Me in a Size Four! With Nicole, Alicia, and Carrie at the MomTrends Event

Yesterday, dear reader, I left off my tale of blogger-woe at the point at which I had vanquished my underwhelming-techie self over at Qualcomm, only to find myself oversized for Lands End.

A breif recap: I went to a Qualcomm super techie press conference.  I am not even a sub-super techie.  But I figured it out. Yay me.  Then, I left there and went straight to the MomTrends Lands End holiday party where I should have been totally in the zone – instead, I was in the the petite department.  That pretty much brings you up to date. So what did I do next?

Lucikly, Nicole, MomTrends herself (and an actual size 2) had hired stylists and they went to work. (Luckily, too, I had a pair of Spanx in my bag. I’m nothing if not prepared) I squeezed into the Spanx, into the size 4 dress, donned a blazer to cover the worst of it, and a size too-big (but super duper cute) Lands End riding boots to distract from the worst of it, and walked the runway like a champ.

A champ who couldn’t move her arms too far in front of her body…but still.

And what did I take away from these two seemingly disparate events?

1. That I can understand tech speak if I just listen hard enough, and brush up on my metaphorical Swahili.

2. That it kinda does matter who powers your smart phone, and maybe I should start paying attention.

3. That Lands End makes  suprisingly sophisticated housewares like Mercury glass candle holders, birch bark candles, and hand knit animals.

4. That Lands End Canvas line is (gasp) kinda hip.

and most importantly, that

5. Lands End has taken vanity sizing to new levels of vanity. and I love them for it.  Because Vanity Sizing or no,  I can’t help but be thrilled that I fit into a size four.  I will take that to my GRAVE, people!  A size four! Vanity sizing works!  I felt fabulous.

(The terrific make up by Evy Drew didn’t hurt either.)

And there you have it.  From Tech geek to fashion floozy. A day in the(blogging) life of this NYC Blogger.

But if I want in depth suggestions for every kind of tween – from foodies, to book worms, to techies, to fashiontween-sta’s – well, then I head on over to KidZVuz.  There, we’ve not only listed the best stuff, we’re giving  a lot of it away.

And I mean A LOT. Like a Wappy Dog, Moshi Monster DS game with gift pack, Just Dance 3 for Xbox Kinect, just to name a few.

You can’t enter here, but you can over on The KidzVuz Parent Blog, and your kids can enter at KidzVuz.com.

So go. Read. Shop. Enter. You never know.  It could be your lucky day!

Kids love to eat.  Just not always the stuff we want them to. What do your kids eat…or not eat?  How do you include them in preparing family meals?  What’s your stand on fast food?   For the answers to these and other questions, come to our KidzVuz Twitter party, this Wednesday night at 10pm eastern – after the kids have gone to sleep!

Our panelists this week include the ever-awesome @ritzking, who knows from food…and tweens, @foodtrainers the fabulous nutritionist and mom of a tween boy and a few other surprise guests.  And of course, there will be delicious prizes!

Remember to follow @KidzVuz and #KVBuzz to win!  You must be (virtually) present to win.

#KVBuzz Twitter Party Details & RSVP

WHAT: #KVBuzz Twitter Party – get ready to talk about tweens, food, and cooking with your kids.
WHEN: Wednesday, October 19th, 10-11pm EST
WHERE: On Twitter of course! Follow and use the #KVBuzz hashtag during the party, set up a column on TweetDeck or HootSuite for easy following.
PRIZES: 2 x$25 Grub Hub gift card, 1 x $25 Panera Gift Card
FOLLOW: Follow @KidzVuz, @Hip2housewife, @beccasara, @ritzking and @foodtrainers and RSVP here. No RSVP? No chance to win!

Want more chances to win?

Like KidzVuz on Facebook for an extra entry

Tweet out: “I’m going! @kidzvuz twitter party on 10/19 at 10pm -tweens, food, fun! RSVP to win a $25 Grub Hub gift card and more! http://ht.ly/707Vv”

That’s it.  Once you’re at the Twitter party, the conversation flies fast and furious…and so do the prizes.

