Hushabye Baby CD giveaway WINNER!!:

First off I want to thank everyone that entered via tweeting, commenting and following our blog! So I used a "Random Thing Picker" to choose a winner so it would be fair and our winner is... drum roll please... @ChrissyHFischer!!


Congratulations Chrissy! I will be e-mailing you with details so we can get the CD shipped out to you right away! Thanks a ton everyone and we look forward to doing more giveaways VERY soon :) -C

p.s. please take a second and give us a vote here: 

Guest Dad: Matt Ferreira

In the early days of hip hop, one of the defining characteristics of the music consisted of a production technique called sampling. The instrumental or “beat” was actually a collage of sounds taken from various pieces of music, television, movies, or any media that contained audio. This collection of previously existing sounds would then be skillfully arranged and weaved together to create a fluid, rhythmic, original piece of music. Think of the saying “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

I relate to this art form when I think of the family I’ve created for myself. My name is Matt Ferreira, 25, from New Bedford, MA. When my wife Leah and I started dating in November 07, she had two children from previous relationships—Xavier (then 3, now 6) and Nancie (then 2 now 5). To make a long story short, Nancie went to live with her father for what was supposed to be a temporary stay that ended up turning into a three year custody battle to get her back and I ended up adopting Xavier who had never known his biological father much like I had never known mine. In March 2009, my son Matthew Jr. was born and my daughter Azaria came soon after in August 2010. A few months ago, Leah’s custody battle finally came to an end and Nancie now lives with us—all the sibs together full time at last. And since she hasn’t seen or talked to her dad at all after that last court date, I’ve become more of a stepFATHER than a STEPfather.

So, to re-cap—I have an adopted kid, a step kid, and two biological kids all under the same roof with my wife and I. Potentially, it could be a disastrous, life-scarring scenario for these kids, with some feeling less loved than others. But through truly knowing our children and what they need to feel stable, Leah and I are able to make all the elements of our family weave together seamlessly like a DJ Premiere beat. And I don’t mean that we’re the perfect family where everyone gets along all the time and there are no problems. What I mean is that our problems do not include our kids feeling like they’re part of the family to greater or lesser degrees than one another.

The key ingredient to making this work is of course sincerity. For all our children to feel equally accepted they must actually be equally accepted by both adults in the house. Seeing that Leah is the biological mother of all of our children, our family structure mostly depended on my degree of acceptance of the two children she brought into my life in the beginning. It’s funny, but I remember being really little and hearing my adoptive parents arguing with some lady, I don’t remember who, about whether or not a child is really yours if it’s not your flesh and blood. Now that I’m an adult with both children I made and some that I didn’t, I can finally say with confidence that the lady was wrong. The fact that you made a child is only one reason to love them, and while it’s a good one, there’s still plenty of others which could apply to any child—it’s all about whether or not you choose to do so.

Another thing that I feel helps is that there are no step or half brothers and sisters in our home. Our children are taught that they are brothers and sisters, period. They live in the same house, follow the same rules, and sit at the same table to eat the same dinner at the same time, so I can think of no good reason to distinguish their sibling-ship to one another with prefixes. My wife and I treating them all with equality as parents only holds so much weight if they don’t follow suit in the way they view each other. Plus, we can’t go one dinner without someone saying with a mouth full of food “Look, I’m beating you guys at eating!” so I can imagine what a daily “I’m More Mom and Dad’s Kid Than You Are” competition would be like. Yeah, no thanks.

So, that’s my family—four children, two parents, mad love. There’s some families out there in similar circumstances who are different than mine in that they have boundaries and separations, and if that’s what works for them, that’s great. My wife and I on the other hand have always felt it was best for our household to exist as a whole. We want to live, grow, and function as a full-fledged family rather than six people who are associated solely by the fact that two of those people are in a relationship. You won’t ever hear me say “Honey, can you tell your kid to stop leaving the bathroom light on?” I’m the dad in our house—I’ll handle it. 

Tiny Threads

 

Hendrix is wearing Vintage Tee from Baby Come Back Vintage and shorts c/o American Apparel.

Disconnect Days

Social media is a great tool for keeping in touch with family, networking with clients from around the globe and sharing your opinions and lives with people you don't even know but can it get in the way of real life? My family and I are exploring that theory with what we are calling "Disconnect Days". Don't get me wrong, Lauren and I are big supporters of all things social media, both having (multiple) accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+ and of course Blogger but with 5-10 websites and accounts to check and update daily it begins to take up a lot of time! A normal night for us consist of listening to records, having a beer and enjoying one anothers time with our noses nestled sweetly in our.......iPhones. "Look at this cute photo Adriana just instagrammed!" or "WOW I can't believe what AJ just tweeted!" are normal conversation pieces around our home. Now I find nothing wrong with this, social networking is fun and especially useful for me for my freelance and business ventures but theres comes a point where you need to step back and smell the roses instead of putting vintage filters on a picture of them for your friends to post comments on.

