The Ugly Volvo

Author: Raquel D’Apice

  • The 8 Items Every New Parent Needs

    The Buy Buy Baby on 7th Avenue in Manhattan is a great place to go if you’re looking to have a full-blown panic attack.    There are thousands of items lining the shelves and yet, as a new parent, it’s hard to tell what you’re actually going to need.  You’re trying to get ready to bring home…

  • A Ten-Month-Old’s Letter To Santa

    Dear Santa,  I am a ten-month-old baby and I write because my mother has been sending out my “Christmas List” to people, and her list does not in any way represent the things I really want.  I could give two s#*ts about receiving stacking cups. And I know you’re ready to make the joke about…

  • The Amazing Butternut Squash Soup Recipe That Everyone Should Make At Least Once

    Love butternut squash soup?  Looking for that amazing recipe that everyone on earth seems to have?  Look no further!  Follow the instructions below for soup so delicious it’ll change the way you look at fall! *               *               * Step 1.  Buy one or two mid-sized organic butternut squash from your local farmer’s market.  Look for…

  • The Nine Hundred Dollar iPhone Photo

    I’m not going to say that we flew down to Florida to get a picture, because we didn’t.  We flew down to Florida to see my grandfather, who is 94-years-old and my son’s only living great-grandparent.  All my own great-grandparents passed away long before I was born, as did my husband’s great-grandparents.  So I’m not…

  • Brunch With My Baby

    This week I’ve been guest blogging at the site Brunch With My Baby.  Alexis Barad-Cutler runs an eating out/food blog for people with young kids where she reviews local restaurants for both their food and their child-friendliness.  She asked if I could “review my favorite place to eat in Jersey City.”  I said, “Oh yeah,…

  • The Best Part of Parenting is that Everything Always Goes Flawlessly

    I was kind of excited to give my son food for the first time because I love food.  Not making it, but eating it.  And also because the books you read about having a baby portray all of the milestones as being kind of magical.  “Giving him his first solid food?  It’ll be magical!  Experimenting…

  • 10 Super Super Super Low Budget Costumes for Kids

    Every year I spend month after month brainstorming amazing costume ideas only to realize that it’s suddenly the end of October and I have done nothing and I now have fewer than 6 days to put together some sort of mediocre costume made from particle board and old sweaters.  Every year I do this. That…

  • Why Having a Baby is Like Getting the Hiccups

    I am tired of getting advice from total strangers on how to raise a baby. Last week I was harassed in the 59th street Subway station by a woman on the platform who went on for about ten minutes about all the things I was doing wrong, and how hopefully if I had another kid…

  • 10 Quick, Easy Meals for Moms!

    So I signed up to have a kid and even that, really, did I have any idea what I was signing up for?  Of course not.  No one does.  But I am doing it.   I will put in a lot of time to help my kid learn how to be a good person.  BUT, I…

  • Your Baby’s Cries: DECIPHERED

    So one of the things that made me the most nervous about having a baby was not being able to tell why he was crying.  And I read plenty of articles and talked to plenty of experienced mothers who said, “Don’t worry!  Your maternal instinct will kick in and you’ll be able to figure out…