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A copy of New York Magazine was lying in the lobby of my building. The cover displayed a provocative title: "Why Parents Hate Parenting." I thought to myself: what a terribly negative article. I want nothing to do with it. But then I saw the magazine again in a waiting room, and my curiosity got the best of me. I read it, and I stand by my initial opinion. It is a negatively charged article riddled with studies that conclude that being a parent does not increase your level of life happiness, but rather has the potential to make you more unhappy. Like I needed to read that!One of the most uplifting quotes (can you feel my sarcasm) is this one: "Mothers are less happy than fathers, single parents are less happy still."The article told me things I already know like: " Today’s married mothers also have less leisure time (5.4 fewer hours per week); 71 percent say they crave more time for themselves..."I don't need New York Magazine to tell me that I never get a break, my job as mother is 24 hours a day, seven days a week.And you know what, New York Magazine? If you care [...]

There I was waiting for the elevator to the subway with my stroller. Unfortunately, three yuppies (also with strollers) were ahead of me in line. There were two women and a man all with fancy Maclarens and well-dressed toddlers all waiting to head underground. Meanwhile, I was lurking in the background with my semi-broken stroller and cranky hot toddler.The elevator arrived and the yuppies piled in. I quickly assessed the spacial capacity of the elevator and determined that I would have to wait for the next ride. I guess the male yuppie thought I was considering crashing their Maclaren elevator party because he eyed me and said:"Looks like we're all full." And the door closed passive-aggressively in my face. I was left with a feeling of undirected rage. How dare he tell assume that I wanted to squish myself in with him and his pals. I turned to two young mothers with babies standing who had just arrived to wait for the next elevator."What an ass!" I complained to them, "I knew there wasn't any room in there!" One mother smiled at me, turned to her friend and started speaking very quickly in another language. So much for my impromptu [...]

I'm proud to announce that Ari is featured in Parenting Magazine for repeating himself.Check it out here.

A terrible thing just happened. Wil, Ari and I were sitting outside in the Fader garden. I was reciting the letters of the alphabet and having Ari repeat them. Here's what happened next:ME: AARI: AME: BARI:BME:CARI: CME: DARI: DME: EARI:EME: FARI:Fuck!My jaw dropped open."Fuck!" He repeated."Did you hear that?" I asked Wil incredulously."That's not what he said." Wil replied"It was so clear!" I snapped back.And then something even worse occurred. I could not stop laughing."Stop laughing!" Wil demanded."I can't!" I said still unable to control myself.We've spent the last half hour trying to get Ari to say the G rated alphabet with no sucess.

Old School/New School Mom presents the first in series of arbitrations. Without further ado, I give you: "Who is Right?"The Situation:This morning at 5:30am Ari was whining a little bit because it was too bright in his room. As I was sleeping right beside him, I managed to calm him down enough to go back to sleep. Or so I thought. Right at that very moment, Wil opened the door. He had just arrived home from the overnight shift. He said he wanted to check on us.As soon as the door opened Ari screamed "Daddy!" So Wil picked him up."You woke him up." I grumbled."No I didn't, he was already awake.""No, he woke up when you opened the door." I insisted."Whatever." He replied and with that he took Ari into the living room and let him watch Tv until 6:30am. During this time I managed to fall back asleep. Until I heard a banging on the door. It was Ari. The banging was followed by "Mommy!"Wil opened the door and said "He wants you."So I came out and started to get ready for work since I was up anyway.All of a sudden Wil announces:"Okay. I'm going to sleep now.""What?" I [...]

When I was a child there were many toys that could have been considered a "craze." One of my favorites were slap bracelets.These were bracelets that you could literally slap onto your wrist. They were a lot of fun, until they were deemed dangerous (because apparently one could injure oneself in the slapping process) and banned from many schools.Today's toy craze are these:They are called Silly Bandz. I have seen epic fights emerge over these things. Kids love to trade them with one another and get really upset if they lose one that they particularly care for.Upon first inspection, they appear to be simple jelly bracelets, but when you take them off your wrist they become actual shapes like this:I'm sorry, but I still don't think they're that cool. They are not worth getting into screaming and crying fights over, which is what I see on the playground and in the classroom most every day. Furthermore, teachers can barely get their lessons out because they have to constantly stop kids from playing with the 100 silly bandz that are on the kids' wrists or hidden in their pockets.I, for one, cannot wait until the silly bandz craze goes away.

