Thursday Tunes #01 / Jay-Z & Kanye West "New Day"

Every thursday from now on I'm going to post a song that we've been jammin' around Hipster Dad Headquarters or that i just think you guys might like. For the first installment I bring you "NEW DAY" which appears on Kanye West / Jay-Z's collaboration album "WATCH THE THRONE". The song is a short one verse a piece song about how both rappers plan to raise their children. Really great tune about positive (future) dadism. 

WE WENT ON A DATE!!

Last night Lauren and I got to go out on a (very) rare date night! Although I love nothing more than listening to records and reading OLIVIA to Sierra every night, it's nice to escape the house and go out into the real world and be around adults once in awhile. We rented a ZipCar and along with our friend Ashleigh headed out to Great Scott which is a small rock club in Boston. One of our favorite musicians Tim Kasher was in town and we were all super excited to go out, have some drinks and check out some great music.


p.s.Thank you SO MUCH to our wonderful baby sitter Liz! (Follow her food blog here!)


In addition to the awesome line up, Tim decided to play his Cursive song titled "SIERRA"  which may or may not have had something to do with the naming of our child and which may or may not have been brought on by Lauren and I screaming "PLAY SIERRA! PLAY SIERRA!" from the side of the stage (yeah we were those people). Thanks to Ashleigh for whipping out the camera and getting it on video!

OUR MAINE ADVENTURE: DAY 1 / SATURDAY

It's nearing the end of the Summer and soon Lauren will have to go back to work and Sierra back to daycare so we figured it was time to escape the city for a bit since soon enough we won't be able to. My Father, or as Sierra likes to call him "Papa" had some vacation time saved up so we planned a little road trip to visit my sister in Maine.


All morning we told Sierra how we were going to see Aunty Sherrie, Uncle Brian, Timmy, Lexi and Cora. She was so excited and running around the house screaming "CORRRA" "CORRRA". This was a mistake on our part - we've learned to not tell her anything about future plans until they happen as it's hard to explain to a toddler that plans have changed. Well, the plan was for my father to pick us up in Boston at noon on Saturday and for us to drive the three hours from Boston to Augusta, ME. That was the plan anyway.


The day started well enough, Papa arrived at noon as scheduled but let us know the car was acting up. The wheel was very difficult to turn but he was sure that it just needed some power steering fluid. I got behind the wheel and gave Papa a rest and we drove to a nearby Valvoline and got some fluid. It worked perfectly... for about 30 seconds until all the fluid came gushing out and we were right back where we started. After a trip to an AutoZone and a local mechanic we found out the car was in rough shape. In the mechanic's exact words it was a "Horribly Expensive Shitty Situation". It wasn't just the power steering, and it was actually dangerous to drive, "It could possibly catch fire" said the mechanic and with that Papa dropped us off back at home and made his dangerous one hour trek home. Once home safely he called every car rental business in the city and everywhere was either closed or had a "don't leave the state" rule. We were feeling rather defeated until Papa decided to call HIS Papa and we were back in business in Sierra's great grandfather's sedan. By the time Papa got back to Boston and we repacked the car we were on the road at about 6PM. 6 hours later than we had planned but at least the vacation was still on! 


In my infinite wisdom I told Papa "We don't need the G.P.S! I know how to get to Maine, we just take 93N the whole way!". Well a couple hours later and no signs for Maine Lauren says "Weren't we supposed to get off 93N at some point? Maybe we should turn the GPS on?". Once we turned it on we realized we had driven two hours already and still had 3 and a half to go. Whoops. Our 3 hour drive had quickly turned into a 6 hour drive (Thanks to me). Sorry everyone. Sierra was very well behaved for being in the car so long and eventually we made it. We arrived at about 11:30PM a little later than planned but at least we made it! We gave hugs and hellos and hit the sack. Hopefully our vacation gets better than our first day!

Even though our trip was longer than expected it was fun spending time with my family on an adventurous road trip. Somewhere in New Hampshire we saw this heart shaped cloud.

"Happy Birthday Sierra" (a letter to my daughter)

Dear Sierra,

Two years ago today your Mother and I were in a hospital room awaiting your arrival. You came a couple of weeks sooner than we expected but that was just fine with us. After 21 hours you came into the world and instantly were laid upon your mothers chest and I laid down next to both of you. Seeing you for the first time was unlike anything I have ever experienced. The closest thing to putting in words the emotions that rushed through me the first time I held you is to say for the first time in my life I knew I had purpose.

The next two years went so fast I can hardly wrap my head around it. I have seen you go from a 6 pound 7.8 ounce infant who could barely open her eyes to a gorgeous six month who rolled all over the house and would chew on anything in sight. I remember when you turned one and all your friends and family gathered in a near by park in Somerville where we lived at the time. By that time you were already walking and playing. This is where your personality really started shining through.

The next year brought all sorts of changes. Our family moved and you got your own room and only wanted to sleep in your own room ever since. Even though it broke Mama and I's heart to give up co-sleeping we did because we think it's important for you to have choices. This would be one of the first big choices in a series of choices you have already made that have shaped who you are. From the clothes you wear and the food you eat to the toys you play with. You are opinionated, original and creative and I love that about you.

