BC Magazine Spring2011 Nia Vardalos

the best choices for your family

VARDALOS

SPRING 2011

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Display until July 31, 2011 $4.95US $5.50CAN

+Jessica Seinfeld, Nancy O’Dell, Jennifer Meyer Maguire, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, The Women of Jerseylicious

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Found her calling as the National Adoption Day spokesperson, and the love of her life in 14 hours

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Made in the

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BPA FREE NO LEAKS

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WOW BABY! Introducing a new ULTRA SAFE approach to HEALTHY & NATURAL feeding that is truly EASY TO USE Weil Baby™ delivers superior products developed with Dr. Andrew Weil—world-renowned leader and pioneer in integrative medicine—for the first years of health and wellbeing.

Trusted and tested, Weil Baby bottles, nipples and feeding products are based on Dr. Weil’s thirty years of clinical practice and healthy lifestyle recommendations.

Visit us at weilbaby.com.

weilbaby.com Andrew Weil, M.D., donates all of his after-tax profits from royalties from sales of Weil Baby™ products directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine through training, education and research. For more information, visit: www.weilfoundation.org. and www.weilbaby.com or call (877) 596-4455.

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The Good Grain Read about the healthy benefits of red rice that you and your family will surely love

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India Explore a feast for the senses with the majesty, history, and mysteries of this ancient, city

70 Taboo The Black Eyed Peas member shares his story, from the streets of East L.A. to stages all over the world, in his book, Falling Up

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76 Seinfeldelicious New York Times bestselling author shows us how to cook healthy meals for our loved ones

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SOLUTIONS

FOR A BUSY LIFESTYLE.

MONITOR DREAMS. Watch clearly day or night.

Décor matching colors and belt-clip portability.

SHARE MEMORIES.

Mobile phone photos can instantly appear in your or your loved ones homes via photo sharing websites.

MULTI-TASK BETTER. Talk anywhere at home on a hands-free DECT headset.

Freedom to do more.

Motorola® Baby Monitors, Digital Picture Frames, and Home Phones To learn more come visit us at www.store.motorola.com BC_Spring2011_virtual.indd 3

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24 Spongebob Talks to BC Catch our exclusive with everyone’s favorite under-the-sea-pineappledwelling sponge

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Dutch Treat Discover the creative history behind the comeback of children’s clothing brand Oilily

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Rock n’ Stroll Get up close and personal with superdad Martin Pos, the driving force behind child safety brand Cybex

On thE COVEr: NIA VARDAlOS AND DAUGHTER

50 Nia The My Big Fat Greek Wedding star talks about a special kind of motherhood

60 BC’s best choices We’ve curated a fine list of items to cut your shopping time in half

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THE CALLISTO 3-IN-1 SYSTEM The Callisto is a luxurious stroller that can also become an elegant City Pram when used with the CYBEX Carry Cot, or a convenient Travel System when paired with the CYBEX Aton Infant Car Seat (available Spring 2011).

Š 2011 Cybex Industrial, Ltd. All rights reserved. Carry Cot and Aton sold separately.

Clever adapters allow a seamless transformation from City Pram to Travel System, all with the fast fold and convenience of an umbrella stroller. Callisto is elegance, beauty, and convenience all in one.

For features and videos, scan the 2D code above with your smart phone. Download a free code reader at http://gettag.mobi

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www.cybex-online.com | 800.593.5522

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EDitOR’S NOtE

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with her child (save for stolen paparazzi shots)—and raises the bar on parenting. After a long battle with infertility, Nia is now the proud mom to her adopted daughter. If adoption has been something you’ve wanted to do at the back of your mind (like it has been in mine), you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to adopt domestically, and you can even begin the process online today.

Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas shows us that the American dream still exists. The U.S. badly needs a jolt of hope, and his is a story that reminds us to be resilient. Raising a child at 17, being born into one of the poorer communities in the country, drug and alcohol abuse, are among those odds that Tab lists on his “resume.”

