Frogs and snails
And puppy-dogs’ tails,

That’s what little boys are made of.

Sugar and spice
And everything nice,

That’s what little girls are made of.

A few years ago I asked a friend of mine to share if she thought raising boys is different from raising girls. At the time, my husband and I had not yet decided to have a second child, but I still wondered how different it would be to raise a boy from raising a girl. As you can read in her post, my friend let me know that yes, it is vastly different to raise a boy than it is to raise a girl. But, she explained that it’s not for the reasons you might expect.

When baby boy was born, I distinctly remember saying to my husband, “I had no idea boys would be so sweet!” I was genuinely surprised that my baby boy was just as cute, sweet-smelling, and precious as my baby girl was. I didn’t think I’d have the same feelings of overwhelming cuteness with him as I did when baby girl was an infant. You hear so many things about boys being “little monsters” and little girls being everything “sugar and spice” that it just never dawned on me I’d find my baby boy as cute as my little girl. But, he is, and I love it.

A year into parenting both a girl and a boy, I can say that there are differences, for sure. Some fall in-line with the typical boy behavior I had always heard about, but some are still surprises. I find that my boy is just as sweet as his sister is, and just as stubborn. I laugh at the fact he knows precisely when to turn on the charm – at the exact moment he knows I need him to. My baby boy is cute, loving, cuddly, and full of hugs. Yes, he does tear things down and climb more than his sister did at the age of one, but he always comes back to mami for some snuggles.

Why don’t we hear more of these type of stories when it comes to boys? Instead we hear nursery rhymes such as the one at the top of this post claiming boys are nothing but gross. If you ask my baby girl, she’ll tell you her little brother is “oh so sweet!” Little boys can be everything nice too.

I’d love to hear your stories about raising boys and raising girls! What has surprised you the most about parenting both? Or perhaps you have a story from growing up with sisters and brothers! Share them in the comments below!

“I guess some weeks have to be bad.”

Those were the words my husband said this morning in response to me saying, “Oh, and last week was so good too!” I said that because yesterday I wasn’t feeling very well, then last night we had a really rough night with baby boy, and we’re exhausted. This is a dangerous combination that’s pretty much going to guarantee today will be hard to get through. I really needed a decent night’s sleep to get over how I was feeling yesterday so as to not repeat the cycle.

Quite the opposite, last week was good both personally and for my family. I was productive in work, we maintained our house’s condition, spent some nice family time together, and had a good week overall. I felt centered with my work-life balance. One day into this week, and we’re not off to a similar start.

My husband’s words got me thinking that the universe has a way of balancing itself. Just as it is said that for every good, there is a bad, perhaps we need to undergo imbalance to acknowledge when we do have balance in our lives. In order to appreciate life balance, we need to get through those days, or even weeks that aren’t so smooth. I suppose as long as you don’t let it consume you and learn to bounce back, it’s fine. We need to learn from those off days and be flexible. It’s apparent to me, yet again, that work life balance is a fluid and ever-changing concept.

Today I will try to have a better day despite my words and attitude early this morning. If I still don’t feel it’s a balanced day, I will take the time to think about what went right and be thankful for that. Then, I’ll try again tomorrow.

I’m learning that balance requires an ongoing effort.

How do you get past those days or weeks where your work-life balance is thrown off?

Photo by Raphaël Labbé

Once a week, my daughter goes to dance class. Since the dance center she attends is closer to my parents’ house, I take the opportunity to head to their house after picking her up from school. We use this time to hang out with the abuelos and I get a chance to see my parents before it’s time for her dance class.

It’s become such a regular part of our weekly routine, that every Thursday when I pick up baby girl at school, she confirms, “Are we going to Abuela’s house?” On the rare occasion when something interferes with our plans, she gets disappointed. I do too, honestly. There’s something very comforting about knowing that each Thursday afternoon we get to see my parents. My mom and I talk, she feeds us as only your mom and an abuela can, and both baby boy and baby girl get the extra hugs and kisses from their grandparents.

For me, seeing the bond that my children have with my parents is especially precious because I never had such a relationship with one of my grandparents. I didn’t grow up near any of my grandparents – my paternal grandmother passed away long before I was born and the other three grandparents lived in New York City. While this is something that I certainly wish I had as a child, it’s something I’ve accepted for what it was. But, it does help me appreciate the special relationship my parents have with my kids. It helps me understand that it is important for them to visit their abuelos, to have sleep overs, and talk with them on a regular basis.

