Playtime! How I Went to the Theater While Ari Made Art With an Artist
Today, my mom and I went to the theater. We saw a black comedy called Assistance about trying to stay sane while working for a crazy abusive boss. While we went to see a show, Aunt Mimi and Uncle Mike watched Samara at their house. I'm told she had a great time playing with toys, eating a banana, and attempting to say the word "banana." Thanks guys!a I cannot remember the last time I've been to the theater, which is bizarre since I'm an actor myself and come from an extensive performing arts background. I was a theater major at LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts and went on to study theater at Ithaca College and New York University. This day would not have been possible if it hadn't been for an awesome organization called Playtime I found out about Playtime on Twitter. Once my nemesis, now Twitter and I are becoming friends. Leslie Marcus, Managing Director at Playwrights Horizons and mother of two, along with her co-workers, dreamt up Playtime. Playwrights Horizons noticed that there was a lapse in theater goers who were parents. The reason for this was that it was too expensive for [...]
Guest Post By Leah: The Medela Manual Breast Pump Kept Me Breastfeeding!
My amazing friend Leah recently gave birth to her daughter, Suri in January. I've known Leah since we were 18, we met at Ithaca College. I can't believe we've been friends for 13 years! She was intent on nursing, but ran into some trouble in the begininnng. Thankfully she happened upon a manual breast pump that actually ended up helping her nursing experience. She talks about her experience with The Medela Manual Breat Pump here. When I gave birth to my daughter, one of the first things the nurse said to me was "your baby is tongue-tied." Having no idea what this meant, I looked at my doula, Gail. She told me that my baby's frenulum (the one under the tongue) was too short and it might make breastfeeding difficult since her tongue can't extend far enough. The first couple of nights home from the hospital were tough, whether it was related tothe short frenulum or just getting the hang of things, I can't be sure. I think she was having a hard time getting the colostrum. After being home for two days, she latched incorrectly on one breast; it was incredibly painful and impossible to nurse! Looking closely, I [...]
Video Games are Better Than TV For Your Child
What I am about to write is based on some scientific research, but I am way too overwhelmed and lazy to come up with reliable statistics and research for you look at. If you're so inclined, please do the research yourself. I have in my house a giant television. In addition to a giant overwhelming looking thing known as a television, I also have a tiny human who is addicted to watching this structure. His name is Ari and he's 3 and 3/4 years old. To my dismay, Ari's favorite sentence to utter is "I wanna watch something!" I've tried various things to combat his television addiction. The other day I was talking to my best friend and early childhood teacher, Mint. She suggested that instead of watching television, as an electronically based alternative, Ari might play video games. Now, before you start judging this statement, hear me out. As it turns out, when a human being, adult or child, sits and watches television, their brain goes into a trance like state. Television has an effect on a person's alpha brain waves where they simply zone out. Video games, on the other hand, are not entirely passive. If you, or [...]
I Have Ideas And I Need Somewhere to Put Them
I have a lot of ideas! Creative concepts run through my head throughout the day constantly. But I have nowhere to put them. I think I need to start walking around with a notebook. That way if I'm walking down the street and come up with something I think is neat, I can stop and write it in down in my notebook. However, a notebook might not work. I have a hard time organizing my ideas. If I had a notebook, it would be scattered with so many different concepts and no familiar thread. I would need something like a binder. A binder would be great because I could organize my ideas by sections and categories. The only trouble with a binder is that it would be heavy and bulky to carry around. I need some place to put my ideas other than letting them sit in my brain. Any suggestions?
Warning Pre-K Approaching
I can't believe it, but it's nearly been four years. On May 6th 2008, after three days of labor, I gave birth to a 6 lb 80z baby boy, who Wil and I named him Ari Wilhelm Fader-Van Luyn. In four months, he will be four years old. Next year he will be starting Pre-K at an undetermined universal Pre-K location here in Brooklyn, or possibly Manhattan, because the spots are so few and far between. I'm going to have a Pre-K kid. I've started to explain to Ari that I won't be with him during the day at school, but that I'll see him at the end of the day, and he can tell me all about it. He doesn't quite seem to grasp the concept, or doesn't want to believe it. "But, you're going to be there, right?" He says eyebrows raised. "You'll be with me at school?" He asks with wide eyes. "No, baby. But I'll come pick you up at the end of the day. And you'l be with a teacher, who's an adult, like mommy, and there will be lots of kids there just like you to play with." "Oh okay." I think he gets [...]
