A Memory
When you are 16, you won't remember this, but your father will. He wanted a daughter. He wanted you. I fought with him for your name. He wanted to name you Starla. You are so loved, you and your tiny head, big cheeks, strong little legs, almost ready to walk. I love you Samara, and your daddy loves you just as much. This is a part of Memories Captured
The Muppets Are Back And They’ve Kidnapped Jack Black!
Yesterday, the kids, Aunt Mimi and I went to see The Muppets at the Lowes 84th Street theater in my old neighborhood, the upper west side of Manhattan. As a child of the 80's, I was raised on the Muppet Movies, from The Muppet Movie to The Muppets Take Manhattan, the muppets were a part of my life from the time I could talk, and possibly before that because I have an older brother. He's four years older, and my dad tells us he was afraid of Kermit the Frog, when Kermit did the news on Sesame Street. I was excited to see the movie, because Aunt Mimi had raved about it. She said it was one of the best movies she had ever seen.We arrived at the theater late, because we had to make a stop for gas, and Aunt Mimi and I were concerned that we might have missed the beginning of the movie. I was hoping we just skipped the previews. Thankfully, there was a Toy Story short before the movie began, so we didn't miss the opening number!The Muppets was a delight. Ari, saw his first movie, Up, when he was just over a year. He [...]
15 Becomes 32
Yesterday, Ari, Samara and I hung out with my friend Andrea. She was visiting from London, because we're grownups now and we can live in places like London. Andrea and I have been friends since we were 15 years old. We are now 32, and 31 years-old respectively. She actually just turned 31 on November 24th. It seems like only yesterday we were 15. We do not want to be in our thirties, but we are. I have vivid memories of Andrea and I dancing to Madonna's Immaculate Collection in my room. Here's my old room in case your interested. I drew/painted that mural myself. Andrea is now an Art Director, by the way. She's always been an amazingly talented artist. Here is some of her earlier work:All artwork © 1995 Andrea Acevedo. Stealing is bad for your soul. Andrea and I used to use bus passes to travel around the city.I remember her dad, Julio, teaching us how to drive on the cobblestone roads of Vermont when we were 14.It's crazy to me that I'm 32 years old. In my mind, some parts of me still feel 15, or 19, sometimes 25, but never 32. I feel like in [...]
The REAL Thanksgiving Story
It's Thanksgiving today, and when I think of Thanksgiving, I remember elementary school. I have vivid memories of coloring in Ms. Israeli's classroom. She was an art teacher, a stern portly woman with frizzy blond hair, who wore stretch pants every single day. In hindsight, she shouldn't have been teaching children, because she clearly disliked them. But there we were, little first graders, coloring pictures of pilgrims with giant hats, multi-colored indian corn, turkeys, cornbread, Native Americans, I believe boats were involved...maybe because the pilgrims came over on a boat. It was an idyllic depiction of the Thanksgiving feast. But's let get real. The pilgrims didn't come over to America, hang out with the Native Americans and eat turkey and cornbread. They came to the Native American's land, took over, gave them small pox, and forced themselves on the Native American women. That's not such an pretty picture. I suppose, if we extract the reality of Thanksgiving and treat it as a time to spend with our families, it can be a nice holiday. But the question is, what do we tell our kids about this holiday? As I got older and out of Ms. Israeli's art class, and learned [...]
Ficklets Giveaway! Make Your Kids’ Glasses Look Cool
I first "met" Ros Guererro, founder of Ficklets, on Twitter. I was intrigued by her Twitter handle: "Ficklets." It was such a whimsical word, I wanted to know what it meant. Then, I checked out her site, and loved the concept. Ficklets are little charms that your child can use to decorate their glasses! Here's an example: I was so excited about Ficklets, that I did an interview with Ros. You can see that here. Now I want to ask you something? Do your kids fight wearing their glasses? Perhaps they'd like to add a little decoration to their spectacles. Now's your chance to win some Ficklets! Here's what you win: Three FickletsExtra bandsLens cleanerHere's how to enter (each of these counts as an entry) : Follow Ficklets on TwitterFollow Ficklets on FacebookFollow OS/NS Mom on Google Friend ConnectFollow OS/Mom on FacebookThe winner of the Ficklets Giveaway will be selected randomly and announced here on Wednesday December 14th, 2011. Good luck spectacle wearers!
