MOVING!

Hello all you people who generously read my blog. OneUrbanMom is moving to a new location. You can find all posts at oneurbanmom.com in the future. Thank you for generously making the adjustment.

One Urban Mom

The Skirball

We didn't make it to all of the places I planned to in my time off, but we did make it to the Skirball today. It was a perfect day for it! The Skirball is free on Thursdays. We went to the Noah's Ark exhibit and OLG loved it. I need to find another way to describe how much fun he had, but for now that will have to do. He played for an hour with very little guidance from me. In fact, he has entered the I can do it myself phase and wouldn't let me help with anything but these spaces where you could pull a string and see a sculpture above, he's not quite strong enough to pull it himself.

The entire exhibit is made from recycled materials and is completely interactive. One of the galleries is best suited for children 4 and older, but OLG didn't seem to mind. The museum staff was so helpful . . . they pointed us to age appropriate activities at every turn. At one point the "storyteller" came out with a talking drum and I told OLG that if he was nice she might let him touch it. She was like, "uh no," but then she showed him a drum he could touch instead. It was wonderful.

If we'd planned to stay longer, we could have stayed for the summer concert series which is also free. We didn't go to any of the other galleries, but I did find some items to purchase for Christmas. Instead, we left in time for OlG to take an afternoon nap.

~S

FRESNO

We went to Fresno for a family reunion this past weekend. It was a family reunion. The highlight for me was OLG playing with his Pawpaw and the golf clubs. My dad brought out his golf clubs and balls and started teaching some of the boys how to "chip" balls. OLG really wanted in on the fun. It was a little dangerous . . . we had to keep him from trying to weave in and out through the bigger boys . . . but he did get a few moments with Pawpaw and he LOVED it! For all of you moms who are wondering about the little girls . . . none of them expressed any interest in chipping balls while we were out there.

I include a photo from the slide, because it's just so cute.



~S

More of My Favorite Things

If you don't have friends and family who are in the position of handing down great pieces that have survived their children, then, you may find yourself in the position of amassing your own clothing and baby gear. One of the big challenges of having a little guy who needs stuff, is that while he needs it, he may quickly out grow it or destroy it. And so, I often find myself looking for good quality and a good deal when I can find one. The quality piece is not nearly as difficult as the good deal piece. Some of my favorite places to shop for OLG always have what I need.

1. Bobux
Bobux makes shoes for babies and children. Their baby shoe is similar to Robeez, but the image faces the baby rather than the adult looking at the baby. This is what first sold us on these high quality shoes. OLG wears their shoes for walkers, i-Walk, the toes seem to be wider than the shoes we've tried on in stores. They slip on without any tears. We have wanted to buy him some stylish shoes in other brands, but without fail he is crying and tugging on his shoes by the time we get in the car. These shoes are awesome. I don't know what he'll wear once he can't fit these shoes anymore. There is an end of summer clearance sale going on right now!

2. Skin by Monica
We received this product as a shower gift from my sister who happens to be close friends with Monica's nanny. I was a little hesitant at first, but now we're believers. We also received Mustela products. We love the fragrant smell, but OLG has terrible allergies and was covered in little red spots after using it for a week. I sent the Mustela to the sitter in case of emergency and kept Monica's products at home. I love that her products leave him soft, that they're lightly scented so they don't aggravate his allergies, and they won't make him sick if he swallows them.

3. The Right Start
I was under the impression that this store had closed, but happily, someone purchased the store has refurbished its brick and mortar locations and is working on getting the website back up to speed. They sell products you can't find everywhere. I'm so glad they're back, we need some solutions for mealtime and I know they have some products that might help.

Finding Nemo

OLG and I went to the Aquarium of the Pacific today! We had such fun. The spaces where the animals are kept are large, floor to ceiling tanks. OLG could see as much as anyone else. He was so excited, it was real struggle to keep him in his stroller. When I let him out he started darting between people and didn't seem to notice that I had a hard time following with our awkwardly large stroller. There where a few times when he kinds looked like the woman on those old Mervyns commercials. He stood in front of the tank, lifted both arms above his head, and pounded on the tank yelling something . . . possibly open! Open! Open! Being the good mommy that I am, I quickly put him back in the stroller and said let's practice reading signs. This one reads, "Please do not tap on the acrylic."

