Coast 2 Coast Mom

United Nations Foundation Shot@Life App Launch

The United Nations Foundation recently celebrated the launch of an app for their Shot@Life program, an initiative to protect children worldwide by providing life-saving vaccines. The lovely ladies of Trumpeting Media invited us to attend the event and donate to the program, which we happily did. The UN Foundation worked with the American Academy of Pediatrics to launch the Shot@Life app to help parents track children's milestones while raising awareness of the need for life-saving childhood vaccines worldwide. The premise behind the app is that 1.5 million children die globally each year from a disease that could have been prevented... Read more →

First Visit From the Tooth Fairy

This weekend brought an unexpected surprise: the Kiddo lost his first baby tooth! He was sitting on the living room floor late Saturday morning when he used his tongue to wiggle and push something out of his mouth (I assumed that it may have been a bit of walnut stuck in his teeth from our Hawaiian pancakes earlier in the morning), but alas, it was the loss of his first baby tooth and a first visit from the Tooth Fairy. Truthfully, c2cDad and I didn't even know his tooth was loose. There was a bit of anxiety those first few... Read more →

Jeopardy's Man vs. Machine: The IBM Watson Challenge

I think this is so cool. To give you some background, the kiddo and I watch Jeopardy every weeknight we're home. Every. Night. It's really one of very few shows on at 7 p.m. that are kid friendly, unless we go to the kid channels. The Kiddo's such a smartie, that I don't know why I'm surprised anymore when he knows an answer on Jeopardy, and he usually knows at least one every episode. (Yeah. At five. I know. ) The last episode he knew that Mary Poppins was the correct answer on a Broadway category. He usually gets something... Read more →

ER visit while traveling with your kid? Been there. Done that.

With only one child so far, there's a wealth of situations that I know c2cDad and I won't ever encounter. Like Bill Cosby mentions in one of his comedy specials from the '80s, with one kid, you don't have to go through the rigmarole of discerning who it was that broke something. With one kid, you know who did it. I was hoping we'd also avoid many of the middle of the night scares and ER trips with just one, but this holiday season proved me wrong. A trip to the ER while traveling? Check. While visiting with my in-laws... Read more →

NYC Marathon Goes Green with the LEAF

Tomorrow is the 41st running of the New York City Marathon, and continuing the theme of a healthy and green lifestyle is a not-so-surprising sponsor of this year's event: the Nissan LEAF. The LEAF is the official pace car of the 2010 ING New York City Marathon, and for the first time, the front runners won't be breathing in a trail of car exhaust. . . because this year's car is 100% electric. I unfortunately was unable to make my appointment today to get a personal overview of the Nissan LEAF at the pre-marathon health and fitness expo; however, I've... Read more →

Spectacular Macy's July 4th Aboard the Norwegian Epic Cruise Ship

WOW. It's July 6th and we're still coming down from the high of our super swanky Fourth of July night. We were so excited about the event that we cut short our vacation in Michigan to awake at 3:30 a.m. on July 4th and drive back to NYC to make the party. Oh, and we splurged on a new DSLR camera so we could take better photos of the fireworks (so excuse the abundance of photos here, we had to practice!). You see, Macy's, Inc. invited us to celebrate the Fourth of July right on the Hudson River aboard the... Read more →

Waking up in Cleveland

The snow and wintry weather made our drive back to New Jersey difficult, so we stopped in Cleveland to stay for the night. Thank goodness for my Hyatt Gold Passport points so we had a free stay. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Cleveland at The Arcade right smack downtown, and had a very nice stay. It was snowing on our drive in past Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena, though the holiday lights in Cleveland's Public Square was still cool to see (we'd never seen that many red or blue lights at once before!). It was our first time... Read more →

No Idle Hands, a Chris Pine Movie Marathon and What We Did For Thanksgiving . . .

I've been lax on blogging and Twitter over the Thanksgiving holiday, but our family needed the time together. One of the negatives to being busy and having cool opportunities and experiences is that it comes with a price. We knew before moving to the NYC area that we would not likely see my husband during the week and that he'd become a weekend dad by nature of his job, the industry and the commute to/from NYC itself. (It takes 30-60 minutes for him to get to/from work each day, depending on traffic, bus and train schedules - typical for suburban... Read more →

Radio City Christmas Spectacular Through the Eyes of A Four-Year-Old Boy

Last night I took Li'l Boo to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes for the first time and it was just as magical and exciting as I expected it to be. From the second we saw the white pre-show lights in the sky along 6th Ave beckoning us to Radio City Music Hall, Li'l Boo practically ran to the will-call line to get our tickets. The Christmas decorations and lights outside the hall are so festive and add to the excited energy of the crowd before you even enter the doors. People in the crowd were dressed... Read more →

Big Apple Circus Is An "Annual Must-Do" for Family Fun in NYC

Li'l Boo had the opportunity to experience his first circus at none other than the Big Apple Circus last weekend! He was so excited that we had to sing the song from the Big Apple Circus commercial over and over on the ride into the city. "Seats are never more than 50 feet from the ring, So even if you're really small you won't miss a thing . . . Big Apple Circus is YOUR circus, Big Apple is back in town!" (Then Li'l Boo would shout "Again!") Once we arrived, it was hard to miss the huge yellow tent... Read more →