So, while it’s certainly not the only time we visit my parents, dance class day will continue to be a ritual. We will enjoy what the abuelos have to share with us and keep on nurturing the treasured connection such a relationship affords.

Did you have a special relationship with your grandparents?

Fun at SeaWorld’s Just for Kids festival – SeaWorld Orlando

Dancing with Shamu

Hula hoops gone wild

LazyTown Live on Stage

Disclosure: My family and I received complimentary admission to SeaWorld Orlando to experience the Just for Kids festival. As always, all stories and opinions are my own.

Our last Avon representative interview in our Avon home business series was held earlier this month. I spoke with Maria Sutej, a Regional Vice President in Sales at Avon Products, Inc. Maria has been with Avon since 1983, when she began as a District Sales Manager. Twenty-nine years is a long time, but Maria said she “…started this for fun, but had no idea it could be SO much fun!”

Maria shared that there are two ways Avon representatives can make money: 1) by building a home business based only on Avon sales and 2) by taking advantage of the leadership opportunity. She says the latter is where the true business opportunity lies, in not only selling to customers, but also recruiting new representatives. For maximum earning potential, Maria suggests representatives do both.

Maria also shared a couple of stories of Avon representatives she’s come in contact with over the years. She told us about Linda Jones, who was laid off from a corporate job about six years ago and started selling Avon due to the loss of income. Linda now sells $78,000 of product per year and earns about half of that. Another story Maria shared was that of  Donna Reed Mitchell, who is originally from Jamaica and started her Avon career in New York. Donna’s daughter was diagnosed with an illness requiring her to home-school. Donna is a Sr. Executive Unit Leader earning a six-figure income and says she wouldn’t be able to home-school if it weren’t for her Avon business.

Maria’s advice for new representatives is to start approaching not only people you know, but also people you don’t know at various places you go. She said if you want to build a big business, you need to establish yourself. Her suggestion is that representatives list places they frequent and think of who they can approach. A key reminder is to not be afraid of approaching strangers; as Maria said, most people’s response is “I haven’t seen an Avon brochure in years!”

I asked Maria how Avon representatives can take advantage of social media to market their Avon businesses. She responded that Facebook is a great way to spread word and that she sees a lot of representatives using it to launch their business. Maria also mentioned that the internal Avon site has Internet marketing tools to help representatives, including videos, e-cards, and other content.

It’s clear that success through an Avon home business can be different for everyone. In interviewing the various Avon representatives over the past few months, we’ve seen a variety of levels of earning potential and business models. I think the great thing in all that is that Avon provides flexibility and allows each representative to create the home business that’s right for them.

Have you ever explored Avon as a home business opportunity?

Disclosure: I am being compensated for my work with Avon.

Up until now, I have been looking for something to sell on eBay, so I could test out the selling process and hopefully make a little extra cash. But, as I shared with the eBay team recently, I was getting a little frustrated because I hadn’t found anything that seemed to be worth selling. I thought about selling some books, but once I saw how much they were selling for, plus factored in the shipping cost and eBay fees, it didn’t seem I’d actually make a profit. In fact, I was worried I’d lose money.

Just last week, the eBay team shared with us their newly launched Selling Inspiration House, which helps sellers find items around the house that are currently selling on eBay. The site also allows you to easily look up how much various items are selling for with just a couple of clicks. The timing was pretty perfect for them to send along that link, considering my challenges.

I checked out the site and got a couple of ideas of things I can look for in our house. I also saw a note on the site that says you can actually list your item to sell for free and only pay the fees if your item sells. So, really, all this time I had nothing to lose! I just needed to dive in and try it out. And that’s exactly what I did this morning.

I found a spare pocket digital camcorder that we don’t need and decided to list it for sale and see how it does. It only took me a few minutes too, using the eBay mobile app on my iPad. Hopefully, it sells and I can learn more about how the fees work and if I estimated the shipping cost accurately. If not, I’ll adjust the listing and try again. My goal is that this will be the first of other items we sell on eBay. We decided to use the extra cash towards a vacation fund, so I’m looking forward to that.

Why not try out the Selling Inspiration House and see if you find any of the suggested items around your house?