"No time for cameras, we'll use our eyes instead" - Matt Johnson & Kim Schifino

Our first Disconnect Day (DD) was last Sunday and it happened to fall on a day that we had planned a cookout & pool party at our house. So the night before I texted everyone who would be attending and said "Tomorrow is Lauren and I's first disconnect day, long story but we won't be reachable by email or phone so the time is 1PM and you know the address see you tomorrow!". We woke up and Lauren asked "what time is it?" and instead of checking my phone I ran to the kitchen and checked the oven clock and DD was officially on. I did leave my phone on just incase somebody who was coming to my house was lost or needed to ask something - but I didn't answer texts or emails and once everyone had arrived I shut my phone off. It wasn't as hard as you would think and there was a noticeable change in our behavior. During the cookout I found myself more engaged in conversation and just enjoying my friends company instead of tweeting about how much I was enjoying it. Once everyone left for the day it was fun to just sit with Lauren and relax without both being on our laptops blogging or looking up soccer news. All in all I like our Disconnect Days and can not wait until Sunday to shut off the internet. You should give it a shot sometime!

Photos from DD (1 rule was our camera was allowed!)

Watermelon Babies!

Henry and his beautiful curls.

Christian knockin' back a cold one (root beer of course!) 

Sierra pulling a "Kiss and Run"

Cooling off in the pool!

This picture is way over-exposed but I love it anyway.

Please give us 2 clicks of your time for a vote on TBB :) no sign up:

What we did today!

The time is currently 10:15 PM on Saturday night and I figured now was as good as any to get some bloggin' done. It is very hot in Boston so I am cooling down with an adult beverage and a big fat air conditioner. Yesterday we had a VERY busy day; we went down the Cape to visit friends. For our readers who are not Massachusettsians', "down the Cape" means to drive to Cape Cod, which is a two hour drive from Boston. So after getting in very late last night we decided to take it easy today and just hang around our own hood. We started out by going to our standing Saturday brunch date with Aunty Kiki which was delicious as always (vegan french toast, home fries, bagels, tons of coffee and juice). After brunch it was nap time for the little one and Lauren and I got some apartment cleaning done. When Sierra woke up (after a very short nap) we headed to the community pool that is only a 3 minute walk from our apartment. We have never gone here before which I regret now as it was massive, very clean, not busy at all and a great time / way to cool down! We had a ton of fun and after we were all exhausted headed home and Sierra took a slightly longer nap while Mama and I got our LOST on and texted all our friends to plan a BBQ + Pool Party for tomorrow. When Sierra woke up from her nap it was already 5PM so we ate dinner and then headed to the local playground. So I hope you enjoyed my horribly written-late-night-what-we-did-today-run-on-sentence-blog-post. I am going to start writing a real blog post about what Lauren and I are calling "Disconnect Days" --- Goodnight everyone!!

- x.o. Craig @TheHipsterDad

saw this awesomeness on our walk to brunch:

July Giveaway: A HUSHABYE BABY ALBUM!

IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME!! I'm sure you've all heard of Rockabye Baby by now, but did you know they also have a country music version? When i saw they had a lullaby Johnny Cash album I almost wet myself! The fine people over at CMH Label Group decided to send us the the album and we couldn't be more stoked on it. This Saturday after a long day at the beach with Sierra and some friends we jammed it out in the car and it was great. It's done really really well and features the same steel drum sound you're used to with Rockabye Baby but also pulls in some great bass plucking & guitar riffs reminiscent of the original Cash tunes. I found myself singing along and was really pumped to have some new kid friendly music for the car since Mama thinks Lil' Wayne isn't appropriate for baby ears. So enough blabbing about how much I love the album, let's get one into your hands for your little one's ears! Good luck!


GIVEAWAY DETAILS + HOW TO WIN:

• You can pick ANY hushabye baby cd, not just Johnny Cash
• Winner will be picked at random in two weeks: July 19th, 2011
• You must be a follower of The Hipster Dad to enter
• You can enter 3 ways:
• Leave a comment on here with your name, what album you want and why!
• Tweet: "Win a free CD from @TheHipsterDad and @Hushabyebaby! Enter here: http://goo.gl/o3AGa"
• Like The Hipster Dad on Facebook and leave a comment with your name, what album you want and why!

