Sandy's Blah, Blah, Blog

I started Oh Baby! Magazine with my husband during my first pregnancy. My love of writing and my obsession with magazines paired with my husband’s many skills have proven to be a great combination. I'm from Toronto - born and raised - and I've been married for eight years. Since the inception of Oh Baby! I've had two babies, Andreas and Alexandra . What a ride it's been! I’d like to share with you my struggles with trying to find this so-called – and I think unachievable - “balance” I keep reading about… Follow Sandy E on Twitter

I am a sucker for Hallmark holidays and while some people get stabby about seeing Valentine’s Day paraphernalia in the stores right after all of the Christmas stuff is moved out, I love it! I definitely learned from the best, my mom. She always gave us cards for every ‘holiday’ you can think of. It’s fun and who doesn’t like getting cards from loved ones? Lately I’ve been feeling a bit of the winter blahs and have been thinking...

I do it too. We were talking about tabloids and celebrities in the office and it seems that I get a kick out of the “Celebrities do it too” pieces. I mean of course they do “it” too. They are people too (gasp!) and they have stuff that needs doing. So I thought it would be fun to be narcissistic honest about the things that I do… sometimes beyond my better judgement. I take my kids to the park… okay that’s a lie. I don’t...

My voice can get pretty loud sometimes, I am naturally a loud talker and I come from a family of loud talkers. Confession time: I sometimes yell at my kids and I hate it. My son is super sensitive to this and he has asked me why I sometimes yell. I’m not going to lie, when he asks me this, it breaks my heart a little bit. While I’d love to say that I never raise my voice at my children, it’s not true. I do sometimes. Way more than I’d...

I love buying gifts for people. I get immense satisfaction when I give someone something that I know they love. Almost to the point of smugness. I get that not everyone enjoys this. Not because they are mean or bah humbahging (not a real word I know) all over town, but they just don’t like the pressure of having to get something ‘good’. The fact that someone even thought about getting me a gift is lovely. If they put in a little extra...

I love Christmas. It’s a great time of year. I really enjoy giving gifts to friends and family and I love all of the parties and the food. It’s a lot about the food. There are certain things that I never eat all year but always eat at Christmas. This year I’m hosting Christmas and while it’s a little scary and maybe slightly anxiety inducing, I’m happy that it’s happening chez moi this year. Every family has traditions and every...

I have a confession to make: I am terrible with credit cards. Let me clarify before my mother freaks out: I don’t carry a balance (thankfully those days are over) but what I mean is that considering how many credit cards are in my wallet (both business and personal) I have never really had a card that ‘works’ for me until recently. I love to travel, and we have family that we visit in England, so some of my friends were surprised when I...

How my week turned into pie week. I’ve been planning my meals lately. It takes a little pressure off figuring out what to make for dinner. We usually plan it as a family, so there is always something on the menu that everyone likes. It also helps with grocery shopping and taking things out of the freezer. When you plan ahead things do always work out better. Things don’t always go according to plan. Sometimes Tuesday’s meal ends up...

Video games. We love them in our house. I remember spending countless summer days trying to complete a level of a video game during my youth. Since my kids are still young (five and eight) we always go for an E rating and it hasn’t been a problem. Surprisingly, my kids have yet to play any video games with violent content. I think we’ve been lucky so far because I’m sure that some of my son’s friends are playing games that they...

Halloween is one week away! We all have our costumes, our house is decorated, the pumpkins have been purchased and all that’s left to do is buy candy for eager trick or treaters. I wanted to do something with my kiddies for Halloween and I went down many a hole on Pinterest and left feeling only slightly inadequate. My crafty skills are not the greatest and even though most pages on Pinterest swear that it’s ‘easy’ and ‘anyone can...

“You’re feeding her again? Didn’t you just feed her?” “Are you sure you are producing enough breast milk? He seems hungry.” Breastfeed or bottle feed… whichever way you choose to feed your baby, the truth is, you’re his mom and you want what’s best for him… so naturally you are going to willingly provide nourishment. While some people take cues about how healthy a baby is by how many rolls they have and how pudgy...

I love breakfast. It’s my favourite meal of the day and we sometimes even have it for dinner. Those are the days when I have no idea what we are going to eat. You know the days, everything is frozen and you just can’t think of anything. It’s so easy to make some pancakes, bacon and to cut up some fruit. Yum! Lately I’ve been on a mission to be more creative with my breakfasts. My kids usually have the same thing all the time. Cereal,...

I was lucky enough to be a part of an information session about gasoline with Shell last week and this girl, who is quite indifferent when it comes to cars, learned a lot. For starters, I had no idea that the perfect gas for your car can actually keep your engine clean. Also, if you want to increase the longevity of your car, the best thing you can do is to treat it well. Take it for regular tune-ups, oil changes, and use high quality fuel...