Cool Mommy Product Reviews

Our family recently went to NYC for the weekend. My kids love NYC for some reasons – mostly because of the Musuem of Natural History & ToysRus. For me & my husband, we both love everything about NYC.

However, it can be a costly weekend because hotel rates are expensive – mostly $300 & above. We have gone to NYC at least once every year in the last 3 years. In Dec 2005, we stayed at a Woogo apartment at Times Square from Dec 24 to 31. I think it costs $200 + a night. That place was being renovated so quite a mess. Luckily our apartment was nice & renovated. It is right next to the Millennium Broadway and one block up is ToysRus. In the spring break of 2007, we stayed at Hampton Inn in Chelsea for approx $270 a night, including breakfast for 5. Great deal but room is small. This last trip taken from March 15 to 17, the deal gets even better. I found the Embassy Suites Hotel – near Battery Park for $169 including breakfast and evening cocktails ! Check out the link.

http://embassysuites.hilton.com/en/es/hotels/specials.jhtml?ctyhocn=NYCNYES

I found the rates under “specials”. There is a whole list of different rate promotions – look for “travelzoo promotion”. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go to the zoo. They must have ran out of names to call the promotion. I checked www.travelzoo.com thinking that they might be doing a promotion together but it is not featured on their front page of travelzoo deals for NYC.

We stayed at the Embassy Suite Hotel in Maui in Oct 2004 and remembered that they have rooms that fitted out budget and met our needs. Hence, I googled it for NYC and I was so surprised to find such a good deal.

The hotel is only 8 years old, and was shut down for 6 mths following 9/11. The rooms are new, big and have a separate living room with a pull out sofa. Two tvs – one in the living room & one in the adjoining bedroom. Your kids can watch their TV program and you can have privacy. Service is great too. Parking is $65 per day – a little more than the midtown garages (usually around $45 a day) but hey, with that kind of room rates, it does not matter. Our 2 nights ended costing us a $556.83. (including city tax, NY state tax, occupancy tax & internet access). I was so thrilled of the savings I treated myself to a pair of Gucci shoes and an evening bag from Lauren Merkin.

The hotel was very busy and breakfast was crowded. However, the service was efficient and you do not have to wait for long for your “cooked to order” eggs (a feature of Embassy suite Hotel) and a table. We didn’t go to the evening cocktails but I heard they welcome kids.

Enough said – hurry – the promotion end April 9 !

Travel

I saw a Dodge caravan ad in the October 2007 issue of InStyle. The theme is Moms in Motion and it basically categorises Mom into distinct category and shows that the new Dodge Caravan can meet your needs as a mom in any of these category.

The categories are :
Fashionista Mom
A mom who is “on-trend and on-the-go”.

Earth Mom
A mom that “goes green”.

Multi-Tasking Mom
A mom that has “places to go and people to see”.

Sporty Mom
A mom who is “in the game and in motion”.

Classic Mom
A mom who brings “timeless beauty and grace to her party”.

Wait a minute, are they describing me. I am all of that listed above. Oh, I get it, The Dodge Caravan is designed for me. I thought there is an easier way to advertise that. I can bet that the Creative Director for this ad is single, or married with no kids. And her notion of a mom is all fragmented. She has no idea.

Introduction

I don’t know about you but I am constantly struggling with clutter. Paper clutter – 3 kids bringing home crafts & papers, toy clutter (even though I insisted all toys in the basement) my own mail clutter & my husband’s never-ending junk (cos’ he brings them home & never looks at them). But the thing that gets me most is the photos piling up and waiting to be organized.

At Schuyler’s Ballet today, I mentioned to the other moms that I am such a “bad mom” as my pictures are not organized up to date. I am probably at 2005. Boy, am I glad that all of them are in the same boat as me ! Jennifer is the only one who has one child and she has pictures of her child in the album for up to 6 mths old. Her child is now 4 & a half. The rest of us has 3 kids, obviously much more photos to organize. I truly felt better.

When there is so more “scrapbooking” stuff in the market & everyone seem to take a vacation every 3 months – even if it is for 3 days, I always thought wow – these people are so organized. As for me, a short trip to NYC – which is an hour & a half away takes me at least one month to plan. (in between all that distractions). Then comes the pictures. Another thing to do.

From the moment I had my 2nd child, I started wondering if I should keep different albums for each kid and how should the overlap (meaning 2 or 3 kids in the same photo) show ? As I wanted them to each have a baby album that is special to them, I decided the I will make one for each of them reflecting only their first year. Then, it’s all in one big album and they can go fight for it after I passed on

Now that there is digital pictures, it is easy to “organize” if you are technology savvy. But you still have the problem of which one should I print out for the album ? Photo book – is the latest trend. I like that but still think it’s a bit costly. I have 270 plus picture from our disneyworld trip we made in Dec of 2007 and I am still undecided if I should just put them in regular albums or do a photo book.

Another mom who has 3 kids told me her mother day’s present has been a family photo book made by her husband. He will compile the pictures by month and gives it to her every Mother’s Day – that and a breakfast in bed ! Now that’s a great and useful present. Fortunately or unfortunately, my husband would rather send me to a spa for the day.

OK – admit it . I am not a super mom but at least I cook almost every meals (from scratch) and I read to my kids, put them to bed, do laundry every other day, volunteer at school & church, help with their homework, drive them to ball games & ballet. I decided I will not beat myself up just because I cannot organize the family album. Feel better already.

Kids