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

Confession: I’ve always been jealous (in the nicest way possible) of mom’s who tell the story of their baby falling asleep while playing. You know the ones: “Little Johnny fell asleep in his exersaucer today! So cute!” “Hazel was eating and just feel asleep in her peas! And she love peas!” “Bella was building a tower and I found her asleep in all the blocks! What an angel!” “I can’t believe that every day like...

I was recently cleaning out the closet and pulled my son’s old winter boots out of storage — two pairs that no longer fit him. While I tried to figure out what to do with them he was trying to put them on and giggling because they no longer fit. This year all four of us have been wearing Bogs boots. Initially, I thought that they wouldn’t be warm enough but I’m happy to say that we all have dry and warm feet. They have been...

Ahhh the push present. The first time I was pregnant and ready to give birth I liked the idea of a present for pushing. I like receiving gifts… why not? I’ve just given up a lot of stuff for nine months plus, it seemed only natural that my husband would want to shower me with gifts. I’m actually surprised that Hallmark hasn’t caught on yet. Or have they? Do they have push present cards? They could read something like: “Thanks for...

Baking with kids is great. For them. It’s not the easiest thing to do unless you are an extremely patient person. I am not that person, although Lord knows I try. In honour of Valentine’s Day I am going to share with you the easiest dessert that you can make. Yummy chocolate covered strawberries that you can make with one of your little loves! After all isn’t Valentine’s Day all about chocolate, love and all things red? Ok, it’s...

My name is Sandy. It’s not Sandra, Alexandra or Cassandra. It’s Sandy. With a Y. Warning: This may be a bit ranty. It annoys me when people call me Sandra. Especially when it’s work related. It blows my mind how nowhere on my website does it say my name is Sandra, yet I still get pitches all the time addressed to Sandra. My signature in my email is Sandy Pedrogao, so why would you reply with, “Hi Sandra”? Do your homework before...

Little bumps and bruises happen a lot around here. I am a firm believer that when watching your baby tumble, your reaction has a lot to do with how they handle their fall. For example: you’re sitting at the kitchen table and are watching your baby girl toddle around your living room. She trips over a toy and lands flat on her face. You react like this: “GASP!!! OH MY GOSH! Are you ok?” as you run over to her she starts to FREAK out....

My family is Portuguese and every year we have a "Bolo Rei" (direct translation is King Cake) on Christmas day. The cake is traditionally baked round with a hole in the middle, the idea is that it looks like a crown with lots of crystallized and dried fruits and nuts — think Three Kings. It's baked with one fava bean inside of it. Everyone must have a slice of cake (yuck... I'm not a fan, but also not a party pooper) and if you're the lucky...

Last year I started to bake. I am by no means great at it nor am I claiming to be a baker. One thing I can tell you is that I really enjoy doing it. It helps me with my stress levels. At this time of year stress seems to be in abundance for most and so I thought I’d share this cookie recipe with you. Who knows? It might help you deal with stress. At best it will make your house smell divine and you can enjoy a few cookies with a nice cup of...

I never attempted the CIO method with my son and it never actually worked with my daughter. This brings us to two kids: one seven and one four, who need their parents in order to fall asleep. Both kids are not great sleepers (surprise!) and they don’t like to sleep alone. We still lay down with them every night. Read a story, make one up, and cuddle before they fall asleep. Some days this is annoying. I sometimes wish that they would just...

The lovely people at Breville sent me a juicer. I recently watched a great documentary about how juicing is a fantastic way to get nutrients into our bodies and I couldn't help but think it would be the perfect way to get leafy green vegetables into my kids. I’m Portuguese so we often will eat soup made with yummy kale and bean goodness. My youngest will happily eat the soup, but my son won’t touch it, unless it’s chicken soup. So I...

I really enjoy Halloween and helping my kids dress up. I have kept all of my kids’ Halloween costumes (from birth). Every year we buy new ones for each kid and every year I hang them in the spare room closet. I do that well. I am really good at holding onto things like this with the idea that one day my kids are going to go through their old Halloween costumes and get a good giggle out of it. One thing I don’t do well: take pictures of my...