Disclosure: ModernMami.com is a member of the eBay Parent Panel, a compensated program.

Photo by Mark Hillary

Last weekend we had a friend of ours visiting from out of town. He has been a good friend of my husband for over 10 years and gets along great with the kids. Baby girl thinks he’s pretty funny and as is true with most people, she loves talking to him, which is fine by us.

Except, there are those times when the adults get to talking and are so heavily involved in their conversation that it’s hard to let the kids participate. When you’re friends with someone for over 10 years, this can be especially true, since you have plenty of memories and inside jokes. You can imagine there were a couple of instances where this happened while our friend was visiting.

The first night our friend visited, as I tucked baby girl into bed, she said, “Mommy, when people visit us or we visit them, I don’t really get to talk a lot.” I responded by reminding her that she did talk quite a bit and that she even played a game with our friend and read a book. I proceeded to tell her that when her dad and I were her age, things were worse. “We weren’t allowed to just come up and talk to the adults like you do. If they talked to us, then we’d respond, but it wasn’t like we just started conversations with them on our own. At least you get to do that!”

This was probably the worst thing I could have said at that moment because she started to cry saying, “That’s just not fair mommy!” I quickly told her that’s just the way it was and those were the rules, but that it’s not her rule. This didn’t help as she continued to cry repeating it wasn’t fair. I finally calmed her down by telling her it was a long time ago and that her daddy and I were over it, so she didn’t have to worry about it.

I left her room laughing, which was the same reaction my husband and our visitor had. It’s funny that even though she’s able to interact with adults in a manner significantly different to how my husband and I did as kids, she found it unnerving we couldn’t.

What is something from your childhood your children found surprising?

Photo by Catherine

ridawesome [rid-aw-suhm]: something really, really cool

Baby girl made up a new word. Ridawesome. It’s a combination of ridiculous and awesome and means something is really, really cool. Like, ridiculously awesome.  Get it?

She found out the way new words are created and added to the dictionary is by becoming popular and used by many. So, in an effort to get her new word used by a large amount of people, she asked me to spread the word here.

I think that’s pretty ridawesome, don’t you?

Photo by Jeff Kubina

Whenever my family gets together, inevitably stories of the past come up. My parents, their siblings, and friends love to reminisce about their younger years. It’s common to hear childhood tales of my mother and her sisters walking home from school through the narrow streets in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and the people they’d run into. Or perhaps it’s my father sharing with us yet again how his father would take him along to work at Ramey Air Force Base and they’d listen to music together as my abuelo pressed the clothes. According to my dad, this is why he came to love music so much.

Regardless of what story is being shared, one thing remains constant. The joy on my parents’ face as they retell their memories is sure to bring you joy as well. Watching them and listening to their stories always made for an interesting evening. Even when they shared the sadder stories, like when I learned that my mom ate sopa de pan (breadcrumbs in broth) one too many times as a child, they still did so with excitement, nostalgia, and joy. They love to pass on their memories and personally, it gives me a lot of insight into our family’s history.

I still love to hear my parents tell their stories and occasionally ask them to share ones I have already heard many times. Each time, some small new detail they forgot to mention before comes to light. Hearing these stories provides a glimpse into what my parents were like as children and why they are the way they are today.

I suppose the same can be said for my husband and I. Nowadays, we find ourselves reminiscing on those early days before we got married – before the kids and hectic life we lead today. Our daughter seems to enjoy hearing our stories just as I enjoy my parents’. She will often ask us about our childhood or the time before she was born. “When you were little, did abuela read you bedtime stories?” she once asked. When I shared with her about the Quinceañero tradition and the party I had when I turned fifteen, she loved hearing all about it and looking at the photos in my album. It’s fun to see her take so much interest in the past and makes me want to share more.

Our baby girl shares her own stories too. Hers may not always be true, since she often makes up stories and plays pretend, but they are her stories nevertheless. And with her as a storyteller, you truly become immersed in the story. She gives lots of details and will sometimes act out what she’s saying. I suppose one day she’ll be sharing stories of her childhood with her own children.

Storytelling is what keeps things going in many ways. If you think about it, that is how we keep traditions alive and it was the only way of sharing history before we had books. By telling stories, we connect, we inform, we relate. That’s a lot of power for simply sharing what once was.

Do you enjoy sharing or listening to stories? What’s a favorite family story you love to hear?

