Blog

It's Halloween today, and Ari wants to be a robot. We have several Fresh Direct boxes that will be painted, cut and turned into a robot. I asked him if Samara could be a baby robot and he said "Yeah!" So the word on the street is that there will be robots among us soon. In the mean time, we made a robot pumpkin. Want to see it? Here's how it all went down? Here's the part in the story where Wil did the carving and I had to stop Ari from grabbing the knife and therefore couldn't take pictures. Oh! We saved the pumpkin seeds, because I plan on roasting them. Here's our robot pumpkin! Wil did all the work, I'm just in the picture. Samara was a great audience! Happy Halloween! What are you all going to be for Halloween?

When I got married, Wil and I changed our names from Fader to Fader-Van Luyn. This meant that we had to get new government IDs, which included social security cards and driver's licenses. Filling out the forms to get the IDs wasn't too bad, thanks to to an awesome site that my friend Leah recommended, MissNowMrs.com. We were both able to use this site to get our new IDs! Wil, the kids, and I spent four hours at the DMV one day waiting to get our new licenses. The day is a kind of blur now, but I distinctly remember tilting my head to the side, when the angry DMV lady took my picture, so she could get my good angle. Unfortunately, when my ID came in the mail, my picture looked like this: If you've ever seen the movie Spaceballs, I resembled the character Pizza The Hut. I decided that when my face healed from the MRSA infection, I would head on back to the DMV to ask for a new license picture. And that's just what I did, with Samara in tow. She really enjoyed the DMV, I think she was the only one there who was having [...]

Cell phones have taken over the 21st century. There's not much the average Smartphone they can't do, which is why (I've determined) that my Samsung Gravity Smart is making me lazy. All I have to do it push a button or two and I get instant gratification. No, this is not an ad for my cell phone. I've only had this phone for a month and a half, and I'm actually very angry with T-Mobile right now; look what happened to my screen when I dropped my phone on the sidewalk once: Regardless of the cracked screen, this phone is making me one of the laziest humans alive. Here's why. 10. Checking the time- I'm embarrassed to admit, that I don't own a watch. Whenever I need to check the time, I click the side button on my phone and there it is in glowing white numbers: It makes me a little more depressed each time I do it. I think back to all the watches I used to have throughout the years. This one was one of my favorites: The problem with relying exclusively on my cell phone for time checks it that when it "dies" and I'm out [...]

On January 22, 2011, I gave birth to my second baby, Samara. There was no question in my mind that I was going to breast feed. I nursed my son, Ari, now 3 1/2 years old, for 13 months, and I planned on doing the same for Samara. With both babies, I wanted the freedom to leave them with Wil or my parents, so I knew that owning a breast pump was essential. For those of you who have pumped breast milk with an an electric pump, you know how tricky it can be. I remember pumping for Ari and I was totally uncoordinated. I would hold the pumps in place, my hands would get tired, it was really aggravating. That's why, when Danielle @ Momotics announced that she was giving away a Simple Wishes Pumping Bra on her Virtual Baby Shower, I was (pun intended) pumped! Sorry guys, I had to! I entered Danielle's giveaway for the pumping bra. I didn't think I'd win. So I was completely shocked when I got an email from her telling me that I won the bra! Hooray! Here's what The Simple Wishes Pumping Bra looks like: This picture is from The Simple [...]

When we first meet, I wasn't sure what to think. You were strange from the outside. I couldn't figure you out. Thankfully, Erik suggested that I try to get to know you. I resisted, but only for a moment. Then, a curiosity arose within me, and before I knew it, you were on my plate. Oh glorious carrot blueberry cream cheese Thou art mighty in fruit and buttermilk. Thou art sweetest when upside down. Hear my plea, as I drink my decaf iced coffee! Show thyself (in all your sweet glory) at Blue Sky Bakery tomorrow.And do not crumble by mine hands.

One of Ari's favorite books is "Frog and Toad Are Friends."Please excuse the orange stain on the cover, it's probably melted cheddar cheese, this book is loved. If you click on this link above and buy the book, Amazon gives me approximately three cents. Awesome! I really don't care that much about the three cents, I just love this series. His favorite story in the book is "The Letter."The story goes that Toad is very sad because he never gets any mail.He waits by the mailbox each day, but alas, he doesn't receive anything, not even a Verizon bill.One day, Frog decides to send Toad a letter!After reading this story countless times, it occurred to me that Ari has never written a letter before. I wanted to show him what it's like to write a letter. I asked him if he'd like to write a letter to Aunt Mimi (Mint) and Uncle Mike. He said "Yeah!" So we began the process.Thankfully, I had just purchased 120 crayons from Staples, so that helped things along.Writing this letter with Ari brought back memories from my childhood. My mom and I started a pen pal club when I was a kid called "Friends [...]