“Where Do You Go to School?” “I Don’t.”
The other day, I went to a birthday party of one of Ari's friends. At the party, I met a woman and her six-year-old son. The kid was really cute, and had a beautiful head full of curly hair. "Where do you go to school?" I asked him. There was a pregnant pause. "Go ahead, you can say." His mom said with a soft smile. "I don't go to school." "We're un-schoolers." His mom said. She meant that her son was being homeschooled. She went on to say that they learn whatever he happens to be into at the time. Her son is really into clay sculptures at the moment. They don't go by a particular curriculum, per say, but they follow his interests. They visit a lot of art galleries, museums, and basically "live life." It sounded utopian to me. I've always been fascinated with homeschooling. I'm not sure if I want to pursue it or not for my kids, but I like a lot of aspects of it on the surface. I like that you can design your own personalized curriculum for your kids, or you can follow a purchased curriculum from a particular education style, for example [...]
The Call For Jury Duty
I got a purple and white envelope with perforated edges in the mail on Saturday. Without even opening it, I knew exactly what it was. On the slight chance that I might be wrong about the contents of the envelope, I aggresively ripped the perforated edges, and out came the undeniable, a notice to appear for The Kings County Supreme Court on December 5th. My heart sank. I really did not want to sit around for days away from my kids waiting to see if I would be placed on a trial.but then, I posted my woes on Facebook, and a couple of people suggested that I would be excused because I am a caregiver. Upon further inspection of my purple and white foe, I saw that with the presentation of "my youngest child's birth certificate" I could postpone my fate. I wasted no time. On Monday morning the kids, both of their birth certificates (I wasn't taking any chances with the bureatic system) and I headed down to Adams Street.They were just as angry about the summons as I was.This is my game face.After we climbed many stairs, they made us go through a security checkpoint. As thr diaper [...]
I Feel Like I Just Had Her
It feels like I just gave birth to Samara, but in reality, it's been nearly 10 months! Samara will be one on January 22nd, 2012. Aunt Mimi just got a new cell phone, and so she purged all her old cell phone pictures into an online album on Google Plus, which she shared with me. I stole these gems from that album: Aunt Mimi, Samara, and I Samara at Birth: She Looks Like Ari! Olivia (my amazing friend and doula), and Samara Olivia Me Nursing Samara Aunt Mimi and Samara Aunt Mimi, thank you for purging your cell phone. Sorry I stole the pictures, but they were too awesome to pass up!
A TCM Perspective On a 3 Year-Old’s Anxiety
Yesterday, I took Ari to see my acupuncturist. I was at the acupuncture clinic the other day, and I saw a sign that said "Pediatric Shift, Thursdays." So I thought, what the hell? I made an appointment for him, thinking that acupuncture might help with his insomnia, which he still has, and with his level of anxiety, which seems to be high. I don't have any pictures of the session, because during the appointment I was much more concerned with keeping Ari calm than photographing him. When we got to the clinic, Ari was asleep. He had been to art class that morning, and he was worn out. Ironically, the reason we were going for acupuncture was for sleep issues, and here he was zonked out! I strolled him into the exam room, and Samara and I (the awake ones) met his practitioners, Heather and Rachel. Heather, Rachel and I discussed Ari's sleep issues, he's been crawling out of the crib since 18 months of age, he hates going to sleep at night, whether or not he naps during the day he still goes to sleep and 10pm. They were really nice, and to make Ari feel more comfortable, they [...]