Today you are two. I find myself being struck with many different kinds of emotions, much like on the day you were born. The emotion that I am most overcome with though, is love. I love you. I love hearing you tell me you love me (which you do more and more these days). I love watching you paint and draw and make things out of Play-Doh. I love when you learn new words and I even love you when you then repeat that word 5,000 times in 10 minutes. I love when I say "Just one more book." and you hold your little fingers up and say "Two?" - I always give in. I love when you jump on me in the morning and I love when you learned to say "Soccer Ball". I love everything you do and are and I love you more and more each day. 

Love,

Daddy

A quick snapshot taken of Sierra on her 2nd birthday. (photo by mom)

Disconnect Days: Update #1 (a.k.a. Why I think T.V. is unnecessary & how I feel about art)

Remember a when we declared Sunday's "Disconnect Days"? (Read Here if you don't). Well it's been exactly one month since then and I figured now was a good time to do a update on how it's been going. It''s been going very very well! In addition to our once a week no phone thing we have took the leap into a NO-T.V. household. I don't mean we tell Sierra "NO! NO!" when she goes near it - I mean last week we sold it and got it out of our house entirely. This may sound a bit extreme but let me explain. We barely ever watched the thing anyway. I watched soccer once or twice a week and Lauren was known to get her weekly Teen Mom & Criminal Minds fix after the baby had fallen asleep from time to time. We were paying for cable, our TV was a 15 year old big screen MONSTER that weighed 100 pounds and took up an entire corner of our living room. So in addition to not having the allure of the T.V. we also are saving money on cable & gained about 5 feet of our living room back.

The corner now houses a beautiful painting by artist Ann Marie Rebola,our stereo and a baby photo of Sierra. 

We have been discussing removing the T.V. from our home for awhile now, Disconnect Day just helped speed up the process. The reasons the NO-T.V. thing was even on the table for discussion was that according to the American Association of Pediatricians children gain nothing from watching T.V. (or any screened media) before two (not to mention Lauren and I's book intake started to dip when we realized we had HBO). Well Sierra is turning two tomorrow so now what do we do? When friends and family looked at us funny when we said "Oh Sierra doesn't watch Sesame Street" or when she didn't recognize Mickey Mouse for anything but a plain ol' mouse we could always fall back on the "Well actually according to the AAP...". But now what? I'm sure people will be saying "Well NOW she's two so let her watch a damn movie for God's sake!" or "Come on! Didn't you love the Lion King as a kid?!". Lauren and I haven't REALLY discussed where we stand on the "Now thats she's 2" topic yet but I can tell you where I stand. Who cares? Sierra has never watched any T.V. and she is just as smart as any Elmo & Mickey loving toddler on the playground. She loves books, playing, drawing and painting and is VERY active. I see no need to introduce a product that will get in the way of being active and activities that I feel are a better stimulate and learning tool in the first place. Also for people who think I'm talking out of my ass - I am a licensed art teacher and hold a degree in Art Education so bite it! Art > T.V. in this house hold.

Now that I've gone on my holier than most art is the end all be all of life rant - Let me be entirely serious. Will I introduce (educational and appropriate) T.V. shows & movies into Sierra's life? Yes - just not this second. I'm personally not ready and have a lot of research to do before I feel comfortable with what she watches as every piece of media a person, especially a small child, consumes can and does influence them, so I want to make sure these are positive influences. I also feel Sierra doesn't care at this point anyway. She's never once asked to watch T.V. even when it was the 'big elephant in the room'. She wasn't stupid she knew what 'the big black box' was for, she even knew how to turn it on if she wanted to. Most of her friends we have play dates with aren't huge on T.V. either so there's never been the "Why does she get to and I don't?" issue. Even when we are at a friend's house who has the T.V. on we have never had an issue where Sierra wanted to sit and watch, she's is always much happier to explore their house or terrorize their pets. So I guess my answer to when will we let Sierra watch T.V. is when we're both ready. When it's appropriate and best for us we will introduce it into our families life but as of now no one seems to want or miss it and thats just fine with me. Any questions, feedback or what you and your family do please feel free to comment below as I'm always interested in other people's opinions whether they agree or disagree. Thanks. -Craig

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Happy Friday Everyone!

Michael and I have just been VERY busy lately and it's turned us into bad bloggers. Today makes a week without anything new (our longest stretch since starting!) and for that we're very sorry. Sierra's birthday is this weekend and Lauren and I have been swamped with cleaning our apartment, buying supplies, making cupcakes and all that other fun parenting stuff so it's been hard to find the time to get on here and write anything. I can hardly believe she's turning two! I will write a nice big post on that after the party which I'm sure will reduce me to tears (she's SO big now!!). The party is this Sunday and if you haven't seen my first post on it check here: http://goo.gl/xHeZm. So enough with the excuses and let me share some photos with you to hold you over until I can put some time together this weekend to write a real post!


