guy who plays Joe (actor Donovan Patton for those who want to know). Last night, I dreamt that I had hired a sitter for the kids and I was getting ready to go out for a night on the town. We were going to go out for fajitas at my favorite Tex-Mex place and then go clubbing in the city. You'd think my "date" would be my husband, but no, it was Joe from Blues Clues! Joe was out of his usual uniform and wearing jeans and a regular t-shirt and sweater combo. He had a Corona in his hand and asked me "Are you ready to go?" and I was like "yeah, let's get out of here," and then I woke up. Damn. Just as things were about to get good.

Chic Mommy's Most Wanted

eLUXURY.com has finally figured out that if customers are willing to pay up to one month's rent for a handbag, the least they could do is give them free shipping. The site has the cream of the crop of handbags, and most of all, it is the only authorized retailer of LV on the internet. All the other sites that claim to sell LV are frauds, stay away from them. The last thing you want is to be caught with a fake Louis.

Anyway, I saw this bag on their site that I absolutely adore! It's the Metallic Blake in Silver by Marc Jacobs, and it's so cute. Teri Hatcher has been seen carrying it as well. I've seen a few knock-offs of this design at stores like Target and Macy's but no one seems to be making this bag better than Marc Jacobs. The lining inside is suede and all the pockets are easy access with push buttons to open and close. The bag retails for $975.

The Wrath of the Coxsackie Virus

I don't know what's more gross. The fact that I haven't taken a shower in three days or that I just wiped my daughter's boogers with my t-shirt before I put her to bed. I think both, especially since I just realized my t-shirt is on backwards. I put it on in the dark after getting slimed on at 12 am last night so I think I can justifiably get by with a warning from the fashion police. I am looking and feeling so grubby it's unbelievable. The kids have had a cold for literally one month now, just when they seem to be getting better, they catch a fresh new cold and the whole snotty process starts again. I took them to the pediatrician Monday and he said they currently have the coxsackie virus, which produces cold and flu symptoms in addition to possible blisters on the hands, feet and inside the mouth on the tongue. It only affects children, but there are the rare exception adults (like my 25 year old sister) who contract it after touching children who have the disease. Coxsackie virus is also known in lay terms as Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, but trust me the disease sounds worse than the actual condition. I think both names for the disease are pretty creepy sounding actually, I wonder what wizards in the medical community came up with these beauties. They should rename it to "It's no Picnic in the Park" , "I can't believe it's not the flu" or "Kiss your sleep goodbye Mom" disease. Actually, the blisters on the hand and feet don't hurt the child, it's the blisters on the tongue that are extremely painful. My son only wants to drink cold water and cold yogurt until he feels better. Motrin every six hours helps ease the pain as well.


I can't believe only a little over three years ago, I was sitting at my job as an auditor thinking, "Damn, this job sucks, I can't wait to give birth and be a stay at home mom. I'm going to have so much fun holding the baby and playing peek-a-boo. Dinner will just magically appear and the house will clean itself. All I have to do is take care off that cute little baby and dress him up in cute clothes...etc...etc...dream dream.....it will be so much fun and so much less stressful than this stupid job!" Who was that person? Was that me??? Three years later, I'm 25 pounds overweight, over-stressed, and sleep deprived. The moments when my life looks like a Fisher Price commercial with the happy mom and playful kids are rare and fleeting, most of the time I'm cleaning up messes around the house, changing diapers, or cooking food my kids are not going to even eat. Hopefully, raising kids will become fun soon, but until then it's grueling work, especially when you are suffering from the wrath of the coxsackie virus.

Prada = Overpriced Nylon

I still don't understand what the allure is about Prada bags. The majority of them are made of nylon and look like they shouldn't cost more than $40. The designs are really ho-hum too, I've seen better knock-offs at Nine West. But today I received an e-mail from that beacon of high-style-for-less website, Bluefly.com, telling me I just had to buy something Prada today because it was extra 20% off. I don't own anything Prada, so I thought I might take a look at the bags and see if maybe they had something nice and reasonably priced enough for me to buy. I was seriously contemplating buying this pink bag because the handle was so cute and color catchy, but after viewing it a couple times, I realized that this was actually an overpriced diaper bag with a Prada label. Why would I ever buy a diaper bag that costs $487.20, and that's a sale price! I know there's a huge "bling factor" attached to carrying a Prada bag, and Prada fans probably think they are paying the steep price for not only the label but also the quality "workmanship", but I'm still not impressed with Prada. The bag is made of NYLON, what is so expensive about nylon, a material that is essentially a plastic? Sorry bluefly, I'll pass on the Prada sale. Send me an e-mail when you have a markdown on Chanel.