I Did Something Awesome Today
Today, I had a play date with a friend of mine, Holly. She has two kids and, like me, no brain. I asked her a zillion questions about how she manages life with the two. One crucial one was: "When do you find the time to clean?" For those of you who know me, and/or love me, you understand that cleaning is not something that comes naturally to me. In fact, I am a terrible cleaner. Yes, I do the dishes, and occasionally sweep, but it is my amazing husband who is the cleaner of the family. Before we were married I used to call him my "house boyfriend," because he is so domestically inclined that way. You can see his handy work here, if you're interested. I, on the other hand, am not a cleaner. I would rather blog, read a book, walk in the park, take a shower, basically do anything so that I don't have to clean. Samara has the right idea: I was actually crying on the phone, the other day, to my friend Adriana about how overwhelmed my dirty house makes me. Holly's response to my "when you clean?" question was: "I don't. Well, honestly, [...]
Give Him a Job
Lately, Ari and I have been engaged in a full on power struggle. It's like he's 16 instead of three. If he doesn't get what he wants, he does one of the following things: Screams and/or writhes on the floor Runs into his room and slams the door.Repeats what he wants in various different ways, using a variety of sentence structures, sometimes even pantomiming what it is that he wants.We've been butting heads, and by the end of the day, we're both exhausted from arguing.I've been talking to anyone who will listen about his behavior (and mine for that matter) to get insight, and advice. And I've gotten some really good advice about it.One friend of mine, Danyel, said:"Telling him 'no' and 'don't do that' over and over again is going to make him want to do whatever he's doing more. Let him fall on his face, so to speak. He needs to learn through experience. I know, I grew up with four brothers."Let me be clear, she didn't mean "don't tell him 'no' at all." There are many circumstances in which children need to be told no, especially if they are doing something that is dangerous to themselves or [...]
Grandmas Day Out: Ari and Nelson Go to The Transit Museum
Until yesterday, Ari had never been to The NYC Transit Museum. This is curious, considering the fact that this kid is utterly obsessed with all vehicles, especially trains. On Thursday, my mom graciously offered to hang out with him, because I had a ton of transcription to do and a yucky cold on top of that. Things didn't exactly go as planned at first. The initial idea was to park the car near our place, and the kids and the Grandmas would take the subway to The Transit Museum. My mom picked up Nelson and his Grandma and came back to our place to park the car, but there was no parking to be found! So I dropped up Ari with my mom, and Samara and I ran out in our pajamas to find parking. Mom, if you're reading this, sorry if I was cranky yesterday, I was just really congested! But alas, there was no parking for us either, so we ended up going to Blue Sky for a shared muffin, in the interim, and then to Staples because I needed to scan something, buy a flash drive, and most importantly because I love office supplies. But this is [...]
The Winner of The Simple Wishes Pumping Bra is…
Congratulations Amanda! You won a Simple Wishes Pumping Bra, in the Pump it Up in Style Giveaway here on OS/NS Mom! Now you can be as cool as her: Thank you so much to Simple Wishes for allowing me to host this giveaway! Your pumping bra is awesome!
Happy Halloween Parte Dos- The Making of a Robot
Making a robot is hard work. You have to start some place. Sometimes, when making a robot, one gets carried away. And there is a point, in the artistic process, when you need an objective eye to see things clearly. In art, there isn't always a plan. But when inspiration strikes, it hits hard. During the creative process, don't be alarmed if your audience gets restless. In the end, your creative efforts will be rewarded... With candy!
Aunt Mimi’s & Uncle Mike’s Letter
Recently, Ari and I wrote a letter to his Aunt Mimi & Uncle Mike. Well, the NYC mail system finally came through, and we received a letter back. I say that because it literally took a week for our letter to get to Aunt Mimi & Uncle Mike, in Manhattan, and a week for their letter to get back to us in Brooklyn. Currently, we get our mail at 7pm, which couldn't be a more inconvenient time. If I get a check in the mail at 7pm, I can't deposit it that day! Our UPS man, Patrick, was telling us that the word on the street is that the USPS mail system may privatize. That means the mail system in New York will get even worse than it currently is. He's a UPS man, but he has USPS friends. I've never met our mail person, because I'm eating dinner, and putting Samara to bed when this person arrives. Anyhow, here is Aunt Mimi & Uncle Mike's fantastic letter, in a montage of pictures. Aunt Mimi drew two pictures as well and included them with the letter. One of them is a picture of our family, and the other is a [...]