Cool Books for Toddlers

My three and a half year old is beginning to read. Like sounding out words, recognizing letters, colors and so it begins. I was an avid reader growing up *maybe it's a common trait among only children* so I fondly remember begging my Mom to take me to the book store, or ordering books through Scholastic. I went through about eighty of the Babysitters Club book series during the summer. Then I graduated to the Sweet Valley Twins/High series. How I survived in a pre-Amazon society, I'll never know.

I am now looking for toddler-friendly awesome books for Liv to read unassisted *she is going through an "I can do it by my own!" phase* We love Taro Gomi books and the Leslie Patricelli books, also very excellent for toddlers to read on their own.

Here's our current favorite bookie wookies.

Baby Lit series

I think I mentioned these before but they are pretty great. I got a stellar deal for this entire set *we already owned Alice in Wonderland & Dracula* from Groupon for half off.

Of course Dracula is her favorite. Each book has a different interaction, like counting, or colors, sounds, etc. Do you lovelies have any awesome book suggestions? She has almost every single Little Golden book Disney makes.

Liv has been very inquisitive lately, she always asks where we are going? Where are we driving to? She also wants to know if women we encounter are Moms or she asks, "what's her name?" It's cute, I love seeing this kid grow up into an awesome little person.

Downtown LA in the Arts District

Valentine's Day gift ideas that don't suck!

Forget chocolates, don't even think about a cheesy stuffed animal and roses are so cliché! If you are looking for awesome Love day ideas, I'm here for you!

Image from Pinterest

I'm no chocolate hater, something sweet is always a good idea. Yet, I've had sixteen years of Valentines day with my husband, he knows better than to walk in the door with a heart shaped box from CVS.



I would be extremely stoked if he was thoughtful enough to buy me candy from my favorite company, P.O.P. Candy!

They come in a variety of incredible flavors, my fave, rosemary, pecan, almond, cherry, cinnamon, fire pistachio, they are all really yummy.

You can never go wrong with cute, girlie things from Ban.do! I am amassing quite the collection of lovely sequin hearts but I could always use one more!

Mini sequin heart in Black

Flurry Pouf in hot pink

Kiss Me headband

I'm still a sucker for pretty flowers. In my early twenties *which tragically took place during the nineties* I was a huge fan of red roses and daisies. Oh my but my taste in flowers has changed in my thirties. I can say peonies, ranunculus, poppies and succulents make me swoon. The fragrance, the bright, happy colors, they are perfection. It's still early for peony season so I would be majorly happy to receive any of these gorgeous weeds.

Honestly though, flowers only last for a few days, I think it would be a lovely experience to take a floral class. I am all thumbs when it comes to arranging flowers and I have no idea how to make my flowers live longer than a week. I would love to take a class at Floral LA or Moon Canyon floral workshop. I think it's worth it for the price of a bouquet.

I would absolutely die if cupid left these on my doorstep! Seriously, I have been wanting this lovely couple forever. They are so rad I can't stand it.

Abigails Head Vase

What's more romantic than a picnic in the park? I adore this basket set from Anthropologie. All we would need is a cute blanket, some bread, a bottle of wine and my favorite Trader Joe's chocolate cheese.

What do you think? Are you looking forward to something special from your sweetheart? I will be pleased as punch even if I get a homemade card from the Mister and the kid, every day I spend with them is my gift.

Do you love her Hello Kitty purse?

Welcome to the world bebe Veda!

It is the year of the horse, yee-hah! I met my first horse last Wednesday, my friends Story & Chris had their baby! I'm super stoked about their rad baby girl. She is beautiful. Welcome to the world Veda Fae!

Story was a champ during labor

7 lbs 13 oz 21 inches long

Look at all that hair! Beautiful blue eyes.

Yeah, we're homies for life!

I lose it when I see a Father holding their daughter!

She is extremely adorable!

I'm thrilled for these guys. Congratulations on making a human with your genitals. Love you!!

Philip Seymour Hoffman

I was first introduced to this man's genius performance as Scotty, an insecure gay guy with the BEST fashion sense who had a frustrated deep infatiuation with Mark Walberg's character Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights.

Aimee and I are both obsessed with Philip's awesome rant.

Scene from Punch-Drunk Love


Scene from The Master

He was also brilliant in The Big Lebowski, Magnolia, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Doubt, Capote, 25th Hour and The Master. If you haven't seen these films, I highly recommend you do, Philip can go from weak to strong to vulnerable without effort, he was a great actor.

So my question is, why do the most talented people seem to be the most tormented ones? John Belushi, Chris Farley, and River Phoenix all died much too young from a heroin overdose. I hear politicians debating over marijuana usage but no one is talking about serious deadly drugs that destroy people daily. It makes me sad that someone is feeling so rotten inside they would risk death and choose to numb themselves with poison. I'm not even going to pretend I know anything about drugs, I've never done them and I don't know anything about them. I guess sad isn't the word, it feels tragic to me.

Rest in peace Philip.

Confetti Party

Liv and I had a mini photo shoot this morning. She calls confetti pixie dust and we had a blast throwing it around. It was hard to keep the camera straight, I was laughing as hard as she was!

This kid is so much fun!

Now we have to sweep up all the millions of pieces of Pixie dust.