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.