So join us! Talk Turkey…or pizza. Or…whatever.

The Entire cast of Motherhood Out Loud

Last week I went to see Primary Stages Motherhood Out Loud, which opens today at the 59E59 theatre here in NYC. MOL is an uneven series of vignettes about – you guess it – motherhood.  From childbirth to college, to becoming the parent to your own parents, it covers the experiences all parents have.

And that’s the problem.

It’s not that I don’t want to “relate” to what I’m seeing on stage, it’s just that I’d also like it to make me realize I relate to something I ddin’t quite know I did before.  I guess it’s Andy Warhol‘s theory of the visual arts applied to the theatre arts: Art is something that makes you look at familiar things in new ways.

Well, they got the familiar part.

Yes, I can relate to the story about about the callous anesthesiologist administering an epidural.  Yes, I chuckled when a new mom called her baby a “sleep terrorist.”  I completely “got” the mother who announced she hated the playground.  (I did too) But none of the comedy surprised me.  None of it made me laugh about something I never realized was funny, or ridiculous.  It felt a little bit “been there done that.”

Which was a bummer, because I got the tickets from my brand-spanking new affiliation with MamaDrama (full disclosure) and I wanted to like it more than I did. Thank goodness for the dramatic pieces which were much more consistent, and sometimes, downright wonderful.

You certainly can’t blame the actors for the show’s weaknesses: three women and one man play all the parts: Mary Bacon, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Randy Graff, amd James Lecesne. They all do a terrific job jumping from part to part, from playwright to playwright. (The show is actually a series of vignettes from several different writers.)

But it’s uneven.  Because while the comedy scenes felt a bit cliched – the more serious scenes  shine Michelle Lowe’s Queen Esther, about a gender-confused little boy, captures the pain and love of a mother for her son. And hey- there’s Michele Lowe again with Graduation Day Fugue, a moving, subtle monologue about an empty nester. (Lowe should have stuck with drama, however, her “comic” Bridal Shop piece falls flat.)

“If we’re using a Surrogate, how come I’m the one with Morning Sickness” is a wonderful comic/serious turn for James Lecesne, written by Marco Pennette. It’s about  gay couple and their struggle to have a baby.  And it’s just the kind of humor I like – it’s funny, but twinged with sadness.  The father is self aware – he knows when his “inner asshole” comes out. He knows both his gay and his straight friends will look at him funny. But he’s a parent.  Lescensne does it again with a comic/tragic turn in Elizabeth, by David Cale.  In this piece, a grown son becomes the “parent” to his aging mother.

So bottom line: you’ll laugh.  I did.  But you’ll laugh in a sit-com way — not in a “John Stewart is so insightfully funny and I never looked at it that way” way.  And you’ll tear up — not from cliches, but from good writing (kudos to Jessica Goldberg for Stars and Stripes about a military mother, movingly, angrily, lovingly performed by Ekulona.), good performances, and moments that make you say “how true.  And I never looked at it that way before.”

Warhol might even have been proud.

Want tickets to see Motherhood Out Loud? Use this discount code for $5 off the ticket price. BWWMOM

And social media babes that we are, we’re celebrating with a Twitter Party!  We’re going to be talking about the up-side of kids and the internet.  Yes, there really is one.  We’re talking about kids getting creative through technology.  Look,  KidzVuz is all about empowering kids to express their opinions, master video making, become critical thinkers and learn how to be positive digital citizens.  Let’s celebrate our kids’ creativity and big mouths – instead of just scaring them about the big bad digital boogie man!  Plus, you could win some super cool prizes that may even garner you a hug….from your surly pre-teen!

We’ve gathered some our favorite mom bloggers – experts on raising tweens and teens -  because that’s their reality!  We all know that the preteen years can be tough, but these panelists have handled it with humor, savvy and an immunity against eye-rolling. (at least where their kids can see them do it)

Join @selfishmom, @madijack, @jenwag57 and @take2mommy, along with us, @kidzvuz (AKA@beccasara & @hip2housewife) as we party and dish about how to give our kids the tools they need to rule the internet and become content creators – not passive consumers!