A poster I made using my new favorite font. TGIF:

Some instagrams of our apartment:

Sierra and hendrix are destined to be married I swear (photo on the left by Just By Living!)

OK real post coming soon promise <3 -Craig

Product Review & OUR AUGUST GIVEAWAY!! Baby Bonkie Swaddles!

When Sierra was a teeny tiny baby all those (2) years ago she would ONLY sleep if she was swaddled. Needless to say, I got pretty damn good at swaddling her using little soft blankets. At that time I was unaware of 'swaddlers' which are pre-made wraps with velcro that are specifically designed to swaddle your baby and cut out all the messy origami techniques normally required to learn when trying to wrap your baby up nice and cozy. Although my toddler is much too big for swaddling now I am still interested in these products and often 'ooooooh' and 'aaaahhh' at my friends who have them. My favorite brand of this product is the Baby Bonkie Swaddler! Not only does it have the coolest name ever but the product is unparallelled in quality and style. If you are looking for the softest, most well made, durable and comfortable swaddler for your infant - look no further, these are the best I assure you.

The adorable BabyBonkie logo tag on the swaddler.

Here is how the swaddler looks pre-baby insertion :)

Lucky for us here at The Hipster Dad we got a few of these bad boys int he mail! Even luckier for a few of our friends they have infants! So since our children are a bit too big to be swaddled we decided to share the wealth with our pal Sarah in return for letting us 'borrow' her little 4 month old for a photo shoot! Everyone, meet Max.

Sarah wrapping her little boy Max up nice and snug!

Here is Max happy as a clam in his new cozy swaddler!

Now comes the fun part! Our pal Max got a super sweet & soft Baby Bonkie for free and now it's your turn!!! ITS OUR AUGUST GIVEAWAY! This unisex Swaddler is a beautiful cream and chocolate brown mix with a really gorgeous pattern of plants, trees, swings and little animals! It's gorgeous and would normally run you about $64 but thanks to BabyBonkie and us of course you can now win one for free :). Here is the one we have to give away:

GIVEAWAY DETAILS + HOW TO WIN:

• Winner will be picked at random in two weeks: August 19th, 2011
• You must be a follower of The Hipster Dad to enter (Follow button is to your right)
• You can enter 3 ways:
• Leave a comment on this entry with your name & why you want the swaddle!
• Tweet: "Win a free Baby Bonkie Swaddle from @TheHipsterDad! Enter here: http://goo.gl/Z3M9U"
• Like The Hipster Dad on Facebook and leave a comment with your name & why you want to win!

LINKS AND FACTS ABOUT BABY BONKIE:

• The BabyBonkie Website
• Find a Retailer in your home state

This is what afternoons in our loft look like:

Hendrix Screaming! from TheHipsterDad on Vimeo.

Let me suggest turning the volume down a bit!

Ink & Water Color Paintings

About 6 months ago I started to paint some of Sierra's favorite scenes from her favorite books and I only finished one :-(  I think I'm going to make this my mission for August!

D.I.Y. Birthday Invitations!

Once upon a time I paid $80,000 for about 7 years worth of college, 5 of which ended me up with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Now you may ask what does one do with an 'art degree' and I wouldn't know how to answer really. What I do with mine is make my daughter really cute birthday invitations. Last year (her first birthday) we went with a MONSTER theme. Yes, you heard right a 1 year old MONSTER themed birthday party. It ruled. For this we kicked it old school with brown lunch bags, pipe cleaners, glue, markers & construction paper. It looked AWESOME and it costs a fortune to mail (whoops). These were fun to make and took little to no artistic ability:

This year we decided upon a more classical "girl" birthday theme: A Tea Party. This is not because we were pressured, or trying to 'girly girl' her up or anything - the girl loves tea parties! We are constantly sipping air from mini tea cups and we thought she'd really enjoy having a really big tea party with all her pals. As you could see our invites from last year were pretty bad ass and it is pretty impossible to one up them, but I gave it a shot. For the sake of saving about 40 hours I decided to draw one invite and then have it printed as opposed to hand-making 50 unique ones like last year. I must be getting lazy in my old age? Rather recently I remembered seeing a tea cup tattoo on the FUCK YEAH, TATTOOS! blog and felt inspired to go that route with these. So when Sierra went down for her nap I got out the micron's and sketchpads and got to it:

This was the first initial drawing. (Unfinished)

After I had the drawing finished I got out the lamp and tracing paper and cleaned it up a bit. 

After I was done drawing (and writing) the front and back I scanned them in I tossed them on a fake paper background for Facebook, Emailing, etc.

The next day I took the file over to a local print shop in Downtown Boston and got about 50 of them printed front and back, 25 on gray and 25 on yellow. These are for the physical ones we're mailing out! 

I really love how they came out! They are 5x7"

Here is how they look on a bright yellow!

So the invite is taken care of now just to figure out how to turn our apartment into a tea party palace. Open to ideas so please throw em at me also I'd love to see photos and hear about your kids birthday themes, invitation and decorations! xo -Craig