Wordless Wednesday: Feeding Ducks.

Things to Do (Near) Austin: Rabb All Abilities Park in Round Rock

Though Rabb Play for All Abilities Park is not technically in Austin, Round Rock is a major suburb just north of the city limits, a straight journey up IH-35, and well worth the drive to check out this amazing and unique park!

Though Central Texas has their fair share of parks (Austin alone has nearly 200!), the Play for All Abilities Park in Round Rock differs in that, as the name suggests, the park is ideal for the differently abled. With six different "pods" - sections of the park focusing on activities and interests like sand play, music and water play (during the summer) - each section provides opportunities for children in all different developmental stages to engage and learn. Though the space is a park, it is also designed for use by physical and occupational therapists. How wonderful is it that there is a park where a child in a wheelchair can use a swing with ease, an Autistic child can have his sensory needs met and respected, and another child can engage his or her imagination in the little "village" reconstructed in one of the pods.

Here are a few shots of our experience at the park:

And, for those of you looking for more activities in the Round Rock area, look no further than this great new site, 'Round the Rock! While you're there, why not stop by and enter her amazing giveaway of local prizes totally nearly $3000!

Things to Do in Austin: The Lion King at Bass Concert Hall!

I love me some live theatre. Seriously, I LOVE it. It's not uncommon for me to be driving around with the original Broadway recordings of one show or another in my car - in fact, Ava is likely the only three-year-old alive who notices the difference in the Broadway cast and movie cast recordings of Rent, but I digress. Anyhow, wanting to indoctrinate A to my love of Broadway early on in life, I took her to see The Lion King this past weekend!

Now before you go nominating me for mother of the year (the overwhelming opinion amongst my friends is that they would sooner die than spend three hours at a live theatre performance with a toddler!), know that my motivation was entirely selfish. I've never seen the show before, and it is my all-time favorite Disney movie, so I have been dying to go. I nearly went while I was staying in a hotel in Times Square awaiting my new apartment when I moved to NYC, but something held me back. Now, I know it was so that Ava and I could experience it together :)

(I can neither confirm nor deny that five seconds after this picture was taken, that sign was on the floor...oops.)

(Such a little ham! Argh!)

Anyhow, the show was AMAZING. If you haven't seen it and you get the chance, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more kid-friendly Broadway show (at least a touring one...). Never once did I feel awkward to have brought a small child, especially seeing as how it was like Chuck E. Cheese in Bass Concert Hall for the day, with kids EVERYWHERE. I felt bad for the poor couple in my aisle that didn't get the memo that this was going to be largely a parent-child patronized production! 

If you're familiar with the movie (and you very well should be if you're also a child of the mid-80's!), you'll know that there are some suspenseful and sad parts (ahem, Mufasa's death...), but they were handled in a way that diverted attention from the intensity and brought a little comic relief when possible. Otherwise, Ava was familiar with the movie and so it wasn't surprising to her. She did request to sit in my lap when the scenery got darker and you could tell a "scary" part was coming, but other than that, she did just fine! In fact, aside from the fact that she refused to take a cute picture with me without making a weird face or looking away, she was a saint. Two hours and forty minutes in a dark theatre and she was awesome. I nominate her for a Tony for Best Behaved Toddler in a Musical!

They also had this really great wall up on the top floor near the patio that you could leave your mark on, and leave her mark she did! She's so excited that she knows how to write letters and her name that she likes to do it anytime the opportunity arises!

Here's a couple more shots of my little Broadway-babe:

Being a parent? It's pretty damn awesome.

If you're in Austin and have yet to have the opportunity to see The Lion King, you have a handful of days left before it's gone again for who knows how long! You can get tickets at UT Performing Arts Center.

Wordless Wednesday: Sleeping Beauty.

Things to Do in Austin: Goodnight Moon at Zach Scott Theatre!

There are few things I love as much as theatre, with the exception of a great book. Wanting to pass both of those loves along to Ava, you can imagine my excitement when I first heard back in December that Zach Scott theatre would be staging a production of Goodnight Moon this spring!

Though it's not technically "spring", the play/musical opened up this past Saturday, with public shows each Saturday at both 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. through March. We had been fortunate enough to win tickets from R We There Yet Mom?, and so we attended the opening production on Saturday at 11 a.m.

Here we are, getting ready for our mommy/daughter date!

I wasn't sure what exactly to expect going into the theatre. Would they just be acting out the book while reading aloud? Would there be singing? Dancing? Since it was based upon a short board book, how would they fill the extra time? I didn't know exactly what I was walking into, but Ava and I were both really excited for it!

As it turned out, my expectations were so completely surpassed - the show was AMAZING! The actors (Frank Nappi, Jill Blackwood, Amy Downing and Jerome Scholar) did such an amazing job of bringing the characters to life, while managing to tie in other children's riddles, stories, fairy tales and morals. Not only that, but I enjoyed it as much as Ava: What mother can't relate to chaos that ensues when your child fights the bedtime ritual?

As far as the theatre goes, I was just as impressed with the Kleberg Stage (the smaller-capacity stage in the building to the right of the main theatre building) as I was the main stage - there is truly not a bad seat in the house the way that the stages are set up! The costumes, the set, the props - everything was top notch!

Check out the spectacular stage:

And a shot of my little one before the show. She saw another little boy asking his mom to take a picture, and she was camera-ready in seconds!

Here she is again, this time with Little Bunny (Frank Nappi) and Mommy Bunny (Jill Blackwood), who were kind enough to pose with Ava as we were on our way out! Thank you - you made this little theatre-lover-in-the-making's day!