Have a BLAST! AND WIN Prizes!

During our KidzVuz launch party, we will be giving away fabulous prizes! Remember to follow @KidzVuz and #KVBuzz to win!

Grand Prize: A Nintendo DSi with a set of Super Mario games worth $500
And…
Redakai X-Reader Trading Card Pack, starter set, and 3D card reader
$25 Fashion Playtes (it’s a design your own real-life clothing site!) Gift certificate,and  Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse PC game.

Who knows?  There may be even more fun toys!

#KVBuzz Twitter Party Details & RSVP

WHAT: #KVBuzz Twitter Party – get ready to talk about tweens, tech and creativity
WHEN: Wednesday, October 5th, 10-11pm EST
WHERE: On Twitter of course! Follow and use the #KVBuzz hashtag during the party, set up a column on TweetDeck or HootSuite for easy following.
PRIZES: Redekai, Fashion Playtes and Nintendo DSi with game prize pack
FOLLOW: Follow @KidzVuz, @SelfishMom, @JenWag57, @Madijack, @Hip2housewife, @beccasara and @take2mommy and RSVP below in the Linky tool so we can all follow each other.

Want more chances to win?

Like KidzVuz on Facebook (you can just click on the widget to the right!) for an extra entry

Tweet out: “I’m going! @kidzvuz twitter party on 10/5 at 10pm – tweens, tech & creativity!

Last – and VERY IMPORTANT:  RSVP to be eligible to win a Nintendo DSi & more and the KidzVuz Parents’ Blog.

It is a well documented fact that no one over the age of 8 is capable of learning the trading card games Pokemon, Yugioh, or any of the other ones either. It must be a biological imperative: if you are not a kid – especially a boy – between the ages of 7 and 12, your brain simply cannot memorize the powers of each card, the levels, the points, the evolutions…any of it.

Which is why kids will absolutely love the new to stores Mechatar robots.  They will instinctively understand the interactive toy with an incredibly well-integrated (and needed to play it) online component, but their parents (like me) will not.  What kid wouldn’t like that?  They get to feel  superior and  have fun.

The way I see it, Mechatar is essentially a 3-d, hold-it-in-your-hand, walk-it-across the room with your remote, trading card.  Mechatars battle, they have power levels, and “lives” and “elements.”  There are, according to the online training, eight elements in the Mechaverse.  There’s even a handy dandy flow chart that shows which of these elements beats which.  And yet I still had NO clue what did what to whom and why. My son seemed to instinctively understand it all and immediately began battling away.

Here’s basically how it works, courtesy of the Mechatar team:

“Brand-new and launching this fall, Mechatars combines the best of online gaming and RC robotic toys by connecting the physical world and online world through

This one is called Wrexx

cloud computing.”

Basically, right out of the box (read: no need to find batteries) your robot can walk around the room just like any other RC toy.  (And I would like to mention that the robot worked on carpet just as well as on our wood floors. Also, that it did not take a ridiculous, Herculean effort to get it out of the box. I loved that.) What makes it different is the online component.  Attach your robot to your computer with the included USB chord, and you can play online games, battle other virtual Mechatars and download missions from the computer onto the actual robot to then play in the real world.  As you complete real life missions (make sure you are in “mission mode” on the remote) you earn points and badges in the virtual Mechaverse.  As you earn points in the Mechaverse, you can new skills on your real robot. It really is “blended reality.”

Also, in addition to battling online, actual Mechatars in the same room can sense each other via wireless technology and battle each other right in your living room. (didn’t get to try this – as they only sent one. But sounds like my kid would LOVE that aspect, too)

Pretty nifty.

Want One?

