If you’re into making your own baby food and things that totally rule you’ll love the Beaba baby food maker.When I had Fritz three years ago I was working and I suppose felt too busy to make him fresh baby food. Back then I would order cases of Earths Best, which was great at the time, not knocking it, but now I’ve decided to make Lola’s baby food fresh, like I make the rest of the families food. This little Beaba gadget steams and purees fruits and veggies in just about ten or fifteen minutes. It’s super easy to use and clean and it’s compact enough to stay on the counter top. I have to say I love, love, love our little Beaba machine. So far I’ve made Lola sweet potatoes and pears. She’s gobbling up the delicious purees and I feel great for giving her wholesome fresh food. I highly recommend that if you’r going the fresh baby food route that you invest in one of these bad boys. We give it eight strawberries and and a plum! Oh and for $150 bucks and the cost of fruits and veggies I’m sure we’ll be saving a bunch of bucks. Whoot!

Apologies for the hiatus but it’s almost impossible to get anything done these days. Fritz is on Summer vacation and it’s going to take a little getting used to. Everyday that we wake up and he doesn’t need to be shuttled off to school feels strangely like a weekend. Each day requires abundant activities, well timed naps and ample play time. So, besides trying keep Fritz busy and entertained, Lola is starting to move and crawl and eat food. I’m beginning to wish I could sprout a few more pairs of arms like an Indian Goddess. I really need to prioritize and structure my days if I want to be able to do everything I need to with the kids and the house and work on this blog among other projects I have my sights set on. Plain and simple, it’s getting really fucking hard. Here’s my question: How do you get motivated after the kids are in bed? That seems to be the only realistic time to get shit done, except by that time you’re usually ready to collapse on the couch, suck down a glass of wine and call it a night. Let’s discuss!

I love my backyard more than ever this summer. I’m getting obsessed with gardening, frequently pluck herbs I’m growing for cooking and love, love , love that my kids have an open, safe and green place to play. We may live in Queens but in our backyard we have a huge Willow tree, a gorgeous Maple and a towering Pine tree. A cardinal family lives in the Pine and eats from our bird feeder several times a day. There are butterflies and squirrels and occasionally a mangy stray cat. We have a porch off our kitchen, right above the garden, where we BBQ and eat dinner on hot summer nights. It’s become something of an oasis for us all. Right now I’m all about homemade Sangria, BBQ ribs, Croquet and the kiddie pool. Here’s to summer!

After three years of living here, this past March we decided to rip down a dilapitated shed (great for storage but pretty ugly) that looked like this:

We put up a new wooden fence and did a little landscaping. This is what our yard looked like in May:

And this is what it looks like now. Ta-da!:

Wait, what? Seriously? I can’t decide if I love or hate these Huggies Jeans diapers. On the one hand, their diapers! I’m actually fancying the non-advertising (i.e Dora, Sesame Street), chlorine-free Seventh Generation variety these days. But on the other hand, it couldn’t hurt to keep a pack of fashion forward diapers in the house…could it?

Fritz is still on a steady diet of Pink Panther and Scooby Doo. I thought it was time to add something new to the repertoire. As I was casually surfing the channel guide I came across a show on the Science Channel called Junkyard Wars. I’m pretty sure that this is syndicated show from the Y2K era, considering the hosts ultra cyber styling, but the concept is perfect for a curious three-year-old who loves building.

In Junkyard Wars two competing teams, usually made up of super nerdy engineering geeks or salty mechanics, are given a challenge to build a moving vehicle out of junk. The show’s hosts make lot’s of really terrible cheesy jokes which, I’m sure make it all that much more appealing to a younger audience, but for what the show lacks in scripted writing it makes up for with awesome building action.

This show has inspired me to begin building more with Fritz. As a summer project I’m thinking of collecting some odds and ends from around the house, getting a few essentials from Home Depot and seeing what we come up with. Maybe a funky truck or a U.F.O. Who knows! I think another great resource for the little builders is Make: Zine. While the mag is not for kids, it could serve as some great inspiration. Bang on it!

Hey party people! In the NYC area and looking for something fun and active to do this father’s day? Look no further. Check out Rockstar Games Annual Skyscraper Cycling Classic. Fun for daddy and everyone! For more information go here. Let the good times roll!

Remember a while back there was a discussion about diaper bags and just using your purse and throwing a pouch of baby stuff in it? And then there was this post I did about making something from Baby Stuff. Well I put two and two together and viola!

These are beyond my wildest dreams. I always wanted the adult version and never copped them. Now I can start living vicariously through Lola…who knew it could happen so soon!?!

Via Hell Yeah Magazine

Update! Available here….for $100 (sad face). They’re cute, but $100 for a pair of children’s shoes is an outrage. Even I think so.

It’s been five months since having Lola and I am not at all happy with my weight/physique situation. To make matters worse (depending on how you look at it) I have a BD who hits the gym three to four times a week. He looks amazing. I look like jello. Drastic measures are being taken. I got a gym membership and I’ve begun spinning. Today was my second day and I feel fucking amazing. I’ll tell you what I like about spin, you just have to get you’re ass there and go, go, go. No thinking about a routine or being bored on a treadmill or elliptical machine. After forty-five minutes of spin I am crazy high on endorphins and feel incredible. It’s the only way. It’s what I did with Fritz and it’s what I have to do now to get my bod back.

There are a few other motivating factors here. One, my gym has babysitting. A gym with babysitting is a god send. The second is my mom (who also has some poundage to lose) and I are in competition. We set our first goal of each losing five pounds by July 1st. If one of us doesn’t meet the goal she has to pay the other $200. Talk about a motivator!!! If we both meet the goal no $$$ changes hands and it’s a win-win then we set the next goal. All of a sudden lunches of pasta and wine have turned into peckish salads and water and we’re both trying to one up each other in our workouts. And if that wasn’t enough I upped the ante when earlier today, still buzzing off spin class, I asked BD what he would ‘get me’ if by August I could rock a skin tight am appy dress. His reply ‘anything I want’. It is so fucking on.

I don’t get a chance to make the graffiti very often. As a matter of fact, I think the last time I did a piece was on out last trip to Germany. I’m not a Graffiti writer per se. I had a very short stint playing around with a tag, but I have to say, it’s quite fun, so whenever I get a chance to do something like this I love it. BD is the OG graffiti writer of the fam. Annnnyway, after two days of rain the sun came out so we packed up some paint and headed to a wall. Instead of doing what I usually write (VIXEN!) I wanted to do something for the kids. I thought I could blow up a photo of it for their room. It didn’t come out perfect but good enough. Long story short, we took our time making the pieces, drank beer, smoked cigs and had some fun. As soon as we had all finished we took some photos. For just a moment I had my back to everyone taking a pic with my phone and as soon as I turn back around there were four German Police officers there. Getting in trouble in another language is kinda scary…especially German. They took our passport and ID #’s, had some talk and in the end only confiscated the paint. Maybe we’ll get a ticket or court date in the mail (Sure I’d love a reason to go back!). From what I understand because we weren’t actually painting, no one was claiming the paint and we were in a totally abandoned area they didn’t feel like processing us…Fewwww. Secretly though, it was actually kinda exciting. hehhehe.

Here’s what daddy did…

Here’s what the homies did…