The Best Potty Seat

I recently potty trained my 3 year old son, and during the process I must have gone through at least five different potty seats before I finally realized what worked for us. It's the Primo Freedom Trainer, and it is the only potty seat you will ever need to buy, whether you are training a boy or a girl.

We failed miserabley with those little pottys that you put on the floor. My son thought it was a toy and would start filling it up with toys and water from his sippy cup. Not to mention, my then 11 month old twins were diving head first into it when my son wasn't sitting on it. Good thing not a leak of pee or poo went into that thing, otherwise I would have had to not only give the kids a bath, but also clean the floor. I decided we would train directly on the toilet so I wouldn't need to go through the disgusting process of dumping waste into the toilet and cleaning the kiddie potty. I hate mess, and moreoever, cleaning a mess. I have too much to do as it is, why add an extra clean-up step? Plus, potty training directly on the toilet meant I would not have to risk the babies accidently touching the kiddie potty, which was right on their level.

So we tried toilet toppers. I started with the cushy ones but after a while, realized they weren't really practical. They didn't leave alot of room in the back for me to wash and wipe my son after he did no. 2 (we're Muslim, so we don't believe in just a swipe of toilet paper to clean poo, we actually rinse the area with warm water, which is far more sanitary. I use toilet paper to dry him off after I've washed him). I think even if you try to just wipe your child with toilet paper only, those little seats don't give a parent or child alot of room back there. And the front of the seat, forget it. They give a little pee pee shield to prevent little boys from peeing all over the floor but it is impractical to use. Little kids can't climb onto the potty seat with that thing on without hurting themselves and can you really trust your child to put it on by himself each time he has to pee? I know mine will be in such a rush he will forget. And when your little boy does do pee-pee while sitting on the potty seat, all the pee gets trapped in the front crevices. This is a problem because when you remove the seat from the toilet, the trapped urine drips all over the toilet seat and floor. Yuck, who wants to clean up extra mess? I haven't taught my son how to pee standing up yet, experts say it's best to keep all elimination in the sitting down position. Children get confused when too many variables are introduced to a process, so keep it simple. Standing to pee is an advanced course taught to 4 year old boys who understand things a little better.

Anyway, after much trial and error, we finally found the perfect seat. This seat wouldn't be easy to travel with, but for home use it is perfect. It comes with an attached stool so the child can climb on and off the potty all by himself. It also has a safe, built-in deflector to help pee-pee stay in the toilet (although my son needed to be taught to lean forward and push his little soldier down to prevent accidents, but at least the pee wasn't getting trapped in the seat!) The seat is long and roomy in both the front and the back so it gives a parent ample room to rinse and wipe their child after they go potty. And because it's all plastic, it's a snap to clean, (those vinyl seats crack and have a tendency to retain bacteria). My son can now climb onto the potty all by himself when he needs to go and just calls me when he's done so I can clean him up. Self-cleaning is the next thing we need to learn, but I won't really trust him to do that until he can hold his own lota (watering can).

Move over Anderson Cooper, here comes Hurricane Hottie!

It seems like every couple of weeks a new hurricane is hitting the Gulf Coast, and while I feel terrible for the people who are suffering through these storms, I feel guilty for tuning in mainly to get a glimpse of CNN's latest "hurricane hottie". Looks like Anderson Cooper has some competition now that Rob is on the scene and doing major field reporting. What a hunk! His face is chiseled to perfection and his body is just too buff for words. Even when winds of up to 115 mph are pounding him, he still manages to look cute. He's a Cornell graduate and holds a bachelor's in meteorology. I never knew guys with barometers could be so sexy. I did a quick Google search on Rob and found out that he has a huge female and male following. Straight, gay, married, single, everyone's dreaming about Rob lately. Too bad Rob's already got a girlfriend (but that won't stop us from dreaming!). He's dating another CNN anchor Veronica De La Cruz, who also looks like a supermodel. Here's her picture:

What's with all these CNN anchors by the way? It seems that in order to be a successful journalist there, you've got to be gorgeous. Paula Zahn, Anderson Cooper, Rob... they are all perfect looking. Intellect alone will get you nowhere, you've got to have the total package to get hired and be put on air at CNN. I guess they know that when they put a hottie like Rob Marciano on TV, desperate housewives like me are going to keep tuning in again and again. They've got it all figured out.

Here are some more pics of Rob:

"Keep dreaming ladies (and men), I'm taken."

I wish I could concentrate on what this poor man on the left is trying to say, but I can't take my eyes off Rob's hot bod. Jeans, t-shirt, and a baseball cap never looked so good! And look at those pecs and biceps...meow!