Here’s what you have to do

• Visit www.Mechatars.com
• Check out the Mechatar lineup and then leave a comment telling me which Mechatar you’d like to win. (In other words: “I wanna win” in the comment box doesn’t count!) Please note: in order to see the Mechatar line up, you’ll have to click on “play now” then “register.”   But don’t worry, you won’t need to leave any info o the site.

One winner will be chosen at random on October 4th. You must be a US resident 18 or older to enter.

Of course we all can’t be winners, but we sort of can, use this code ” MechMom” to get 10% off your order at www.mechatars.com. (Coupon Code Valid through November 30th)

Overall, this is a classic remote control toy with a 21st century high-tech twist that separates it from the rest of the pack.  My prediction: It’s gonna be huge.  I mean, with the online Mechaverse, they already have animated versions of the robots — could a movie/tv series/t-shirts/lunch box  be far behind? So buyer beware: if you get your kid one of these, you may end up living in your own Mechaverse – with an obsessed kid talking incomprehensibly – and happily – about elements, and life points, and who knows what else!

I was selected to participate in this sponsored post series by Clever Girls Collective.

We had great photos by Mae Hacking

Yes, it’s taken me this long to recover from the ginormous event that was Sweet Suite 11 at BlogHer, the party KidzVuz and The Big Toy Book hosted at The Hard Rock hotel. We had swag.  We had wine. We had cupcakes.  We had line of women waiting to get in. And I’m finally (finally!) posting all about it.

And once they got in, we have Shainsware Bracelets for them to make, Xbox games for them to play, Penguin Books for them to read, a super cool bubble gun for them to ooh and ahh over…and lots more.

The night before BlogHer officially began we held out fabulous party for over 300 influential women bloggers from all over the country. Ever wondered what an ocean of swag looks like?  Check out these pics of set up and fulfillment of the awesome swag bags full of the incredible products from our sponsors.  From Adora to XBox Kinect, Hex Bugs to Shainsware bracelets, plus Leapfrog, Penguin Books, Briarpatch games, Activision, Disney Princess, Bananagrams and f Hasbro Nerf- the sponsors were awesome and best of all the guests had an amazing time trying out all of the super cool toys.

We were lucky enough to have Microsoft lend us 6 gorgeous PCs for the event so we could display the kid-generated sponsor reviews all over the party space.  As if super cool toys weren’t enough, our guests were also admiring the laptops in funky colors and spectacular displays.  If you’re still back to school shopping for a PC check these out!

1. Pink Dell Inspiron 14R: It’s Pink!  What else do you need to know? Don’t like pink? You can get optional switch lids and change the color to match your mood…or outfit!  1st generation Intel Core i5 processor, 640GB HDD, 4GB RAM, Starts at $549
2. HP Pavilion DV6 in navy blue: An entertainment laptop with a nice big screen:  2^nd generation Intel Core i5 processor, comes in umber, red, blue, 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, $749
3. Sony VAIO C in neon green: (well, ours was green – in this pic it’s a yellow one!)  2^nd generation Intel Core i5 processor, up to 750GB HDD, up to 8GB RAM, comes in 6 bright colors, starts at $749
4. Acer TimelineX in blue: Less than one inch thick! How do they do that??!?!?:  2^nd generation Intel Core i5 processor , 13.3” display, 4 GB RAM, 500 HDD, $793.23
5. 

   The Asus - Featuring KidzVuz - gets Cozy with Briarpatch Toys

   ASUS N53JQ:  Great if you use your PC to listen to music: 1st generation Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB RAM, 640GB HDDpremium sound, all aluminum chassis, $900

6. Toshiba E305: High Performance and High Speed what you need? And it’s also in a sleek sexy package. Seriously. It won a sexy laptop award!:  2^nd generation Intel Core i5 processor, 640GB HDD, 6GB RAM, backlit keyboard, Best Buy Blue Label PC, $849

   

How Cute is this Adora Doll?What Tween Girl wouldn't want these MeBands?

HexBugs!