~S

Strange Behavior

OLG seems to have passed his "biting" phase. For a time, any time his mouth came near me I was ready to jump away for fear of being scarred again. He is now in a new phase, a strange phase, he tries to gently gnaw my big toe.

Naturally, my response is to yelp and snatch my foot away shouting, "yucky!" As you all know, this only makes him think we are playing a fun new game . . . "try to bite mommy's big toe." I am really not sure what this phase is all about. During the biting phase I read that there would be less scarring and less biting, if you leaned into the bite rather than attempting to rip your appendage out of your kid's mouth. I can't bring myself to take that approach with my big toe. There has to be a better way.

~S

Out and About

We were out and about today. Earlier this week we decided to spend Saturday morning rollerblading at Venice beach. We forgot that we put the rollerblades in storage when we were preparing for the arrival of our first born. In the end, digging out our rollerblades was just too much and we decided to walk instead.

By the time all three of us were ready to go it was late in the morning and time to eat something. Marcus recommended a cute little spot on Main St., The Omelette Parlor. It doesn't have a website and it has mixed reviews on yelp. Some of the negative comments seem to have been remedied by the economy. There was no wait on Saturday morning at 11. The photos of Santa Monica in 1914 and 1925 were fun to look at. The service was pleasant and attentive. Our little guy was out of sorts because he fell asleep on the way and couldn't manage to stay asleep, he was offered crayons and stickers by more than one sever. I enjoyed the food, but the portions were really too large for my taste.

After breakfast, we walked down to the beach. The path seems so much longer walking than it does rollerblading. Marcus gave up before we reached the pier. OLG didn't go back to sleep.

We walked back on Main, which is the main inspiration for this story. I have been visiting Venice beach since I was a wee little bit myself, but I've never taken the time to explore and enjoy all of the cute little shops on Main St.. Venice Beach itself has all sorts of interesting things to look at and shops to look through. Main St. has a different, not better, quality of shop.

Two caught my attention. The first, jackapotamus, is a cute little shop for children and moms. I bought OLG a Martin Luther King t-shirt. I don't see the t-shirt in the etsy shop, but they had them in multiple sizes in the shop.

The Green Life also caught my attention. The simple shop had all kinds of things to help people go green. A friend of mine recently told me her family is avoiding water bottles. I found a lovely gift for her birthday in this great shop.

There were several other shops, places to eat, and to do yoga, if that's your thing. Since we were out enjoying the day and had not planned a shopping trip, I limited the number of shops we went into.

Marcus has on his "having sooo much fun face" as he waits for his meal. :-)

~S

Next week, I plan feature the family friendly businesses in my neighborhood.

LOVE

A Productive Week

Everyone knows that if you live in Los Angeles it is essential to have a car. Some of us try our best to live close to most of what we need so that we can walk or minimize the carbon emissions required to visit our favorite groceries. Other brave souls explore the horrible, illogical, tedious, dirty, slow public transportation system. I drive my car. I drive my car everywhere. Sometimes I walk to the grocery store. We have a Trader Joe’s, Vons, and Ralphs all within easy walking distance. So, it is no small thing that I turned my car over to the dealer for a whole day in order to have some minor cosmetic issues handled. This important task ultimately ate a good portion of two whole days this week.

On one of those days, as was previously mentioned, Boo Boo Busters came to the house for a consultation. Among the many projects, Jason, our consultant advised me to undertake, was the task of removing our pot rack. This may not seem like a huge deal, but in order to remove the pot rack, I had to find a new home for the pots. It was my great fortune to have already been in the process of wrapping my mind around deep cleaning my kitchen. I decided to undertake a purge of all of my kitchen cabinets the very next day.

It didn’t happen during the day, my precious little one came down with an ear infection and would not let me take a step away from him. The little I did accomplish during the day was accomplished with him clutching to my pant legs. He’s so amiable, that as long as he was touching me, he wasn’t upset about the pain in his ear. I think I’ve gotten away from the Boo Boo Busters story. I purged the cabinets in the middle of the night. It wouldn’t be safe for the kitchen to be half done the following day, so I determined to finish before morning no matter what. In the end, it didn’t take as long as I thought it would, I was done with what I neede to do by 1.

5 bags of garbage and many moons later, I finished the project. I discovered I have plenty of room for the things I actually need and use on a regular basis. I found a space for my pots and pans and still had empty shelves left over. While it may be ambitious, I also decided that a biannual check of expiration dates is essential to a cleanly kitchen. Even though I was alone in my kitchen, in the middle of the night, I was embarrassed to find spices and seasonings which read, ” Best if used by 2003″ in my cabinets!