Contact Hushabye Baby:

• http://www.hushabyebabymusic.com
• http://www.facebook.com/hushabyebabymusic
• http://www.twitter.com/hushabyebaby

p.s. plz take a second to give us a vote on Top Baby Blogs <3

Happy 4th of July Post!

So I'm sitting in my office trying to climb the mountain of emails that were sent to me over the long weekend and I have to say that I have a severe "Case of the Tuesday's". Long weekends are GREAT but going back to work after them is always so hard. So here we are the day after the long 4th of July weekend and it's "photo dump" time. There are a LOT of photos in this post, but trust me editing down 450+ photos to about 25 or 30 was really hard, lots of great ones. Friday we planned on going to Boston's SOWA Open Artist galleries and studios and then were pleasantly surprised when Michael (the other half of THD) & Adriana (of Just By Living) said they were going to join us! What we did not plan for was everyone being STARVING and it being near impossible to find a place to eat that was kid friendly, had more than one high chair and also didn't have a 2 hour wait. We decided on The Beehive which is a self described "bohemian eatery" in the South End of Boston. The food was amazing and the kids has a great time playing at the outdoor seating area. Sierra even got to be part of a wedding party! By the time we finished dinner and hit up a playground everyone was pooped and it was late so although we didn't see any art we still had a great time.

Sierra sharing her flower with Henry @ The Beehive

Adriana enjoying her yummy sangria :)

Sierra pretending to be the flower girl for the wedding party!

After dinner we headed to a local playground.

Henry cruising in his Quinny.

Not their best photos but I love it anyway, they look like they are at a dance party being photographed by our buddy James Colletta! (p.s. check his stuff out here!)

I absolutely love this photo of mama and Sierra, Mama you forgot your purse!
p.s. Mama just wrote an awesome blog post on breastfeeding: here

So no art, but a great night none the less. We took the train (and a bus) home and all passed out of exhaustion. The next morning we went to our normal Saturday brunch with "Aunty Kiki" a.k.a. Kaitlin Maud. After a ton of coffee, bagels and (vegan) french toast we headed to this little parkish area and enjoyed some sun and flowers before heading home to straighten up our apartment before Uncle Will and Aunty Jill came to visit. Once they finally arrived we rented a Zipcar (our new obsession!) and headed out to Revere beach for a little late afternoon beach time fun. Aunty Kiki came with us too as her husband (Uncle A.J.) was away for work. The weather was really nice and fun was had by all of course.

Sierra posing for the camera at the "parkish" area after coffee.

When we leave the house we HAVE TO bring basically everything we own or it's meltdown time. So we brought Biddy Baby, Nini (aka bath baby), three purses and our Maclaren Baby Quest Doll Stroller.

We finally made it to the beach and was a wonderful time. Sierra is a bit scared of the ocean so normally clings to either myself or mama for the first few minutes but eventually settles in and enjoys herself.

Me and two of my favorite ladies, Sierra was off burying Nini in the sand.

Sierra still a bit tentative about the whole beach thing but really cute anyway. 

I wish Nini's hand wasn't in this but I love this photo of her anyway.

Uncle Will snapping photos, Aunty Jill reviewing photos, Aunty Kiki checking Twitter
...Yeah that's about right.

So after the beach fun we headed home and put Sierra down to sleep and had a little pre-4th cookout and drinks. We listened to records, watched a little TV and played a little "corn hole". It was great to spend so much time with good friends and we had an amazing fun filled day. After about 4 hours of sleep we woke up and took a Zipcar down to the Freetown State Forest for a dual Birthday party for my sister's twin girls (2 years old!) and the most amazing man ever, my Father. (Happy 46th Dad!). All week my mother kept telling me she had a surprise waiting for me at home and couldn't wait to give it to me. I had no idea what it would be but after getting lost for about 45 minutes in the woods we made it to the party and were pleasantly surprised to see my other sister who lives in Maine with my 3 nieces and nephews had come down for the day too! This is the first time we have all been together in one place in years and it was an absolutely perfect day with my entire family.

This is my beautiful sister Sherrie who I love with all my heart and was so excited / surprised to see!

Here is my Dad with ALL his grand children in one photo!
From left to right: Dad, Ashley, Lexi, Autumn, Cora, Sierra and Timmy.

