Renaissance dad...

My Baby Boy…

daSerge22 — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:58:00 +0000

I have been meaning to write this post for at least a week now, just never got around to sitting down and writing something meaningful. WoW, My Son!? I don’t think I even know how happy I am to be having a son. I wanted my first child to be a boy, I got a girl and it really changed me. When we got pregnant again, I wanted another girl, having my little princess made me want another little princess, but now I’m getting my prince! I wanted another little girl, because I knew what was in store, plus we would save a ton of money because we have everything for a girl. But, life doesn’t work like that, my prince is on his way and now he needs a name? We have all been really excited about having a baby boy, especially Amaya. Before we knew the sex, we asked Amaya what she wanted and she would always say a ‘brother’, well, she got her wish. We all got our wish, our baby boy is healthy has all ten toes and fingers, now he just needs his name. We can’t wait to meet you!

Doctors Visit…

daSerge22 — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:31:38 +0000

Look at my little trooper, don’t let the smile fool you, I asked her to smile for me because she looked so sad because of how sick she was. I took her to the doctors last week after having a fever on 100.1 and a couple of sleepless nights with endless coughing. The doctor said I was right to come in because she has a mild case of pneumonia and was really backed up with a lot of mucus. This whole situation had me more stressed out than my wife. She was away on a business trip early in the week, when Amaya started getting sick. I also had to keep Amaya home this week from school for excessive pooping on herself, so she’s been having a couple of rough weeks. Poor nena, but she is on the mend, the good doctor gave her some antibiotics, so she is back to her normal self, getting into trouble and giving us early grey hairs!

Potty Assistance…

daSerge22 — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:05:14 +0000

I know it’s been a while since I posted something, and truthfully I have been busy, but also I wasn’t sure what my next post would be about. The last few weeks we have all been pretty busy, and Amaya has been pretty busy dropping bombs in her pants at school. My wife and I are clueless as to what her issue is with doing number two in the potty? At this point it has become a little frustrating because she knows how to use the potty, but for some reason she will not drop number two? The photo above is not Amaya, but when I saw this photo, I couldn’t help but think, “Is this why she’s afraid to do number two?” We have been trying our best to explain to her that the poop goes in the potty, and she says it like she understands, she’s even begun to tell us that she has to go poop, but really it’s still just pee-pee. We don’t get angry with her or make her feel bad when she has an accident, but it’s starting to feel like we’re talking to a teenager – in one ear and out the other. We keep hoping that she’s just going to figure it out, but last week I had to go to her school three times to change her during the day. So it seems that what we have been doing isn’t really working, so we decided to step it up a notch; when she has an accident she can’t watch television for the rest of the day. That also goes for weekends too! We would like to think she doesn’t watch a lot of television, but sometimes on the weekend and even after school into the evening, she might end up watching more than she should. Now that she has school and lives here in the city she has been a lot more active, so she watches a lot less television than she use too, but she still likes her shows. So, we will see if this works out, and if it doesn’t, well, eventually she will learn to use the potty. We could all only hope she learns before she’s off to college.

Best Sister Ever!

daSerge22 — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 01:21:50 +0000

So my wife is almost three months pregnant with our second child! I feel like it hasn’t really hit me yet, but the oven is on and come spring, I will be a father of two. Don’t get me wrong I’m super excited, except that I have to do diapers all over again, but this is going to be fun. When we first found out, we began telling Amaya that she was going to be a big sister but she did seem to like the idea of another little person being around, but mommy explained to her that the baby is growing in her tummy and that when he/she is born we will need her help to take care of the baby. She seemed to like that, so now she wear the shirt proudly.

Dance Class!

daSerge22 — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:28:18 +0000

Yesterday Amaya had dance class after school, we missed last week because when I picked her up from school she didn’t feel well and she threw up on me on the way home. Well thank goodness we didn’t have a relapse of that yesterday, only issue this time is that they never let the kids out of school when they say at 2:30, it’s usually like 2:35-2:40, and her dance class begins at 2:45, so we had to make a taxi dash for class. We were a little late but the teacher was really sweet. Only thing was she made me work extra by going up to the second floor changing room, when there was a changing room right next to the class. The teacher was so eager to begin the class, she almost let Amaya stay in the clothes she was wearing in school. I told her I must insist on changing her into her leotard. I mean, I ran around to three different stores to find the right leotard, and she was so excited to wear it, there was no way she was not going to wear it. Once she had it on, she was ready for class. At first she seemed ok in class because there was music and instruments, but within a few minutes fatigue was kicking in and she was a little whiney and cranky, and I had to sit in the classroom. Luckily there are only two girls in the class, including Amaya, so it wasn’t that embarrassing. The teacher was really sweet and understanding and had great patience, and was still able to teach her class. Amaya has school from 8-2:30, so it’s a really long day for her, plus Wednesday she has gym at school, and being that is was the first day for her, the teacher re-assured me that just keep coming back and she will get use to it, just like school. Of course she had moments where she was really enjoying the class, and you could see she wanted to enjoy it more, but she just seemed too tired to jump around. I’ll have to remember to bring her some juice and gold-fish, that always seems to give her energy. She made the best of her first dance class, and hopefully next week I won’t have to sit in the class.