On September 14, 2011, my amazing niece, Francesca, turned 10. Yes, that's right, double digits people. This was truly a momentous occasion, so I decided to take her out to celebrate the decent into the big 1-0 by taking her to one of my favorite dessert establishments here in Brooklyn, The Chocolate Room. I was very fortunate that my fantastic friend Adriana offered to watch my kids so I could take Francesca out. Adriana, you rock! I'm with my kids 99 % of the time, so it was great to have an opportunity to take Francesca out just the two of us.When we walked through the doors of The Chocolate Room, naturally, we gravitated toward the giant cases of individual chocolates. However, we were very surprised to find this:We did not eat the Francesca chocolates, but rather, after inspecting the overwhelming menus, we decided upon two brownie sundaes.That's a decaf coffee pictured above. I'm trying to lay low on the caffeine. Anyway, the waiter even gave Francesca a candle in celebration of her first decade on earth.After we ate the giant brownie sundaes, we were thoroughly hyped up on sugar and I could not stop laughing. I kept saying "Wait! [...]

Wil found my old pregnancy journal, circa 2008,in the closet today. I was flipping through it and I was amused by this page. Since it's unlikely that you'll be able to decipher my handwriting, I'll decode it for you: "Everyone keeps obsessing over the caffeine thing. It's really annoying. I barely drink coffee, and now if I'm seen eating a chocolate chip cookie, they want to alert the media! Quantity-wise, there is significantly less caffeine in chocolate than coffee! What else? Oh, I keep hearing "take it easy!" What does that even mean?" What do people think, I'm going to take it hard? Start mountain climbing or hunting?" I crack myself up. But this does bring to light something that I want to discuss. When I was pregnant, and after I had Ari, I received some of the most nonsensical "advice" from co-workers and (for the most part) strangers. When Ari was three months old, I was nursing him and enjoying a cup of coffee with my cheesecake at Junior's (the best cheesecake in Brooklyn I might add) and this lady, who was a complete stranger, walked by and shouted "Don't drink any brown beverages! They will upset the baby!" [...]

Meet Dayne: It all started this morning when Ari began carrying this orange thing (pictured above, but without the hat on at the time) around and saying: "This is my baby. Nobody can take him away from me. I love you baby!" Then he began nurturing the orange thing like it was a real baby. He was holding it, putting it to sleep and took it in the living room because his baby was "hot." "My baby is hot, mommy. He wants to sit neat the air conditioner." After his baby cooled down, he decided to give him a ride in the stroller, but not before accessorizing him appropriately, which is what you see above. In addition to a hat Ari's baby also had on...well let me just show you: I asked Ari what his baby's name was. He's taken to naming everything after a grasshopper on Max & Ruby whose name is "Hoppy." So of course he said "Hoppy!" "Why don't you pick another name for him besides Hoppy?" I asked him. There was a palpable silence. "What's his name?" I asked, anxiously awaiting the answer. Ari is not extensively familiar with nomenclature, but I figured he would come [...]

Yesterday was Sunday, so all I wanted to do was lay on the couch, but I knew that if I did that, at the end of the day I would feel like a total sloth. Instead of being lazy, I packed up the kinder in the Fadermobile, and told them that we were headed to see the dinosaurs at The American Museum of Natural History. By the time we got out of the house, it was around 1:30pm. We drove my dad into the city, because he just got a part in a play, so he had to sign a contract on 42nd Street. After that, the kids took a nap in the car, and by the time we got to the Upper West Side, they were awake and starving. So we went to Ceasar's Pizza, on 84th and Amsterdam Avenue, to eat. Ari had pizza and ice cream, and Samara and I shared rice & beans and meat balls! We had a late lunch, and by the time we finished eating it was 5:00pm. The museum closes daily at 5:45pm. I told Ari we had to rush, otherwise we would miss the dinosaurs! He immediately jumped up from his [...]

When I was packing the diaper bag to leave today, I realized that I had no Ziploc bags to store Cherrios in. But then, I remembered I had breast milk storage bags! So I did this:Talk about thinking outside the box...or the bag! Am I awesome or what?

Samara loves yogurt. She doesn't care what kind it is, she eats them all indiscriminately.The other day, she was eating Stonyfield Farm Plain yogurt, and I had an idea. She's never tried strawberries before. What if I threw some strawberries and the yogurt in the blender? So I did it!Needless to say, the strawberry yogurt was a big hit. I was so pleased, that the next day, I thought: if she likes strawberry yogurt, perhaps I could combine something more obscure with yogurt. Something that kids don't typically like. Something green.Yes, that's right...broccoli! I decided to combine yogurt and broccoli. I threw one strawberry in there for good measure.And here's what the final product looked like:It was well received! I liked it too!Maybe I should try spinach yogurt next time?What steps have you taken to get your kids to eat healthy? Any recipes to share?