My father with all his children AND grand children!
From left to right: Dad, Ashley, Alison, Autumn, Lexi, Sierra, Sherrie, Cora, Me & Timmy.

Sierra on the catwalk apparently in her adorable new swimsuit.

Here is my sister Alison's adorable daughter Ashley.

Uncle Will & Timmy

My brother in law John and his darling daughter.

Sierra and Tia Jill playing a game.

Sierra and her cousin Cora modeling.

Sierra with her cousins Cora and Lexi (who has pink hair!! Radical!)

My sister Alison's big blue eyes daughter Autumn on her 2nd birthday!

My sister Sherrie snagging a kiss from Sierra during snack time.

After the party we stayed the night, got some laundry done and just relaxed as we were too tired to drive back to Boston. The next day was finally the 4th of July! I painted a bookshelf (an entire entry on that project coming when I finish it!), we cleaned our apartment and Sierra took a VERY long nap (growth spurt anyone?). After that we went to Uncle AJ and Aunty Kiki's apartment for some cookout shenanigans and then called it an early night. All and all it was a wonderful weekend spent with friends and family. We will have a new giveaway very shortly (for a hint to what it is click here) and a few new posts as well! If you have a spare second please click the banner below to vote for us on TBB, xo -C

WHAT'S NEW FRIDAY: Summer, Summer, Summer Time...

I just dropped Sierra off at daycare and am now sitting in my favorite coffee shop at 8:00 AM. They are playing Radiohead on the radio, the A/C is bumping and I am sipping on the largest iced coffee known to man, this is a good moment...


I wrote that a week or two ago with the intention of writing this long, thoughtfully written blog post about life... well, life is... BUSY! Hence only getting the first two sentences of that post finished, sorry about that! Although I am not in a coffee shop, I am finally sitting down for a few minutes to 'pen' some of whats been going on over here at Hipster Dad headquarters. I think I'll be doing these "What's New" posts every Friday from now on so let's get started:


WHAT'S NEW WITH US: So like I said, Sierra has left daycare for the summer and Lauren is temporarily a stay-at-home mom. I am still working my full time job and doing (almost) too much freelance to handle. It's finally warm here in Boston and we couldn't be happier. We have been hitting beaches, playgrounds, and cookouts like nobodies business. All three of us (and all of our friends) seem in general just happier which is nice. The New England sucks the happy right out of you in the winter! Here we are last Sunday in our "back yard".

We call this "Lazy Man's Cornhole" featuring the best bean bag return system ever! I swear she had a blast doing it, it wasn't forced or even requested! (Photo Stolen From Mom, Sorry!)

WHAT'S NEW WITH SIERRA: Over the past few months Sierra has transformed from my sweet little baby who's only two words were "mama" and "daddy" to an adventurous, giggly and talkative toddler. I wrote a post about this a few weeks back but I just wanted to write a little postscript if you will. Most changes in your child for the first two years are rather gradual, their size, their personality and taste in food. Other things are so fast it blows your mind, I often find myself saying "Where did you learn that?!" or "Did she just say Google!?". The games we play are getting more advanced, she's understanding everything we say and do and she's saying and repeating EVERYTHING. She wants to walk more than she wants to be held and she's taking bigger risks (running faster, bigger slides, stairs, etc). Yesterday on our walk home from the bus Sierra was in an amazing mood and just wanted to run and play even though it was nearing her bed time. I shot this little video along our walk and although only 10 or 15 seconds long I feel it really captures who she is as a little person. Her facial expressions, the way she runs, I don't know something about it is just perfect to me:





WHAT'S NEW WITH THE BLOG: The blog is doing well! We have reached 150+ followers on Google Connect in our first 3 months of blogging and look forward to seeing that number grow! We will be launching a brand new design with SPONSORS in the next month or two so keep an eye out for that! We hosted our first giveway last week and our next one should be live on Tuesday! Here's a hint to what it is:

WHAT'S NEW (and cool) ON THE INTERNET:

• Intel's "Museum of Me" - http://www.intel.com/museumofme/r/index.htm
• Google+ - I signed up have you?
• Michael's Promo company "NextHYPE" is throwing a 4th of July Pool Party!
• I started a blog to help people find jobs in Boston! - Boston Jobz

OK everyone I am all blogged out, so like I said I am going to make a habit of these "WHAT'S NEW FRIDAY"'s and try to get Michael to some too! Feel free to give us a follow on the right, leave a comment with WHATS NEW with you and as always take two seconds to give us a vote on TBB, Thank you and I hope everyone has a safe and fun filled 4th! xo -C