Disclosure: This story is sponsored by Hallmark through their Life is a Special Occasion campaign. As always, all stories and opinions are my own.

Yesterday was one of those days I wish I could repeat – everything flowed, things got done, balance was had. It’s amazing how one day going smoothly can lift your spirits and motivate you to make it happen again.

Because I had such a great day, I feel like I need to record it. Sometimes you have to sit back and remind yourself of all that went good – little or big. Though this is simple in the grand scheme of things, having a day where work, family, and personal time were in-line is definitely something to celebrate.

We are often striving to create work-life balance, and I talk about it quite often, so I absolutely want to share with you the specifics of how my day went. I hope that by doing so, you will see a glimpse of your own day or find some ideas for small changes you can make in your routine. With that, I share my perfectly balanced day and what I hope will become a regular daily routine for achieving work-life balance in my life.

Personal Daily Routine for Work-Life Balance

6 am: Woke up with hugs from baby boy and baby girl. After a bit of snuggling, dragged myself out of bed and began the morning routine of getting dressed and making sure baby girl got ready for school.

7:30 am: Breakfast time for both kids before heading out the door.

8-8:30 am: Dropped baby girl off at school.

8:30-9 am: Baby boy fell asleep on the ride back home, so waited in driveway for him to take a short nap while reading emails and checking in on Twitter and Facebook on my phone. I also found photo to use in blog post.

9:15-9:45 am: Took out some frozen already-cooked turkey to thaw for dinner. Then, while baby boy sat in his high chair with a snack, did my morning workout to Just Dance 3.

9:45-10:30 am: Ate breakfast, hung out with baby boy, and worked on blog post draft.

10:30-10:45 am: Phone call with client.

10:45-11:30 am: Finished and published blog post. Proceeded to work on marketing it via Facebook, Twitter, and StumbleUpon. Also, posted updates to various social media platforms and groups.

11:30 am – 12 pm: Played with baby boy and continued miscellaneous work on email and social media monitoring.

12 noon: Lunch for baby boy and myself.

12:30-2:30 pm: Continued work in-between playing with baby boy. When he played quietly on the floor, I’d check email or read articles, blog posts, etc. We went back and forth during this time quite a bit.

2:30-3 pm: Picked up baby girl from school

3-4:30 pm: Baby boy fell asleep on the ride home, so baby girl and I took this opportunity to have a tea party and afternoon snack. While she set up the tea party and changed into a princess outfit, I began cooking a turkey soup for dinner. I had enough time to shred the turkey, add all other ingredients and set the pot to simmer, plus sit down with baby girl for a princess tea party and snack before baby boy woke up.

4:30-5 pm: After a quick snack for baby boy, he and his big sister played together and watched TV alone. I ran upstairs to back up some files on our main computer and freshen myself up for the evening.

5-6 pm: Hung out with the kids, fed baby boy dinner, and picked up clutter in the living room. Baby boy got a little fussy during this time too.

6-7:30 pm: After my husband came home, we sat down for dinner, along with baby girl. Afterwards, the kids hung out with daddy and I cleaned up the kitchen.

7:30-8 pm: Bath/shower time for all.

8-8:40 pm: The husband read baby girl her bedtime story and tucked her in while I helped baby boy relax and fall asleep. Some nights baby boy falls asleep quickly, but with the afternoon nap he had, it took a while for him to calm down.

8:45-11 pm: With the kids in bed, the husband and I were finally able to hang out, talk about our days, and watch a little TV before heading to bed ourselves.

The reason this day worked out so great for me is that I felt accomplished. I was able to work on various areas of my life – not just work or just family. I was productive, got work done, spent time with the family, and even took time for myself.

Of course, not every day will work out so great. I know there will be days where baby boy won’t take two naps or will need more attention due to fussiness. There will be days when I’ll need to run errands and I won’t be able to get as much work done. That’s fine. We have to be flexible, right? The important thing is to remember days like these where all did go well and try to replicate them by following a routine as much as possible.

Why don’t you take some time to write out your daily schedule and reflect on what works and what you can improve? Where can you make some changes to your routine to ease the fluidity of the day?

Other articles you may like:

• Sample Daily Routine for Work at Home Mom
• 7 Ways to Find ‘Me Time’

Photos by Vicente Villamón, Andreanna Moya, Robin, and Erica Firment