Words That I Love Y Palabras Que Escribe Mal
I love words. I love them so much that sometimes they get stuck in my head. I want to share with you some of the words that I love the most. Some of them are big fancy words, and some of them are just words I like to use and expressions I enjoy saying. Without further ado, here they are:VehementlyFaucetExplicitPejorativeTenaciousCrazyRidiculousSparseImminent Malicious TentativePretensiousUnanimouslyEphemeralIntuitiveIllicitSordidDeleterious PurposelyExistentialTerseEffusiveEmpathetic PensiveVirileI could go on and on. Now, here are some words that I cannot spell without a spell check involved:NecessaryCalendar SuccessfulExercise There are many more words that I can't spell, but I have to give it some thought to come up with them. What are some of your favorite words?
“Show Me That Smile Again, Oh Show Me That Smile!”
In 1985, an American television sitcom made it's debut on ABC. It was about a family living in Huntington, NY (Long Island for those of you that don't know). The father was a psychiatrist, who worked from home, the mother was a journalist, and they had three kids, two boys and a girl, two teenagers and a little boy who was of undefined elementary school age. The oldest boy was a perpetual trouble maker, and the teenage girl was a goody-goody type. If you grew up in the 80s chances are you can guess the name of this show. That's right, it was called "Growing Pains" and it starred Alan Thicke, Joanna Kearns, Tracey Gold and the the infamous Kirk Cameron, who (by the way) is now super Christian and married to his girlfriend from the show, Chelsea Noble. It sounds like such a sweet name, right? Growing Pains, oh how cute! As the kids grow up they experience mild emotional and physical pains that concurrently happen with growing up. Well, folks, the reality of the situation is that Growing Pains are not mild or cute in any way, in fact they are painful, severe and shocking. Last night Ari [...]
Introducing Ari to The Classics Like Super Mario Brothers
My old friend Evan posted a link on Facebook the other day that made me smile. It was to a site called Exploding Rabbit, which recreated the old classic eight bit Nintendo game Super Mario Brothers. You can play the game using the 'Z" key to jump, the "X" key to shoot fireballs, and the arrows to move Mario. Here's the other awesome thing about this game, you can choose characters to be other than Mario and Luigi! You can be characters from other old school Nintendo games, like Link from Zelda or Mega Man! How cool is that? Ari was intrigued by the music, and he wanted to play immediately. But when the mushroom killed Mario within 30 seconds of playing the game, he announced"I don't want to play this anymore," and sighed deeply. Upon seeing this interaction Wil said: "What does he need with Nintendo? He's got XBox and Playstaion 3!" "Babe, " I said sternly "He needs to start with the classics!" I feel it's important for Ari to have a solid video game foundation. I'm all about hooking up our old school Nintendo to the TV and showing him games like Super Mario Brothers, Arkanoid, Mega [...]
Feeding Therapy is Fun!
I've heard the expression many times before "everything happens for a reason." Here's a sequence of events that led me to meet Adam Kolesar, my son Ari's food therapist. I met a woman named Emily. Emily told me about this great art studio called Barking Cat that had children's art classes. I signed Ari up for classes there, and he loved it! I met a woman at there, also named Sarah, whose daughter went to classes at Barking Cat. We got to talking, and I was complaining about the fact that Ari was a notoriously picky eater. Sarah commiserated with me."My daughter was the same. She's two now, and she just started eating. She was refusing food for the longest time. But you know what finally worked?""What?" I asked her."Feeding Therapy." Sarah went on to tell me about Adam Kolesar, a food therapist. Adam runs Brooklyn Feeding Academy, a private practice where he helps problem eaters get back on track. The more I talked to Sarah, the more I realized that Ari was not just a picky eater; he was considered what is called a "problem eater." That is to say he eats ten foods or less and engages in [...]
Forget Walking, I Want to Dance!
