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Now that my two girls are teens, I don’t visit the children’s department any more. I kinda miss that! I really enjoy shopping for little girls’ clothes and accessories. It’s really fun browsing through all the different styles and colors. I would even take a day off work to be one of the first few crazy mommies to rush to the sales.

When the girls were around 5 or 6, I would get them pretty little frocks and dresses. In fact, the girls used to have a red polka dotted dress that looked something like this.

When they got to around 9 or 10, I started buying them skirts to go with the little cute blouses that either came separately or in a set.

And pants, of course. I love pants, so why shouldn’t my girls ?

I always bought my kids’ clothes at sales and always one or two sizes bigger so the poor things hardly got to wear their new clothes right away. Kids grow so quickly it’s pointless to buy clothes that fit snugly and that they can only wear for a short while.

So my girls always had to wait a little to grow into their new clothes. Not that it bothered them too much, they never asked for new clothes or to wear them, but this mommy was the one who always wanted to dress them up nice and tie up their hair with matching hair accessories .

I remember having a few eyelet dresses when I was a kid. I guess that’s when my love for eyelets started . Eyelet dresses not only look very pretty on toddlers and little girls, they’re very cooling and not very expensive at all.

All of the eyelet dresses below cost between $18 to $23, and yet they’re comfortable, sweet and come with matching head gear.

This tiered Little Bitty Spring Green Eyelet Swing Dress is defined by white lace and a crochet flower embellishment with an adorable matching headband.

This Little Bitty Pink Eyelet Sun Dress comes with a matching hat.

I love the butterfly cut work on this Little Bitty White Eyelet and Pink Pant Infant Capri Set with the little pink applique flowers and matching hat.

One of the biggest joys of being a mom of girls is getting to dress them up like little princesses. These eyelet dresses are great for daily wear or as gifts. You can check them out at TinyTotDressShop.com.

Do you have a kiddy birthday coming up? When my kids were younger, there was never a shortage of birthdays to organize and attend.

I notice kids love pinatas and always have such a lot of fun with it. Imagine if you had this Disney Princess Pinata at your little girl’s birthday party!

There’s also a matching Disney Princess Ultimate Box which makes it very convenient for a princess-themed birthday party, don’t you think?

For the boys, this Cars – The Movie pinata would be perfect.

Again if you’re planning a car-themed party, you can grab the Disney’s Cars Ultimate Birthday Box with everything you’ll need for the party including tableware, decorations, birthday candles and fun items for the little guests.

March is Pinata Month at Birthday in a Box and you can save 10% off all pinatas. Offer ends March 31, 2009 so start planning away !

I wasn’t planning to say anything about Nadya Suleman, the Californian woman who had octuplets two weeks ago. But watching the videos of the interviews with this woman, I’m just shocked she went ahead and had a total of 14 children entirely for her own selfish reasons with little regard for how she’s going to raise them or how they are going to be affected developmentally.

Somehow I fail to be convinced by anything she says especially the part about it not being about the money and that she’s going to take care of the kids the best she can. Without a job? Without a home? She still lives with her parents, remember and her mom is taking care of her six older children all below the age of 8. I don’t know. Something about all that just doesn’t jive.

Alright, even if she’s indeed sincere about her love for children and a large family, I still don’t see how she’s going to cope with the economics of raising 14 kids. I mean, we all know how expensive it is to raise kids these days. All I can say is she sure is confident of her future for someone who is unemployed and a single mom.

For the sake of her kids, I hope she works out some realistic financials real soon! Seriously! So what do you guys think?

When my kids were babies, my handbag quickly lost its place and I started carrying around an ugly diaper bag. I used to think all baby bags were ugly. Not any more. Just look at this Ed Hardy Camo Diaper Bag. It’s so chic it’d make any mom look like a celeb mom .

Then when my kids grew out of their diapers, I switched to a roomy tote bag to carry a spare change of clothes, a bottle of water, some cookies, etc. I would love this Ed Hardy Romy Large Tote, isn’t it the hippest?

Well, guess what? You don’t have to live with ugly baby bags. Baghaus is ringing in the new year with their 2009 Double Deal which means you get to save an extra 20% off plus free shipping on orders over $50.

This offer expires January 12, 2009 while supplies last so you want to be sure to get there fast before they’re gone.