Rude Birthday Gift

A few months ago I celebrated the first birthday of my twin daughters. They received lots of gifts from our family and friends. However, it wasn't until months after the party that I realized there was something peculiar about one of the stuffed animals my 15-month old daughter was playing with. It just looked odd. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a PET TOY! You know, the kind you get in the dog food section of the supermarket. It was freaky little pig with no eyes. I don't know what offended me more, the fact that it was a pig, or the fact that it was a dog toy! I think it was both!

"Yo! Where the maddogs be at, bitches?!"

Here's a close up of both the front and back of the tag on the pig's ear.

As you can see, the toy is made by Hartz and it's for "MAD MAD DOGS". The picture of the back of the tag is a little blurry here, but I'll tell you that it clearly says:

"This is not a child's toy."

I was astounded. I tried to remember when this "toy" entered our house. Neither me nor my husband would ever buy such a thing for our children and most of our close friends and family gave us gift certificates on the twins' birthday. But then I clearly recalled there was one person there who has a history of giving bad gifts. He's unmarried, still lives with his mom and dad, has no kids of his own, and is just some loser my husband likes to keep in touch with (I have no idea why). He gave lousy gifts to the girls before so it only seemed fair that he would just top it off by giving them a dog toy on their birthday. This sonny boy really ought to be ashamed of himself.

Hot new bag from Cole Haan

I never thought of Cole Haan as being a great handbag designer. I always thought they just designed conservative clothing for work. Imagine my surprise when I recently saw an ad for this handbag in one of my fashion mags. Look at it, it's amazing. It's called the "Pocket Satchel" and retails for $395, not bad for a design that looks like it should cost much more money. It's so unique, and the pockets on the ends are perfect for those little things you need in an instant like cell phones, makeup, or hair clips/elastics. (Note about hair accessories: Chic Mommies don't wear scrunchies in public anymore, save those for when you're at home in your t-shirt and stretchy yoga/sweat pants having yet another grubby day.)

Posh Spice: "Just like any other mum"

"Look at me bitches!"

"My fake knockers are defying gravity!"

"Yeah, so I greased up my hot bod with baby oil... you would too if you were made of plastic."

So I just saw these photos on Just Jared and I cannot believe it. She looks more fake than a Barbie doll. Her body is unreal, I have never seen a mother look like that. You can't tell that she has had three children, the youngest being less than a year old! Kudos to the plastic surgeon who did her boobs, it's amazing what modern science can do. They really are defying gravity, she probably never needs to wear a bra! I don't care for her Cavalli dress either, it just looks wrong, in more ways than one.

Our fellow "mum" was recently quoted as saying:

"Of course I don't twirl around the house in four-inch heels
and designer dresses when I'm loading the dishwasher, or playing with the kids -
I'm a no make-up, jeans and T-shirt girl, just like any other mum." [Source]

Um, yeah. I can really see her loading the dishwasher. Doesn't Becks have a maid to do that for her? And are those jeans by Rock and Republic or the Gap? This "other mum" would like to know.

Kooba Chiara bag now in Cognac!

photo courtesy of Pinkmascara.com

When Kooba introduced the Chiara bag this fall, I loved the style but none of the colors (purple, green) appealed to me. For a bag over $500, I wanted to get a color that would work with all my outfits, not just the few that would work with a green or purple handbag. At the time I remember thinking, "if only this bag came in brown leather, I would snap it up." We'll someone over at Kooba must have read my e-mails to them because they are now coming out with the White and Cognac (brown) color Chiaras just in time for Christmas! I really love this bag. It's so hip, fits nicely under the arm, and I love the studs. It's available at pinkmascara.com for $525.

The Magic Pot

Being a stay at home mom means you have to do at least some cooking in the kitchen. Before I had kids, I never cooked much. We both had very busy jobs and wouldn't get home until 8 or 9 PM, so we ate out most of the time. But after having three kids in three years, we can't even manage to finish a meal at any restaurant without somebody pouring water and food all over themselves, falling out of their high chair, or having a tantrum. Plus, we always have to leave a hefty tip for the waiter because the table looks like a disaster zone by the time we're done.

So to save our sanity, we are trying to eat more at home. I've started to watch Food TV and bought a few cookbooks. Believe it or not, even in the kitchen a Chic Mommy needs the right "accessories". I think the two items I couldn't live without would be my Wusthof knives and my Le Creuset 5 1/2 quart French Oven. Perhaps these items were drilled into my head by all the Food Network chefs who use them constantly, but I've realized they use them because they actually make the job of cooking much easier. Anything I cook in the Le Creuset comes out much better than if I cooked it in a regular old pot. Basmati rice cannot be screwed up, and the Wusthof knives chop everything from onions to watermelon like butter. If you want to stock up on these kitchen essentials, wait for a good sale at Amazon.com or Williams Sonoma.