Goodnight Moon runs through March 23rd, with shows open to the public Saturdays. Other showings are reserved for schools and other groups. Tickets are $14 for children and $16 for adults, and totally worth every penny, if you ask me :)

Ava-isms.

My kid has seriously become so hysterical - she keeps us laughing all day, everyday! Here are some recent gems:

Ava, about the obvious baby boy we saw at the park: "Mommy, look! Baby Jesus!"

We clearly need to spend more time around boys! Apparently being with five other little girls day in and day out has her thinking babies only come in one variety, save for Jesus. Ha!

The other day, when I picked Ava up from Plug & Play, they told me that during puzzle time when everyone else was playing quietly, she suddenly belted out, "Call me maybe!" That basically sums up Ava.

I've always been all for Ava learning Spanish, especially colors and other elementary concepts. That is, until she decided to name her Barbie unicorn Negro. Um....

Me: "Ava, you're so beautiful."
A: "No, mommy! I'm FABULOUS!"

Yes. Yes, you are.

She cracks me up.

Things to Do in Austin: MomCom.

While I generally reserve Tuesdays for posts about things to do in Austin with your kids, this Tuesday I decided to switch things up a bit and post about something to do in Austin for yourself as a mother - something to aid in refreshing yourself after all those trips around town for the kid stuff: MomCom.

This past Saturday, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go and spend the day networking with and being inspired by some amazing Austin women at a biannual conference known as MomCom. MomCom Austin was started by Trish Morrison, who as a new mother, found herself needing to find a community of support for working, blogging, and business-minded moms.

From the website:

At MomCom Austin, you’ll listen to speakers who are real people, working and living life on their own terms. You will walk away inspired by hearing real stories. You will meet new friends and you’ll hear that where you are right now in life is where you are supposed to be, whether you are ready to take that next step or don’t even know what the next step is! MomCom Austin is an inclusive event meant for women in all stages of their careers and/or motherhood. It  is a break from your every day. It’s an event that is meant to help you take a step back, take some time for yourself and  go home feeling refreshed so you can look at life with a fresh perspective and apply what you’ve learned in your day to day.

 This was my first time attending MomCom, but I was so excited to go for several reasons. First, this is the third time MomCom has been held, and I've known past participants that have raved about it. Second, it's in town. After having gone to Dallas for Bloggy Boot Camp, which I had mixed feelings about, I figured it was a no-brainer to head out towards Lake Travis in my own gorgeous city for a day away! And third, I signed up to volunteer, and got to help the amazingly talented Megan of Mean Baby for the day - how cool is that?

As for the conference itself, consider me impressed. Trish lined up some amazing speakers, including keynote speaker and pediatrician/media superstar/author Ari Brown, Carrie Contey and Bernadette Nolle of Slow Family Living, Laura Shook-Guzman of Soma Vida, Barb Steinberg, LMSW and Teen Life Coach, and Elaine Garza, the PR genius behind Giant Noise.

I'll admit - I initially thought that some of the talks would not be relevant to me personally. For example, Barb Steinberg's speech was on Teens and Sexuality. As someone who is the mother of a three-year-old nowhere near that stage of life, I figured this would be a good time for me to run to the bathroom, stretch my legs and take a mental break. WRONG. Through her lively and engaging presentation, I learned a ton of information that will help me down the road when it comes to talking to A about sex, and in the meantime, will be intensely helpful in guiding my interactions with the girls I nanny for who are slowly but surely heading towards an age where they have questions. And though I plan to be the one who has "the talk" with Ava at the different stages in her life, if I ever felt like adding another adult female into the equation would be helpful, Barb Steinberg would certainly be my go-to gal!

Each talk the speakers gave had both a personal and professional component, and I found it highly interesting that despite their professions being vastly different from my own (counselors, a pediatrician, a PR executive, etc.), their stories all resonated with me when it came to the struggles that they faced as working mothers and women who wore so many different hats.

There were a lot of things I heard over the course of the day that spoke to me personally, but none so much as this quote from Laura Shook-Guzman of Soma Vida, who used this metaphor for mothers taking time out for themselves and to rejuvenate:

"If you only put $2 into your gas tank, you're going to be pulled over again a little down the road, wondering why you can't get farther. If you take the time to fill up, though, you'll get much farther."

What a revolutionary way to put what should be the simplest of concepts, yet always gets pushed to the back of the priority line for me. If you're running on empty, you won't get very far. Seems pretty obvious, and yet, only recently have I begun to do nice things for myself when Ava is in school without feeling guilty about not devoting that time to work or housework or some form of productive or income-earning behavior. I definitely loved Laura's speech.

Ari Brown, local pediatrician and media professional extraordinairre, gave a great speech about how she got to where she is, with a bit of a pro-vaccination message to boot. While I know there are those that do not vaccinate their children, I will never be amongst them, and believe firmly and adamently in the power of vaccinations to erradicate crippling and terrifying diseases, so she's alright by me. I also really appreciated that she recognized her nanny as being a huge part of the reason why she is able to keep her life running smoothly. I always like to see that type of gratitude and recognition for the nannies out there - they're pretty awesome, if I could say so myself!

The next MomCom will be held June 29 in Austin, likely at the Oasis (the past two have taken place there), and with the summer in full swing, the view will be gorgeous - worth the cost of the ticket alone! And, for those early birds out there, tickets are only $55 for a limited time, so jump on it! You won't regret it!!!