The best thing about having two daughters is I get to buy them pretty dresses. If my girls were younger, I’d be buying this adorable red V-neck holiday dress for infants, toddlers and little girls with its lovely bow accent.

Red is an auspicious color that brings good luck all year, no? Not to mention that this little number here would make a princess out any little girl.

And here’s another gorgeous pink taffeta flocked dress for babies, toddlers and little girls that I really like. Just look, the taffeta is embellished with an elegant brown velvet flocked vine and features a bow in front and another behind.

If you buy this dress in infant size, it comes with a matching headband too. I remember running all over town looking for a matching headband for Skye when she was a baby, duh! No need for that here .

Tiny Tots Dress Shop has beautiful holiday dresses at fabulous discounts right now. They’ve even got a section for dresses under $20. You gotta be kiddin’ me, right? Wrong, go see for yourself.

Not only that, they’re also giving away a coordinating bow free with every purchase, and a pair of free Piccolo tights is included with every full price dress ordered through the month of December 2008!

We always feel a bit uncomfortable when our friends ask Steev “so what books are you reading now?” and Steev would just shrug the question off with an inaudible mumble under his breath, an answer I always hope our friends won’t hear .

Truth is we’ve been trying to get him to read without much success, or so we thought. Steev and Raine were both early readers. Before age 3, they were able to read simple Peter & Jane books and were progressing nicely up the number series and onto Enid Blyton books.

Skye started late because I was so busy with the two older ones and she always being the ‘baby’, I didn’t realize she was already 3 and still couldn’t read a word!

Today, Raine and Skye are my two bookworms always reading, always hungry for more books. Steev, on the other hand, has probably read all of two books in his entire school life.

I only realized recently that we’ve probably wrongly accused him of not reading when all this while, he’s been soaking up technical and technology articles on the internet. Okay lah, bad mommy thought he was only playing games!

Today I read in The Star that many of our schoolkids read only two books a year! It’s a shame, too many distractions competing for their attention these days. The trick is to start them young and consistently build on their interest from there (how to get kids to start reading?).

I did it the hard way but it really doesn’t have to be that hard. Funetics actually has a phonics-based Early Reading Program that’s not only a great place to start but also lots of fun for both parent and child.

It also makes a valued Christmas gift, or anytime gift, for friends with kids. It contains 81 lessons from early letter recognition to preschool concepts to reading and writing.

Like I always say, each child is different and this kit contains lots of interesting games and activities to suit your child’s learning style and allows you to pace the lessons according to your schedule and his/hers.

The printed version comes with a free audio CD of the program. You can try out 3 lessons for free. Shipping is available worldwide and it’s free for those living in the US.

Many working parents don’t have time to figure out how to get their kids interested in books and a guided program like Funetics is just the thing to get started.

The latest hero in our family is *drum roll please* DH!

Yesterday he saved a two-year-old girl from choking on a piece of soft candy.

He was hanging around the reception area of his office (well, apparently he does work sometimes ) and noticed this little kid gagging and rocking her head backwards in distress!

DH alerted her mom who was sitting there looking pretty and totally unaware that her kid was choking! Her mom panicked and burst into tears. Well, I don’t blame her, it would’ve scared the daylights out of any mom!

Quick as a flash, DH picked up the little girl, tucked her under his arm and started racing to the nearest clinic with his staff and the mom running close behind.

Since the girl was so small, it was almost impossible to grip her under her diaphragm from behind which is what experts recommend. The candy, being soft and sticky, would’ve been much harder to dislodge. That was DH’s biggest worry.

As he ran, he tilted the little girl upside down in the hopes the candy would come loose and fall out. I think it worked. The candy dislodged itself and the girl started crying for her mom. Definitely a good sign because she couldn’t make a sound before!

Poor kid must’ve been wondering why she was going on a marathon race tucked like a baseball under this man’s arm . By the time they got to the clinic, the candy was already out and the girl was crying from the sheer sight of the doctor (must not have been a very good-looking doctor)!

His job not yet done, DH darted across the street to buy an ice-cream to cheer up the kid whose life he’s possibly saved. And yes, it’s all in a day’s work for our superhero (when he works, he really works, ok? )!  We’re so-oo proud of him!

So moms, be very careful about giving your toddlers soft, sticky candy like Sugus or gummy bears. Our ex-pediatrician also warned us about giving kids whole grapes and rambutans. These are common choking hazards so either avoid them or cut them down to small pieces.