We loved getting the kid reviews for our sponsors before and after the event and now we have a little taste of what it would be like to be Santa Claus.  There is something very rewarding about handing a 30 pound swag bag full of truly awesome products to very happy and excited guests!  And we really loved working with the amazing women at The Big Toy Book: Laurie Shacht, (the Toy Insider Mom) Reyne Rice and the outrageously hard working and creative @complicatedmama, Corine Ingrassia.  Next time in New York City!!

So your beautiful summer retreat was destroyed in the hurricane?  Or it wasn’t, but your staff of thousands simply couldn’t make it out of their own flooded digs in time to ready your mansion for your Labor Day arrival?  What’s that?  You don’t have a fabulous seaside retreat?  No one needs to know that.  Irene is the perfect excuse to stay in NYC for Labor Day Weekend.  it’s not that you don’t have a mansion by the sea – it’s just that mother nature refused to cooperate!

Not that you need an excuse.  Because any true New Yorker knows, the best time to be in New York City is when everyone else is gone.  Like Labor Day Weekend.  Chic restaurants will suddenly be thrilled to see you — and not just at 5:30pm. Sold out shows will have great seats. And there will be something to do every day of the holiday weekend.  Because Holiday or no – it’s still New York City – where there is always something fabulous going on for you and your family.

Image from BroadwayWorld.com

On average, I’d say my husband and I go to the theatre about 15 times a year — maybe even a bit more. Our kids?  Not so much.  A lot of the time, New York productions skew either too old (inappropriate) or too young (can you help the Princess find her way home? Clap three times everyone!).  We do love going to The New Victory, for unusual, innovative productions. I just bought our subscription for the year, as a matter of fact. But other than the occasional Broadway musical and the New Vic, the kids don’t go to the theatre with us very much. (Though we do go to dance: Alvin Ailey is a perennial favorite, as is Parsons Dance, as long as David Parson’s piece “Caught” is on the bill. Plus, I force them to see at least one classical ballet each year. Cuz I’m mean.)

My son has complained that he only ever gets to see musicals – never a play.  And I can’t say I disagree.  But do I really want him – does he really want – to sit through a meditation on the morality of war photographers, and the essence of what it means to be present? (Donald Margulies‘ Time Stands Still, last season at Manhattan Theatre Club) Would he enjoy a play about a small town that’s really about birth, death, and everything in between? (Will Eno’s Middletown, at The Vineyard Theatre last season.)

ummmm. No.

Which is why I was excited about War Horse, the hugely successful play from The Lincoln Center Theatre at the Vivian Beaumont. Based on the young adult novel by Michael Morpurgo, War Horse tells the story of a boy and his horse, of the drunken father who sells the horse to the British Army for use during World War I, and the boy’s journey to find and save his horse – even as he saves himself. The extraordinary thing about this production, is the puppetry.  The horses are all played by actors with horse-sized puppets – as many as three people are needed to operate just one of them.  The puppets, and the actors acting through them, are extraordinary.

There is some artistically staged violence.  There is some reference to drinking.  There is death.  A lot of it. Because much of the second act takes place on the battle fields of WWI. (Though the death of horses seems more calculated to upset than those of the human soldiers) The themes of the play are predictable but accessible: loyalty, perseverance. Love of family…and of pets. Responsibility.  There’s really nothing in here that would be particularly hard for kids to take – or to understand.

But will they like it?

Kids younger than 10 might find some of the scenes a bit scary.  And even many ten year olds will find the war scenes and even the arguments between drunken father and son a bit frightening.  But sophisticated kids 11-and up will love (as did I) the spectacular, and impressive puppetry. They will – if they have ever had a pet – identify with Albert and his love for his horse, Joey. The second act is a bit long.  But I think overall, they will like the story, love the imagery, and get a sense of just how inventive live theater staging, sets, and art direction can be. No 3D glasses necessary.

Photo from oneapron.com

I’ve been hesitant to write about Jennifer Perillo’s loss, just one week ago, of her husband Mike.  I don’t want to intrude on her grief.  Or pretend that we are closer than we are. Or seem like I’m using her very personal tragedy as blog fodder.

