Our weekend via Instagram ♥ v.2

This weekend was wonderful! We hung out with lots of friends and did lots of fun things. Saturdays weather was gorgeous and we took full advantage! Description of each photo below the big collage! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

xo Craig

1. Uncle Will and Sierra watching some Yo Gabba Gabba! on YouTube before heading out for the day. xo

2. Sierra checking herself out in the mirror at Forever 21 on Newbury St.

3. Liz, Andre and their adorable baby Eila (of Dear Husband, Dear Wife, Dear Baby Blog), Uncle Will, Aunty Jill and Jill's little brother Bruce along w/ myself, Lauren and Sierra enjoying our last meal at our beloved Otherside Cafe! They are closing in just under a week!! :-(

4. Sierra stealing a kiss form baby EIla!

5. Sierra needed a nap and passed out in the car so we parked along the Charles and enjoyed the beautiful weather, the breeze and some tunes on the radio.

6. When Sierra woke up we went to a graduation party for our pal Kate (of 4 if the Magic Number Blog)'s brothers' Grad party --- which had an open bar. Thanks for the whiskey Dan!

7. Kate's little boy Kieran (who you can see more of here) was trying to get a sip of cider but Mama says no way jose!

8. We ended our Saturday with a family stroll back to the Charles and watching the geese swim around.

9. On Sunday we celebrated Mamas b-day a little early w/ some cupcake making (and vegan batter eating of course!)

10. Sierra posing while listening to some of our Record Store Day scores.

11. Sierra taking the Rav for a test spin in the Whole Foods parking lot (we were parked I assure you all driving was imaginary… the beeping was real though).

12. Singing Happy Birthday and blowing out candles w/ Mama!

A thank you note to Mama.

It's 10:05 PM and I am currently nursing a sore face (with a beer) due to being kicked by my loving daughter. I wanted to write a quick thank you note to my loving and caring partner. She normally handles bedtime as Sierra is still nursing but she was feeling pretty under the weather today so she tagged me in to get Sierra down for the count tonight. After 7 stories, including three different OLIVIA books Sierra got up and ran out of her room to our room and jumped into bed with Lauren. Lauren was OK with it but eventually I got Sierra again and tried to lie down with her on the couch with all our pillows, blankets, loveys and even a foot tall stuffed owl. Well after a few moments she was on the search again for Lauren who even in her "I'm about to vomit" state took her and tried again. I decided to do some dishes when 10 minutes later I was greeted by a laughing, running and jumping toddler at 9:45 PM, which is an hour past the time she's normally sleeping. At this point I was beginning to lose my patience and scooped her up and brought her into her bed, layed down with her and said "It is bed time we are going to sleep!" to which she began screaming MAMA!! MAMA!! and began kicking. Enter Super Mama who in 5 minutes flat got Sierra happy AND sleeping. I think I'm a pretty good Dad but there's a thing or two (or fifty) I could learn from Sierra's Mom who is never without patients or love for her baby girl neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness (or a "im about to vomit" moment) will be deterred from being a good Mom.


Thanks You Lauren. Truly.

WHO ME??!?!?

RECIPE: Home Made Vegan Pizza!

If you read last week's "Feature Friday" interview you would know that my family is vegan. I had been vegetarian for 10 years before I made the switch to vegan about 4 years ago. When I met Lauren she was a meat eater but very sparingly and she slowly transformed into a pescetarian life style. We had planned to raise Sierra vegetarian anyway but she was born with an allergy to dairy so that was when we made the decision to be a vegan family. I love our decision and we aren't 'junk food vegetarians' who live off Morning Star and tofu. We do it right and health, although here and there we do indulge in the "vegan comfort foods" which is what today's recipe is, enjoy!

Everything you need to make this delicious vegan pizza can be purchased at your local Whole Foods. Almost all of it could be purchased at any grocery market but the "cheese" is a Whole Foods only kind of thing normally. 

So our pizza is a Pepper, Tomato, Onion, Mushroom and Buffalo "Chicken" pizza! If you're going to eat fake chicken and cheese it's nice to round out with some yummy veggies so you don't feel so badly about the "junk" (yummy yummy junk).