After my late night purging fest, Boo Boo Busters returned to install the items we discussed. This morning, Micah learned that the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen don’t open anymore. He cried with frustration when he learned some of his favorite things to dump on the floor were no longer available to him. He has quickly learned there are still things he can play with in the kitchen and I am delighted to be able to encourage him.





~S

PS – I’m pretty sure that the supposedly caffeine free diet pepsi I had earlier this evening was not caffeine free.

Post Weekend Update

1. Does grabbing organic milk from Starbucks for my baby boy after a really long day, make me a really smart mommy or a really bad one? (A little background . . . we were in SF for the weekend and my little guy's great grandmother wanted to go out to lunch and shopping at the Macy's downtown, we ran out of milk before grandma ran out of her will to shop.)

2. How many times have you watched your precious little joy hit the ground unexpectedly? At the Exploratorium this weekend, Micah chased a ball and was just about to wrap his precious little arms around it, when it slipped away from him. I REALLY believed he would catch it. The bruise on his forehead made me wish I had caught him!

3. Boo Boo Busters came today to help me make some decisions about baby proofing. I already knew about most of the things that need to be done . . . but I was not prepared for the horrifying thought that my little guy might fall from the 3rd floor window of our condo if I don't make some changes. He illustrated how he could climb up on a chair, reach for something exciting, and, to my horror, plummet to the concrete below! Thankfully, the way to fix it is relatively simple and inexpensive.

~S

PS - I vow to add more visually stimulating content in future posts.

THE GATE

Many parents put gates around their children when they start walking. We took a different approach. We put the gates around the things we didn’t want him to touch. We have one big gate around daddy’s 50 inch tv. Well, I don’t know how much longer the gate will work . . . Our son pushes and pulls the gate, throws things over the gate, and reaches around the gate. Soon the gate will no longer serve its purpose and he will have to learn not to touch the tv.

~S

His First Hair Cut

My little guy finally got his first hair cut today! I have really wanted it for a long time, but his dad prefers it long. We figured out that we had been miscommunicating about the whole issue late last week. I didn't want him to have a super short cut, I just wanted him to get even end up . . . to look neat and clean. His dad finally agreed to having his hair cut and we arranged to meet at the barber's today. She cut it a little shorter than I imagined she would, but I still love it. His poor dad lamented the loss of the "fro" multiple times this evenin. I tried to take a picture of his new hair cut, but he kept running away. Somehow he has managed to associate my camera with hide and seek.
~S

BEDTIME

Ok. Call me crazy, but I don't like to put my baby to sleep. This is not because it is difficult. On the contrary, when he is tired, he goes to sleep easily. Tonight may have been a transition evening for him. Tonight I told him it was time to go to bed and to say goodnight to daddy. He walked over to his father and gave him a kiss. He walked back over to me and gave me a kiss and then started walking to his room! He's 14 months old! Is this normal? I went with him of course. We said a prayer and he went quietly into his crib. I am amazed, but maybe this is normal. The reason I don't like to put him to bed is because I like to play with him, because I enjoy him so much.

For those of you with difficulty putting your little one to sleep, don't be upset. He doesn't do everything this well. I imagine that, because I have written this note, tomorrow night won't go as smoothly.

~S

An Update: The Observatory

Ball! Ball! Ball!

When you take a 14 month old to view replicas of planets, plan to hear this over and over again. He delighted and tickled me. I wasn't sure what to expect in the way of a reaction to our outing, but I was so pleased that he actually seemed to enjoy himself. He said, "Oh, wow!" He squealed,"Ooo!" He shouted, "Hi!" at every person we passed, and this event was well attended.

This joy was not at all diminished by the fact that at least 4 different mishaps could have stopped us from enjoying ourselves:

1. Dad couldn't come; he had work to do on his car. This work had to take place after two separate church events, one in Malibu, the other in Woodland Hills. Our little guy visited with family in Reseda during these events and had to be picked up afterward. Finally, dad had to be dropped off in Gardena to do said work. Which means I had a very ungreen Saturday. I drove to Reseda, Woodland Hills, Malibu, back to Reseda, and Gardena before heading to the observatory. MADNESS

2. Upon arriving at the observatory, I discovered that all of the diapers had been used at some point earlier in the day and that know one had deemed it necessary to tell me. We found "emergency diapers" in the gift shop thanks to my mother who boldly asked the cashier as we were buying a book and a ball if they had any. We had almost given up and determined to return home.