Bridge Series…

daSerge22 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:23:57 +0000

I’m not sure if I mentioned that I’m an artist? As long as I can remember it’s one of the things in life that keep me happy. That and now my wife and daughter. I went to School of Visual Arts here in the city, graduated in 2008 with a BFA in illustration/fine arts. I had my little one after that summer, and really did the stay at home dad thing and freelance as much as possible. My wife was finishing up her masters, and jumping right into her Ph.D program, so it was quite a transition for all of us. Of course we had our arguments and moments were we wanted to kill each other, but we had a beautiful new life to take care of, and we wanted her to have both her mother and father growing up. Fortunate for us, we have a great support from our families which allows my wife and I to pursue the careers we want. When we lived upstate for the first two years of Amaya’s life, I worked a few odd jobs, a few internships, and shared a studio with another artist for a while. When I had free time I would jet to the studio to get some work done, it was great because it was a big studio and I had space to do much larger works. I can get away with doing one big piece at a time here in the city, but the studio was great for doing multiple large pieces.

Like any artist they want to display their work to the world and then hopefully sell their work so they can continue to live and create their work. I stride to do that, as well as taking care of my family, which really comes above all. The internet has really allowed all kinds of artist to expose their work to the world, which is great but can also seem daunting at the same time. But that shouldn’t stop you from creating your work, so I continue to create at will, but also realized that these days there are a lot of elements to being an artist.

I have been able to create my own little social media network in a corner on the internet world and if you search enough I am sure you will stumble across one of my websites. That being said, the series above are for sale at my website and can be purchased through PayPal. The four large pictures are up already, the smaller ones along with a few more framed works will be posted in the coming week(s). Visit my “official Webpage” and check out further who I am and what kind of art I do and all the things that I’m into.

Back to School Night…

daSerge22 — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:44:03 +0000

So last night was the first parents nights at the school. It was a chance for us to talk to the teacher and get an over view of what they were going to be doing and what they did their first week of school. My poor Nena missed the last two days of the week, because of her accidents, but the teacher said the kids noticed that Amaya wasn’t in class and asked for her. We couldn’t be more happy with the decision we made by sending her to this school. When we sat in the gym for the formal introduction, we were introduced to the teachers, the principal, and was also given a power point presentation of the methods they use and institute at the school. My wife was loving this part so much, I think she was having deja vu of her dissertation presentation, it was quite informative. After that we went upstairs to the classroom and got a more intimate view of the space and a small presentation from her teacher. She let us roam around the class and take photos, of course I had too, for the blog or course. The classroom is incredible, it’s very spacious, nice and bright, they have computers, (one class has a smart board) and look below they even have a little kids potty!
I couldn’t get over how cute this bathroom is, and it’s right in their room so I don’t see why Amaya is having accidents. The first day I came to pick her up she was using the bathroom and she seemed so happy to be using it like a big girl. But when it comes to number two I think she’s not quite sure what to do. She has no problem doing number one, but my wife and I are a little clueless as to why she doesn’t want to poop in the potty? Her teacher is fabulous, she made us feel a lot more at ease about her potty training and told us not to stress and that we should just work on it at home as much as possible, and sooner than we know it, she will be using the potty full and through. I love the color, and the windows are huge and they face the street so in the morning they get great light in the room, and yeah it does look a little empty, but it is still the first week. Next parent night I’m sure the class will be filled with an assortment of toys and an abundance of their work on the walls.

Dance Class, a Day to Remember…

daSerge22 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:03:33 +0000

Last week (Friday, second day of school), the woman who gave Amaya her interview – yeah she had a test interview – stopped me on the way out and asked me to talk for a second. Yep, this was the icing on the cake saying “Yes. You are a Real parent now!” She pulled me aside to talk to me about Amaya, and show me some pictures from her class. She was also telling me that she noticed Amaya holding her ears when people spoke too loud or when a loud truck went by and honked its horn. She thought her to have sensitive hearing and wondered if we ever put her in music class or any kind of dance class. She has taken a music class which she loved, and really I thought most kids her age like music or playing with music instruments. Anyway, It was interesting for her to point this out, and she told us that it’s something that we should try to develop. So this week we took the step to signing her up for some dance classes, at Ballet Hispanico. Of course we had her signed up we had to get her specific clothes for the class, and from what I remember – my sister took classes there for a long time when she was younger – they are pretty strict about dress attire in the classroom. I ran around to three different stores, clueless without the list my wife made for me (below), because when they asked if I needed assistance I began talking and realized they had no clue what I was asking for, so I just handed them the list. Each store had one thing but not all three at once, so I ended up getting one piece from each store.