For convenience we got a pre made Organic Pizza Crust which is Whole Foods brand, but you can buy pizza dough and make it yourself if you're feeling like an over-achiever!

Again for convenience we used a Tomato, Basil and Mushroom pre-made pizza sauce by Classico. Again if you're feeling like an over-aciever you can make your own concoction but when you were at work for 9 hours and then with a toddler my guess is you want dinner quick and easy. So using a spoon, scoop and spread the sauce as evenly across the crust as you can.

The 'cheese' is the most important part of any vegan pizza. There are a lot of cheese substitutes on the market for vegan & lactose intolerant pizza lovers out there and BY FAR Daiya Vegan Cheese is your best bet. We've tried just about everything and Daiya comes out the winner without contest. It isn't overly expensive about $4.99 at your super market and it melts perfectly for pizza, quesadillas and sandwiches. Did I mention it's also delicious?

Spread the cheese and a decently thick layer as evenly as you can on top of your sauce.

The next step is optional but in the sake of all that is healthy and yummy it is highly suggested. For our pizza we have some baby-bella mushrooms, green peppers and onions. This will add a great taste, crunch and help your daily intake of veggies. The amount you add is really up to you, it depends how much you like veggies! Feel free to get creative here people.

Just like all the other ingredients we've added up to this point you will distribute as evenly across the pizza as possible. 

The next step is to cut up the faux-meat. Which doesn't taste like chicken it just taste like buffalo tofu bites basically. I hate meat subs that try so hard to taste like real meat. Health is Wealth Foods are usually a pretty safe bet for all natural meat subs that taste good.

Now before you stick this thing in the oven take a good look at all your hard work, this step is not optional. Looks great doesn't it?

Now I like to cook it right on the oven grates as I feel it gives me the crispiest crust which I'm a big fan of. I like my pizza ALMOST burnt. So if you want a softer crust go for a cookie sheet or pizza stone, but if you like your pizza to crunch with every bite go for right on the grate. Set your oven to 350º and set an alarm for 15-20 minutes. The time you leave it in again is up to you, if you like your pizza soft or crispy, etc. We left ours for about 20 minutes and it came out super crispy and perfect.

TA DA! 20 minutes later we have our delicious, crispy, melty perfect vegan pizza! This is a easy, inexpensive and tasty dinner for two that you can make with minimal cooking knowledge or effort. I highly suggest this meal to anyone vegan or not.

P.S. What about the parmesan cheese you say? We all know parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper are key to any successful Pizza. You have two options here one is to use Nutritional Yeast which is your all natural and healthy option as it is FULL of B12 vitamins and taste surprisingly like parmesan cheese believe it or not. Your slightly less healthy option is whats called "Vegan Topping"  and is made by Galaxy Nutritional Foods. I won't lie, it's definitely tastier than nutritional yeast and I prefer it when I can find it.

P.S.S. Please take 2 seconds to vote for us! The more votes, the more exposure, the more support for daddy bloggers! Thanks guys <3 -Craig

Daycare Blues!

It's 8:02 AM on a Friday and I am sitting in my favorite little coffee shop with a large iced coffee and my laptop. I should be on my way to work but after the morning I had I feel I deserve a coffee, a bagel and 15 minutes to actually sit and decompress before boarding the bus to work. My morning goes one of two ways: good or bad. The way the day goes is dependent upon Sierra's willingness to go to daycare, she always goes, just not always willingly. Some days she practically leaps from my arms and runs to the plastic slide or to the out stretched arms of her teachers, today was not one of those, it was one of these: Sierra clings to my arm, leg, face, etc screaming at the top of her lungs for MAMA MAMA MAMA and trys to wrestle me for her binky. Picture trying to put a cat into a bath tub, it's sort of like that. On days like that I feel like a terrible parent but theres nothing I can do, I need to pay the bills! Sierra is a toddler she doesn't understand work, bills and 'the man' yet. So I shut the daycare door to her screams, crys and pleads and walk with my head hung low to the elevator. See how I need a coffee and a bagel now?


