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

We are very lucky to have a fantastic baby sitter. Also known as my mom or vóvó (grandma in Portuguese) to my kids. Since I birthed these little ones she has been there from day one to take care of them at the drop of a hat. She has even been known to cancel plans to babysit for us — she only tells me she’s done this after the fact because I would never ask her to cancel plans to accommodate me. The title of this should actually be...

It was the last day of school and lately we’ve been working so hard that we really felt like we needed a little fun in our lives. When I was given the opportunity to take my little family to Niagara Falls I jumped on it. I love, love, love Niagara Falls. At only a one and a half hour car ride away from us, I try to go there at least twice a year. Sometimes just for the day, sometimes for the weekend, it’s perfect for a girls weekend, or a...

Sitting at McDonald’s – not Casa Fancy Pants – with my mom, my sister and all of our kids (ok, only four kids… that sounded a little dramatic) because my mom loves McDonald’s * ahem * anyway, at the table next to us there are three people speaking a foreign language – one man and two women. After my son finished eating he came over to me and started talking to me about something or other. Now if you know any kids, some of them,...

I’m not a huge fan of going crazy for Canada Day celebrations. I do love Canada though and I’m all for a very easy treat that I can make for my kids that doesn’t have any ingredients that I can’t pronounce. So I hit Pinterest and Google and found these yummy Raspberry Cheesecake Popsicles here, I had to play around with the recipe to get it right for me. What you need*: 8 oz of fresh raspberries 1 tablespoon and ½ cup of...

At kindergarten drop off this morning, my daughter went into her classroom happily and as I was halfway down the hall, her and two friends called out for me. We’ll call them Sarah & Martha. Martha: “Sandy! Come back!” I looked back and saw that Martha was holding up my daughter’s Hello Kitty sweater, which I guess had been at the school for a while. Assuming that they wanted me to take the sweater home I started to walk back...

Looks like I’ve done something right in this parenting game: I’ve taught my kids to wear sunscreen. My son, (he’s almost eight and so over it) used to cry and scream that he didn’t want us to put sunscreen on him. Now, he still doesn’t love it, but he doesn’t put up a fight anymore. I think he’s figured out that when it comes to sunscreen application around here, resistance is futile. My daughter on the other hand… she loves...

These are always fun to do and I love Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop so thought I’d give it a go: List six random facts about yourself. 1)   I’ve always been afraid of the dark – it’s one of the reasons I am compassionate and understanding when my kids tell me they are scared. 2)   I’ve donated my hair to Angel Hair for Kids twice. 3)   I wanted to name my daughter Clementine but didn’t because of the mockery...

It’s that time of year again. Time to open up The Cottage — for a good laugh about calling it that, you need to click here. The cottage I’m referring to is my cousin’s cottage about a two-hour drive from Toronto. My kids really love being there. I love being there too, but I haven’t always loved it. You see when you have babies sometimes you’re a super relaxed parent and you just take your kids everywhere without batting an eye…...

Chocolate Bread! Yup, you read it right. I’m a huge fan of Club Med and one of my favourite things to eat while I’m there (they have it at every village) is the chocolate bread that is baked fresh and available at every meal. It’s the perfect marriage for me: bread and chocolate. Heavenly. They make white chocolate and a regular chocolate one and surprisingly I prefer the white chocolate variety which is strange for me because I...

Truth be told, I’m afraid that my kids are now spoiled. They have been to a Club Med village before… but never like this. Both kids have been to Club Med resorts — in utero… Club Med is perfect for a babymoon and we enjoyed relaxing vacations both pregnancies. My son visited the Cancun village when he was just two years old, but this was their first experience with Mini Club Med. And what an experience it was, for the entire...

Andreas & Alexandra absolutely loving Club Med in Punta Cana. It was an unforgettable vacation for the entire family.

My daughter’s JK class had a bake sale today. So even though I have a gazillion things to do, baking is something that I love doing and my little girl is all about helping out in the kitchen. Maybe, not helping, but saying, “I wanna do it!!!” about everything. Let me present to you: Easter Egg Rice Krispies Treats Easy but messy. Here goes... Shopping List: Rice Krispies (6 cups) Mini Marshmallows (5 cups) Butter (1/4 cup...