Blog Posts by Mommyfriend

This is my story of love and loss at 9 weeks.

Mommyfriend goes by Lori Garcia in real life and is a Shine Parenting Guru. She writes at www.mommyfriend.com where she's busy finding perfection in imperfection daily. When she's not watching infomercials she's a blogger for Babble's Toddler Times, a Contributor for Yahoo! Contributor Network and one of the sexy founders of Project Marriage .Read More »from Parenting Guru: Forever Part of Me

Boy Wonder is growing up. I'm so not prepared for the sex talk , puberty and all the rest of the totally normal and awkward parenting stuff that comes along with it.

He's 9 and in so many ways he thinks he's so much cooler (and by cooler I mean older).

Exhibit A: Deodorant

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Degree for Men (because he needs that).

Puhleese, he's a boy who smells like boy - not B.O. (at least not yet anyway). He picked out this fancy Extreme Blast® formula because the packaging looked manly. Marketing at it's finest.

The next aisle, I was begged to purchase this:

Read More »from Parenting Guru: My Man-Child

The second you become a new mom, you learn right quick that poop quickly becomes a regular (pardon the pun) part of life. Sure, at first you find all the poop mildly disturbing, but out of love for your sweet baby, you quickly learn to smell the other way.

It's a fact: your baby is perfect and no amount of poop, snot or vomit can change the way you feel about this little person you've so lovingly created.

But let's get real for a second.

As quickly as you get used to the poop, it doesn't mean there isn't a point when the poop gets just plain nasty. Things get a little…ugh, "sticky" when the diaper contents get spread around. A diaper explosion here, a messy crib there; it's all to be expected. But what happens when the poop gets spread around to the family? You take a picture, that's what.

My son was about two months old when the gallons of lemonade I couldn't stop craving disagreed with my breastfed son's delicate digestive system (um, duh). My husband was holding our son

Read More »from Parenting Guru: Spreading the err, love

The kids in my house are Star Wars fanatics. The geekdom is pretty cool and as much as I dislike syfy as a general rule - Star Wars is the exception.

Last year my toddler (aka "BooBoo") would be the ever wise and prophetic 2 year old Yoda because c'mon, Yoda + Toddler = Adorbs.

This blurry picture is the one and ONLY picture I was able to get of BooBoo as Yoda. He hated the costume, specifically the hood. Obviously the force wasn't with him because while all the other kids were happily dressed up in their costumes for the preschool Halloween parade, my son remained in his striped, albeit adorable Old Navy sweater.

So Yoda was a solid waste of $29.99, even though I'm still pretty sure I the costume would have been epic.

Halloween costumes are either hits or misses. When they're hits, they're big hits and when they're misses...they're catastrophic failures.

I've had my share of both.

Miss: My eldest (aka "Boy Wonder") as a pumpkin.

Miss: Boy Wonder as

Read More »from Parenting Guru: Yoda worst mom at choosing Halloween Costumes

Today might just be the biggest day of my life.

As far as big days go, I've had a few:

1. The day I was born.

2. The day I got my driver's license.

3. The day I graduated college.

4. The day I got married

5. The days I gave birth.

6. The day I started my blog.

And then there's today...

7. The day I quit my job. Like whoa.

So the whole experience has been totally surreal.

You know how you daydream about something for so long? You hope and you pray and you cry and you whine? You try and you fail and you try some more? You decide, change your mind, decide again and then chicken out? Yeah, that's how I've felt about becoming a stay-at-home mom since forever.

This is weird for me.

I've worked continuously since I was 16 years old. I've never been unemployed. I've never taken a month to backpack through Europe.

I've written before about making the choice to become a working mother, the joys of preschool and how much my heart hurt

Read More »from Parenting Guru: Today I Quit My Job

We had an awesome summer!Hard to believe summer is coming to a close. As I was reliving our awesome summer moments I came across this picture that really says it all.

We had planned to go to our county fair the day this picture was taken and when we arrived at the gates we were disappointed to learn the fair didn't open for another two hours.

The kids were devastated but we weren't going to allow a lousy few hours to ruin our family day. We found an amazing local park filled with big rocks perfect for climbing and plenty of shade to enjoy our family day.

It's been a big year for our family, lots of changes, lots of growing, lots of reprioritizing and loads of joy.

As we embark upon my older son's 4th grade year and my little one's PreK year, I'm hopeful and excited for what the future brings.

This summer has taught me a lot about myself as a parent and seeing my boys stand victorious on the big rock they climbed all by themselves that day reminds me that our family can do anything.

What were your greatest

Read More »from Parenting Guru: Summer lovin' had me a blast!

I love you guys now get it yourself

You're a mom, you know how it goes. You give and you give and you give some more and when you're not busy giving some element of yourself to someone or something, you feel guilty. What's up with that?

And so I say this: Mommy guilt can suck it!

I've never been busier or stressed in a good way than I am right now and I made the decision that it's OK to choose me sometimes. I have to.

See, I love my kids and my house and everything but it's either time to expect more out of them or less from myself.

Meal time

My kids are grazers, they eat all the time. Just when I get them situated with a meal and sit to eat for myself, they need more milk, or an extra napkin, or something. By the time I finally reach my food it's cold and I'm forced to eat it at record speed over the sink while I check homework and listen to someone beg me for a Band-Aid. Dude! So now I get everyone situated, give them a last call for anything they may want/need and I eat. Seated. If you need more

Read More »from Parenting Guru: Sometimes I choose me

I'm not a very good swimmer, never have been. Despite a childhood filled with swimming lessons and endless summers in my neighbor's pool, I still suck. It's like my arms and legs can't come to an agreement on how to move through water with speed or grace. So maybe my body isn't built for swimming, it's a truth I've learned to accept which probably has way more to do with the horror of getting in a swimsuit than actually swimming anyway.

My family and I spend our summers at my parents' pool. From the time my son was very young it was important to me that he learned how to swim. As a toddler he loved splish-splashy play but had no interest in swimming whatsoever. I took his cue and held off for a time, keeping water play fun and light. I hoped the following summer he'd be ready - he wasn't. Nope, my kid was content to sit on the pool steps submerged in 6 inches of water and splash around while everyone else engaged in crazy water acrobatics and swim races. I tried floaties, fun

Read More »from Parenting Guru: Can a bad swimmer teach her kid to swim? I investigate.