Samara started walking at 11 months. We were visiting Wil's family in Texas and bam! She walked. Now that she's mastered walking, she decided that she needs to master the art of dance. Check out her moves to Hot Chelle Rae's "Tonight."
Happy Birthday Samara
I can't believe it's been a year. Samara, you are a miracle. I am so happy you're daddy and I created you. I like to tell people that you delivered yourself. I thought I was in labor so many times, falsely. But when you were ready to come into this world, you shot right out. So much has happened in your first year of life. We became a family of four, each of us was changed by your entrance into the world. I was afraid when you came out that I wouldn't be able to love you as much as Ari, but I was wrong. You amaze me every day with your bright eyes, your inquisitive nature. I wonder what you'll be like in three years, when you're as big as your brother is right now. I love you Samara! Happy first birthday! Love,Your Mommy
The TSA Gives Samara and I a Present
Today at 4am, Samara got a 1st birthday present from the TSA. We were at the Fort Lauderdale airport and I was carrying Samara in the Ergo on my back. Apparently, the TSA thought I looked suspicious and when we entered the security checkpoint, they asked me to step aside with the baby in the "backpack," which I guess they'd never seen before. "You can leave the baby in there," they said falsely reassuring me. I went through the metal detector, and thought that I "passed," but instead I was told to move to the right of the machine for further inspection. Once they had sufficiently cornered me, they told me they needed to "test my hands." The TSA agent whipped out a white cloth. "What's on that?" I wanted to know. I didn't want them to put extraneous unknown substances on my hands since I am handling my own children. "Nothing." The agent replied mysteriously. The TSA agent placed the white cloth into a machine and it beeped. He then called over another agent, who turned to me with an overly serious expression and said: "Ma'am, I'm really sorry about this, but your hands are setting the machine off. [...]
I Have a Confession To Make
I have a confession to make. I'm addicted to my IPhone.I have a mixed relationship with technology. I love the convenience of certain aspects of it; for example being able to order items online like diapers, movies, food, furniture, clothes, pet supplies and collectibles. I can do this all on my phone! There's even an amazon app for Iphone's sake! One can pretty much do anything on the Iphone. I use the Iphone the most for communication:Email:Facebook:And, of course texting.Like I said, I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I've previously written about how my old cell phone made me lazy. But this...THIS...is out of control. I have to get a handle on myself.I was at dinner last night, in beautiful Fort Lauderdale with my dad. We were eating Vietnamese food. I put my phone down on the table like this:*Note, there were no Cherrios at the Vietnamese Restaurant. The phone was facedown. The whole time my dad and I were talking, and he is a fun interesting fellow, I was itching to pick up my phone. What if I got a Facebook notification? What if there was a text message waiting for me? What if someone was trying to [...]
My Babies are Different
Babies are different, we know this to be true. I've found that my children differed as infants. I wanted to note the differences for myself so that I will remember them when they're older, and they have their own kids. Maybe one day, Ari will ask me "what was my first word?" Perhaps Samara will want to know, "how old was I went I walked?" Without further ado, Here's what Ari did as a baby: Sat Up: 7 months Started Solids: Baby food at six months, "real" food at 14 monthsCrawled: 8 monthsTalked: 18 months "What's that?"Walked: 14 monthsHere's what Samara did as a baby: Sat Up: 6 months Crawled: 6 months Started Solids: Baby food at five months, real food at around seven months. Talked: 11 months "Hi!" "Ari!" Walked: 11 months I can't believe that Samara is almost one, and Ari is almost four! What were the differences between your kids?
Almost One in Texas
On Saturday night, January 14, 2012, Wil, the kids, and I boarded a plane from JFK and flew to Austin. In Austin, we were picked up by his parents, and drove an hour to San Antonio. Texas was the first stop on our itinerary, we will be traveling to Florida next. We came to San Antonio to celebrate a year, a year in the life of our amazing daughter, Samara Olivia Fader-Van Luyn. We came to celebrate this year with her Lola Anna: Lolo Jon:Her Tita Marygold: Her pinsan: Her other pinsan Daryl: And of course, her parents and brother: Happy early birthday, Samara! More to come on January 22nd.