Unfortunately, I get a call from my wife around 1:30 pm, I was kind of waiting for this call, telling me that Amaya had another accident – this would be her second – and I needed to go pick her up immediately. So my little one has no problem taking a pee-pee in the potty but she has a block about poop. So I went to get her, when I arrived, she looked fine other than a runny nose, and she had just woken up from her nap. It wasn’t until we were in the street on our way home were she started acting a little strange. She began crying, and coughing, and seemed really agitated, so I picked her up and then realized she was still in her soiled underpants, and then coughing to the point of gaging. This really frightened me and I practically froze in the street until I knew she was ok. She was fine once she hurled up lunch on my chest, and she seemed to crying normal after that. I rushed her home, she was extremely agitated the entire way home – you can imagine how I felt with hot baby vomit on my chest, a crying baby, it was hot out, I almost had a break down – I went straight to the bathtub, and finally when I got her clean and calmed I realized it was 2:40 and class begins at 2:45, we’re going to have to miss the first day of dance class. Even in the midst of all her crying part of my strategy to calm her, was to tell her we were going to dance class. Through her crying she said she wanted to go, but it didn’t stop her from crying. What did stop her crying was an ice pop and some Super Why! (Super Why is a pbs kids reading cartoon) After that she seemed fine, almost like it never happened, me on the other hand, I had to go take a shower, cry in the shower, eat a pint of ice cream and then take a nap.

Chicken & Potatoes…

daSerge22 — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:47:54 +0000

Summer is over, time for some hearty eating. I love the changing of seasons, especially when it turns to autumn. The leaves changing colors is one of my favorite parts about autumn, especially when I travel upstate on the weekend to the in-laws, Bear Mountain is beautiful this time of year. I also like the change of fashion, getting to wear sweaters, jackets, over coats, scarfs, boots, etc. The hearty foods, chili’s, stews, heavier beer, football. I love everything about it.

The other night I made some chicken and potatoes, and to keep it a little light I made a salad to go along with it. I used skinless chicken thighs, and some organic potatoes. Set the oven to 425° and while thats heating up chop your potatoes. Use a glass pan, put the chicken and potatoes in together and cover both with whatever kind of marinade you want to use. I used a lemon garlic marinade. Use some black pepper, a tiny bit of salt, then finely chop up some fresh sage and rosemary, sprinkle it over everything and then mix around – don’t be shy with the spices. Then top it off with some thyme. The oven should now be ready, before you put it in the oven give it one more light sprinkle of pepper, now set it on the middle rack. It should cook for about 35-40 minutes for that nice brown slightly crispy look, and turning the chicken once in between.

Look at that? Make sure you’re careful when turning over the chicken, but it’s so worth it, I mean look at that? Too bad we have no left overs. The chicken was still soft and tender, yet had some crispy bits around the edges of the meat. The potatoes, soft and flavored by the marinade, with a the skin nice and crispy almost potato chip like. No wonder there wasn’t any leftovers.
For a while I stopped eating salad because it became boring to eat. I was never a huge fan of dressing, but with my new found love of cooking, I have begun to let myself go and try everything at least once, to really see what flavors will work together and what won’t. Salad has become fun again to eat. What I made with this meal was a mixed green salad, with some fresh arugula, grape tomatoes and mango. Dress it some extra virgin olive oil, squeeze half a fresh lime, some black pepper and mix. Then top it off with some manchego cheese shavings. Serve and Enjoy!

Sunday Afternoon…

daSerge22 — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:32:43 +0000

I wanted to post something yesterday, but sometimes life gets in the way and I had to attend to Amaya and my wife. We had a nice Sunday, we went to church in the morning and had a nice brunch at Cafe Frida. Yesterday being September 11, it only seemed right to go to church. My wife is religious, me not so much, but I go because she wants me to go and it makes her happy. It amazes me that it’s been ten years already since the attacks on the Twin Towers. Everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing, who they were with, it’s one of those days that will forever be remembered. I don’t want to get into my feelings about that day, there are so many views as to what “really” happened, and I don’t want to start any kind of debate here. But let me tell you, Cafe Frida was incredible!

Of course after church Amaya was ready to eat. This place came highly recommended by my mom, and I passed it up a few times before, so we took the opportunity to have brunch there after church. The front of the restaurant is easy to miss from the street, so you might think it small at first, but it is quite large and they have a nice patio at the back of the restaurant. It’s a great little space, it’s quiet, you don’t hear any street traffic, and they have some nice decor. It’s made brunch really enjoyable.

I know that this day for some isn’t one to enjoy, I’m sure it’s extremely hard. I can’t say that I lost anyone, so I don’t know how to feel, but I know people who lost loved ones and this day is never easy for them. We must persevere, so we can enjoy life still. Do that we must, and go to Cafe Frida, sit in the garden and have a few.