I've previously talked about my dislike for the baby boy wardrobe options in my post What Not to Wear Baby Boy. Essentially, baby and toddler boys have limited clothing choices, and they mostly consist of shirts and pants with fictitious sports teams on them. Toddlers are obviously not ready to play for the NBA, so these clothes are irritating and inappropriate.In What Not To Wear Baby Boy, I also mentioned my friend Josina, who has taken baby boy clothing matters into her own hands. She designed and sewed a pair of adorable overalls for her son (and Ari's great friend) Nelson. Without further ado, here is Nelson modeling his fabulous one of a kind mom-made overalls:Overalls are a great item of clothing. They can be worn by both girls and boys and can vary in design. Nelson here is modeling a cow print pattern, but your child may prefer trucks, monkeys or maybe stars or hearts.I might just bug Josina for her overall pattern so I can make Ari some!

My Pet Monster is a 1980's toy that looks like this:Ari's Uncle Mike passed down his own childhood My Pet Monster toy to Ari. There is a missing item in this picture, My Pet Monster's orange handcuffs. They will be accounted for shortly...I thought Ari would like My Pet Monster, but he was terrified of him.But then, he discovered an activity that he could do with My Pet Monster's orange handcuffs:

For the past two years, I've done most everything I do with Ari by my side. And if he wasn't next to me at a given moment, he demanded to be moved so that this situation could be corrected.Suddenly things have changed. When I'm in the room he wants "Daddy!" When I tell him to take a nap he wants to "Sleep with daddy!" Today after we painted pictures together, I went to check my email and he screamed "grandma!" He demanded to see his grandma until she came upstairs to play with him.He's asserting his independence from me big time, but I am not ready for this! I'm not sure if he's angry that I've been working a lot and therefore seeking revenge when I am actually here.It's not all bad. We still play together, but his demands for other people are growing rapidly. I'm not the center of his universe anymore and that makes me sad.Not only is he demanding other people, but he is on a sleep strike. He hasn't napped for three days in a row.Is this the "terrible 2's?"

My best friend Mint, an early childhood teacher, sent me a link to a great online toddler game. Naturally, I tested it out on Ari immediately. It was a hit!Moothergoose.com's At the Seashore Tap & Type game is similar to Kneebouncers in that the player (your toddler) can press any key and not harm your computer.In the tap and type game, whatever letter is pressed, a picture pops up with a word that starts with that particular letter. For example, if you press the letter "H" a helicopter appears:When you press the letter "V," a ship with "Vikings" comes up on the screen:And there are corresponding sounds associated with each image. It is quite clever.If you have a computer obsessed toddler, try out At the Seashore Tap & Type!

Today I had the opportunity to teach 3rd and 4th graders how to ride a bike. Some of them had never been on a bike before, some of them had tried to ride in the past, but had no success.An instructor from Bike New York came to The Brooklyn New School to teach the Learn to Ride program for kids.After a group of us teachers learned the Learn to Ride curriculum, I had a chance to try it out and it really does work.What you do is this:1. Remove the pedals from the child's bike2. Have the child walk the bike around without pedals - (I called the pedal-less bike the learning bike)3. Once the child is comfortable walking the bike around, tell them to gain some speed and walk the bike around quickly4. When they are going pretty fast tell them to lift their feet straight up in the air in front of them and glide forward on the bike. This teaches the child to balance on the bike. It also makes the kid feel awesome.5. When the child feels steady and can balance on the bike without pedals, it's time to re-attach the pedals.6. Now they are ready [...]

A scary thing happened to me yesterday. I attempted to put my jeans on, and stopped because they refused to move. They were halted by my stomach. Much like Staten Island to the rest of the five boroughs, my stomach has decided to branch off and form its own colony. It's big and proud, and it's not letting my pants on.I realized that one of the reasons that my stomach has expanded is that I hate letting food go to waste. Ari is a picky eater, if he refuses to eat something I make, I feel obligated to eat it rather than tossing it in the trash. Forget eating for two when you're pregnant, I'm eating for two now!My parents bought me a exercise ball for Mother's Day. Hopefully I can use this to convince my stomach from proceeding with it's outward expansion. That is, if Ari lets me use it...

Yesterday was my sister-in-law's baby shower. Wil and I took turns chasing Ari up and down a large set of stairs. I was running out of steam, fast. My mom and dad provided relief services as well, pushing Ari in the outdoor swing and making him laugh.While chasing my spark plug around, I met a woman at the shower named Julie. I let it slip that I was frustrated because I have a hard time getting Ari to stay away from dangerous activities. Whenever I take him away from a situation where he could injure himself, he screams.Julie has an 8 year old. She remembered the 2's vividly. She had this to say:"What you have to do, is make it fun. If you're insisting that he do what you want him to do, he's going to resist. Make it fun!"With this simple statement, I realized that I was approaching my child in a way that wasn't working. I was telling him: Do this! Because I said so. Instead of insisting, I could find ways to laugh at the situation, and make it fun.