Two weeks from now this will all change, we are taking Sierra out of daycare. Not because we are unhappy with their care or because we can't stand the bad days but because Lauren is a teacher and it is the summer. It better for the family financially to have Lauren stay home with the baby then it would be to have her work some crap summer job and make just enough to keep Sierra in daycare. Even though I know it's our best bet I have very mixed emotions about it. On one hand Sierra loves spending time with us, doesn't seem to miss daycare on the weekends, and we have more of the bad mornings than the good ones, the daycare offered us our spot back in September if we want it, oh yeah and we'd be saving $1350 a month. On the other hand Sierra has been there 9 months and I'm sure even at 1 ½  has developed friendships and routines and I feel badly taking that away from her. I'm unsure if my feelings are valid or if these are just the first time parent worries that don't really matter. To combat Sierra losing the interaction with her friends at daycare Lauren and I have been looking into parent meet-ups for stay at home mom's in our area and believe it or not there are plenty. When I found this out I felt a bit better about the whole situation but still having separation anxiety at the moment.


I'm curious if any one reading this has gone through this same situation. What did you do? Do you feel you made the right decision? Would love your opinions and feedback!

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OUR NYC ADVENTURE: DAY 3 / SUNDAY

Getting a full night's rest made waking up on Sunday a lot easier than the previous day. We woke up, took showers, got dressed and headed to Aroma for coffee. Aroma is unfortunately a chain (I swore off chain coffee shops, read about it here) but chain or not it was the closest coffee shop to the apartment and the coffee and customer service was great. After coffee we headed for the R train to Columbus Circle to switch to the L train to head to Brooklyn. Now before I get to Brooklyn let me talk a bit about the MTA.

As a Bostonian I have a love/hate relationship with our undependable and slow MBTA, but with my exposure to the NY Subway system as a parent, I now hold a much greater appreciation for the T. If you are a parent of a small child or a person with a disability - FORGET ABOUT IT. We made the mistake of bringing her stroller with us, little did we know the MTA hasn't been updated in about a million years and has no elevator service at most stations and the turnstiles are too small to fit a stroller through. So using the subway involves carrying your stroller down multiple flights of piss stained, slippery, narrow and over crowded stairwells and then having to set off an alarm off to go through the 'service entry'. The alarm is loud, draws attention and annoying. The MTA and it's lack of help for parents and people with disabilities is the main reason I would never move to New York. Ok now that the rant is out of the way:

This is our friend Blaine's apartment / dog we were watching after!

So the first day as you read we did some stuff uptown and outdoorsy but todays weather was a bit more gray and gloomy so we decided to do some indoorsy things. We started off the day by heading down to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Flea and the Bedford Ave shops. Here we are on the dreaded MTA! Once we got into Brooklyn it was already noon and we were STARVING so we went to "Bliss" per one of our vegan friend's suggestions. (p.s. said friend works at an awesome bakery called Champ's so check it out if you're in the area! She also writes an awesome blog about vegan pastries here!). So I have mixed feelings about Bliss. As a young vegan guy, it's AWESOME. As a young vegan parent, it is horrible. The food was pretty great, fairly priced and they played great music. The atmosphere was cute, quaint and full of interesting people. I would avoids this place however if you have children. They do not have any high chairs, or even the room to accommodate one. The service was very poor and I felt like we were annoying the waitress by being there. So needless to say we ate with Sierra in our laps and although the food was really tasty the experience was unenjoyable.

The vegan nachos/chili was AMAZING.

Lauren went the safe route with another tofu scramble breakfast burrito, which I shared and loved.

I went with the "Tofu Club" which wasn't that great but gets an A for effort.

After lunch we headed out in search of The Brooklyn Flea: Artists and Fleas which wasn't hard to find considering the same middle aged chain smoking hipster gave us a flyer for it three times. The market was in this really old mill building with high ceilings and exposed brick everywhere, I'd live there if I could. This wasn't the 'normal' Brooklyn Flea, this one as the title "Artists and Fleas" says is more around artists and independent makers, which was awesome! It was geared more towards the ladies with it's wide assortment of jewelry and clothing but we all had a good time and saw lots of really interesting people and objects. My favorite part was as busy and full of stuff and vendors as it was they somehow mad the aisles wide enough for our rather big stroller, which was key since this was when Sierra decided to take her nap.