Plus, so many others – like Marinka, at Motherhood in NYC, and Nicole at Momtrends – other New York based bloggers who know and love Jennie – have already written beautiful posts.  Food bloggers from around the country  – some who never even met Jennie or her family, have been moved to write their own tributes, and to bake the Peanut Butter Pie that was Mike’s favorite, and that Jennie asked everyone to bake, and give to someone they love today…for who knows what tomorrow will bring.

But I still feel compelled to write because I do know Jennie.  And I’ve met her adorable little girls.  And, in a strange, small-world coincidence that I didn’t even realize until Mike was already gone – I knew Mike, too.  I worked with him for years.  We spent countless hours together in windowless rooms making promos for Lifetime television (Mike was an editor, I was a writer/producer) and Nickelodeon, and who knows how many other clients.  I remember Mike as talented, funny, whip smart, quick, full of energy and life – and very crush worthy.

It’s no wonder so many are crushed by his sudden, way-too-young loss.

How did I not realize that I knew Jennie’s husband? I don’t know.  I think that in this blogging world, we know each other in such an unusual way.  We feel connected through shared words and passions, thoughts, and tweets. But our relationships often exist only in the virtual space. We only know each other – not our families. Until Mike died, I knew neither the name or occupation of Jennie’s husband.  Had I know them, I surely would have re-connected with Mike – some 15 years after we last suffered through coming up with a way to make yet another Woman In Peril movie starring Lyndsey Wagner or Meredith Baxter Birney seem new and fresh.

We surely would have joked that after years of editor food: we used to get decent  Greek ordered in from a local Astoria diner, or lousy Chinese ordered from a store front where the only difference between General Tsao’s Chicken and Sesame Chicken was the sprinkling of – you guessed it – sesame seeds – added just before they sealed the styrofoam take-out container — How after all that, he ended up married to a health-conscious foodie and professional chef who only uses bottled organic milk, produce from the farmers market, and cloth napkins.  No styrofoam in sight.

But I didn’t realize in time who he was.

Some might say that having known Jennie online for years, and in person for one, the fact that I never made the connection proves that online friendships aren’t real.  That they are superficial. But I see it in a completely different light: I think it shows, despite what we don’t know about each other -  just how connected we all really are.

On Tuesday, only two days after Mike died, a few of us – blogging friends – went over to Jennie’s not to grieve, but to make her laugh. She did laugh. And smile, and joke, and cried a little.  She was amazing, and strong, and thinking about cooking, and recipes and her girls. When, at around 6pm, Mike’s work friends turned up — and turned out to be my old work friends, too, when, finally, I made the connection, and the light bulb went off in my head – Jennie turned to me and said “So you’re being here was meant to be.”

Yes, it was.  But not only because I knew Mike all those years ago. It was meant to be because online communities are real.  Virtual friendships are true and lasting.  The connections we make with one another – whether through Twitter, or simply reading each other’s blogs – they run fast and deep.

At the memorial service on Friday, one of Mike’s long-time friends, when I told him I knew Jennie through blogging, said “Oh wow! The bloggers showed up!” Of course we did.  The online community came out it force for Jennie. After a loss that was virtually incomprehensible, the virtual world with whom Jennie so graciously, generously, shares her recipes, spirit, and love – loved her back.

Can Twitter and blogging be superficial? Sure. But they can also make people feel close enough to someone they never even met in real life to bake her Peanut Butter pie. They can also make friendships true enough that Jennie called on her blogging friends in her time of need — and we came. And they can also  bring back memories of greasy Chinese food shared with a funny, charming person who just happened to be married to someone you met online.  And then let someone who doesn’t know what to say – how to comfort -  share those memories with his young widow and his young girls, to help them laugh about the man they loved.

Lots of us have relationships that began in the virtual world.  But they are as real as any others.  And for Jennie, I hope, they’ve been a blessing.

Related articles

• peanut butter pie, gluten-free (glutenfreegirl.com)