3. My mother met us at there and thank goodness for that. After all the running around we'd done, we landed ourselves in Griffifth Park at dinner time, hungry, and with little food to appease us. We went to the cafe where we purchased an assortment of things including a fruit bowl with strawberry yogurt. Micah wanted to feed himself. The result was yogurt flung everywhere; it's good thing we chose to sit outside. Here's the part that could have sent us home . . . Anywhere the yogurt had touched his skin, Micah had what appeared to be scratches or burns. Hmm . . . I believe we discovered an allergy to strawberries. Why strawberries? He drinks milk wihout reaction, so I don't believe him to be allergic to milk products. We cleaned him up, gave him some Benadryl and returned to the gift shop to buy him a shirt to replace the yogurt covered one he had on.

4. When we finally had an opportunity to explore the exhibits, we were all ready. Everyone was clean, well-fed and excited. I stood Micah next to the statue of Einstein, took out my camera, pushed the button and nothing happened. My camera battery was dead. We had come so far, overcome so much, only to find that we would not be able to document the event. I took out my camera phone. What else could I do? Determined to find out if there wasn't a way to get a higher quality photo, I sent my mother to the gift shop for batteries. They had batteries, but I needed a Nikon battery.




We had a wonderful time . . . Micah cheered and clapped all the way back to the car.

~S

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." ~Neil Armstrong

This weekend my little boy and I will be going to the Griffith Park Observatory. There’s an exhibit, free admission, about the the first walk on the moon. Now, I know my little guy is only 14 months old, but I think you stimulate curiosity by having a lifestyle of inquiry and there is no magical age when that begins. His grandparents are going to join us and I know that being surrounded by love and large replicas of the planets will do something for his growing brain.

~S

Laundry Art

When I lived with my parents, there was no clear system for rotating who would take the garbage out. My parents believed that when the trash needed taking out, "someone" would take it out. Well, inevitably, no one would take the trash out and it would pile up in strange and twisted ways. It was kind of like that Shel Silverstein poem an older jewish woman used to come read to us in elementary school, "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out!" Before the tower toppled, my father would begin yelling, "Who made the garbage art!?"

In my house, we don't have garbage art, but we do have laundry art. I do laundry, I feel like I am constantly doing laundry. What I don't do is fold laundry with any speed. The pile I am looking at now has not been there long, but if I don't stop piling it on and start putting it away, it could be there all week.

I know none of you create laundry or garbage art for that matter, but now that I've framed it this way, I am almost inclined to let it stay. I may even walk around the house yelling, "Who made the laundry art!?" in the hope that someone else will eventually fold it.



~S

Top 5 Online Shops

I have 2 sisters. It wasn't until I had my little boy that I realized how limited the selection of boy clothing and decorative accessories is. I began searching the web for great things I could put in his surroundings and on his cute little body. The shops below are just a few of my favorites:

1. Romp

Romp sells unique, green products for children. I purchased magnets with the alphabet on them. I hung a metal bulletin board low on my son's wall so he could play with them. He loves them and so do I.

2. Tea Collection

Tea collection stuff is super soft and great for playing in. It is also just the right weight for LA, he doesn't get nearly as sweaty as he does in some of the other soft clothing he has.

3. TARGET

TARGET's online store stocks way more than they do in the store. I found modern, soft, unique bedding for my little boy's room here. Some of the other stores I searched, when I was looking, sold out of pieces of their sets quickly. Others did not have the sets I liked in stock.

4. The Land of Nod

My son got a black eye playing with a child-sized chair from another chain store. The Land of Nod's frameless chair has made a life saving addition to my son's play space.

5. Red Envelope

I love the personalized items you can find on this website. I took an impression of my son's hand and footprints for a keepsake I found here when he was 4 months old. I will treasure it forever.

~S

One New Blog

This blog is about being a mom in an urban setting. How can you do it well? What kinds of mistakes do you make? What resources are available to you?

I am a working mom. I hope that this will be a space that will inspire and encourage. I also hope that it will make you laugh and that you will enjoy the community it unites. So, from one urban mom to another, welcome!