Lauren is checking out the Reliquarium - http://www.reliquariumart.com/ - Which was my favorite vendor at the market. The artist Jackie Mock puts found objects into hand made frames and boxed (made from the object itself in some instances) and created beautiful pieces of art with deep meaning and careful craft. I loved almost every piece she had for sale but buying original art work wasn't in the budget for the weekend, although next time we head in that direction I won't leave without one as I already regret it.

Here is some more of the interesting things we saw including antlers, hand blown glass with little mini-eco systems in them and lamps made from found wood and piping.

After the flea we decided to explore Bedford Ave which is a long strip full of independent shops, restaurants and cafes -think Thayer St (Providence) but 10x bigger and better. The people who liter the streets are young, hip, fashion conscious, chain smoking, bike riding, pbr drinking, guitar playing new yorkers at their best. It was a very interesting area that makes Allston look like the 'burbs. I found countless record shops, thrift and consignment stores and coffee shops, a.k.a. I was in heaven. On top of all the daddy-likes there were tons of baby shops which surprised me, our favorite of which was 'the flying squirrel' which is a half new / half consignment baby store carrying things from toys and strollers to rain boots and mini skinny jeans. The shop keeper was friendly and couldn't compliment us enough on our sleeping toddler or her Janie & Jack strawberry raincoat (which Sierra got as a 1st birthday present from the lovely Just By Living a.k.a. Michael's wife). After seeing just about every shop we wanted to it was nearing 4PM and we wanted to see the MET as Lauren and Sierra had never been. When we arrived at the MET Sierra was obsessed with the fountain out front and by the time we actually got inside the line was SO LONG we would have got to walk around the museum for about 20 minutes before closing time, that paired with the thought of being in a long line with a cranky toddler caused us to skip the MET and go to the nearby "Ancient Playground" instead.

By the time we got there both Lauren and I's iPhones had died of exhaustion so excuse the stolen photograph. Although I was sort of bummed about not being able to visit the MET it was fun to watch Sierra go down the slide and as soon as she hit the ground say "GAIN? GAIN? GAIN?", she really loves the park and playground and I love taking her there.

By the time we left the playground we were getting very hungry for dinner so we went back to the apartment for a bit, recharged our phones, bodies and Milo's food bowl and then headed into the Village to try Quantum Leap which we found through a google search for "soho vegan". Interestingly enough this restaurant was the only one that did not come to us as a suggestion from a New Yorker, and it happened to be our absolute favorite of the weekend. The service was great, the food was fast, tasted like heaven and the price was right.

We started off with our norm the chips + guacamole (Sierra's favorite). It was probably the best guacamole I've ever tasted.

Lauren got the Mediterranean Platter which she loved.

I went with a classic (sort of), Spaghetti and "Meat" Balls. My mouth is watering just looking at the photograph. Yum.

After dinner we went and got Milo for his night time walk and we left the house stroller-less to explore the Village and Soho areas as our last goodbye before heading back to the city. After the whole weekend of hustle and bustle this hour or two was probably the most memorable and favorite of mine. Sierra was in the best mood and very playful with the dog. Walking hand in hand with Lauren watching our daughter and (borrowed) dog chase one another up and down the sidewalk in front of us was just a perfect moment for me and for a a moment I wanted to live there and recreate that moment as much as possible.

All and all it was an amazing weekend and I couldn't be happier to have shared it with my beautiful partner and our perfect daughter. Without getting too mushy gushy on the internet, it's the moments like this that make all the working, bills and hardships worth it.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sierra is currently down for a nap and Lauren is enjoying a LUSH bath bomb in the tub, I figured it was a good time to write a little Mother's Day blog post. I speak for both Michael and myself when I say we couldn't have picked better ladies to put a baby in. Both Lauren and Adriana are wonderful mothers who share the same values as Michael and I and make perfect companions in our child rearing (I've always hated that phrase). They are both smart, beautiful and great mamas and we couldn't be more lucky that they deal with our bullshit and pretend to like us. Thank you and we love you.