I am just as thrilled to have Jennifer Meyer Maguire (whom I met at a park near our place once, and seems so down-to-earth), Jessica Seinfeld, Nancy O’Dell, and the women of Jerseylicious. These ladies are not only beautiful, but they are “winning” in their business endeavors.

Martin Pos, the founder of Cybex and dad of two, never fails to amaze me with his energy and drive to make his company and products better.

Photographer Meeno Peluce shares his beautiful images and words from a place special to his family’s heart.

FROM BOTTOM lEFT, ClOCKWISE: THE PElUCE FAMIlY, HAPPY IN INDIA; A YOUNG TABOO OF THE BlACK EYED PEAS; NIA VARDAlOS WITH BC’S STEPHEN SEIDEl

The Best Choices For Your Family I’ve been out of the country a lot because of the successful (thank God!) launch of BC’s first international edition in Asia in 2010—the Philippines, to be exact—and if you noticed a bit of redesign here and there, we decided to finally update BC’s look to have a more cohesive feel with our coming titles abroad. We are now widely known as just the letters BC, with the tagline: The Best Choices for Your Family. This has always been our vision for the magazine when we launched in 2006, and I think you all have seen that we’ve evolved from a children’s fashion title alone to one with a wider scope, and in a way, responsibility.

I cannot emphasize how excited I‘ve been for this issue to come out on print. We have an exclusive on actress and writer Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame. She has never appeared in a photo shoot

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Just to keep you all up to speed on my home front, my daughters are now almost 5 and 8; our family has a new darling (and hyperactive) Golden Retriever who turned 1 just last April; and I still weigh the same. I will have two schoolchildren this year, and right now, am panicking at what to do in case my Maxine asks for me. At her last ballet lesson, she spent about 40 minutes crying out of a whole hour, and I was inside the studio with her. My eldest, Sabina, even took the class with her just so she’ll feel at ease. Lesson learned: this is what happens when a sleeping child has to go from her car seat and then dance in 5 minutes. Sigh.

Anyway, I’ve sincerely missed you all. If you want to catch BC online, go to bc-mag.com. I am also on facebook.com/karizfavisofficial and for contests and giveaways, please ‘like’ BC’s page on facebook.com/ bcmagUS. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for reading this, and I wish you and your family more blessings.

kariz@bc-mag.com

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Kariz Favis Editor-in-Chief Martin Favis Creative Director Marilyn Barton Senior Editor Neil Garguilo Stephen Seidel Contributing Editors Benjo Billones Valerie Anne Del Castillo Associate Editors Mark Cabalang Production Manager and Graphics Artist Mark Francis Carandang Byron Henry Santiago Graphics Artists Jona Conopio Editorial Assistant Contributors Anne Marie Fox, Shana Fruman, Diego Jose, Jessica Paster, Meeno Peluce, Rosario Santiago, Robin Siegel Martin Favis Publisher Diether Ocampo Andrew Baltazar Marketing Directors Jeyme Azarraga Maricel Bancolita Jaime Torres Account Managers Carlo Favis Dennis Castillo Online Directors

BC (Baby Couture) is published by Medina Favis Publishing LLC, 370 Lexington Ave. Suite 1205 New York, NY 10017. Reproduction, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. For advertising, subscriptions, back orders or other inquiries, please call 1.877.386.0209 or e-mail info@bc-mag.com. Visit us at bc-mag. com, or ibabycouture.com. Opinions expressed in this publication are that of the writers’ and are not necessarily endorsed by Medina Favis Publishing LLC. BC is not responsible for unsolicited samples, products, work and materials, and submissions are non-returnable. If you wish to submit written work, photographs, artwork, products, samples, other services, etc., please accompany with a self-addressed envelope, postage paid, or a prepaid return label.

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BY ANITA G.

• www.anitag.com 800-717-0789 BC_Spring2011_virtual.indd 9

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ORYZA RUFIPOGON one of the many types of red rice, this kind contains Coenzyme Q10, tocotrienols, tocopherols, lipoic acid, and Gamma-Orzanol–bioactives and biological effects which aid those who suffer from asthma, allergies, diabetes, and hypoglycemia.

P H OTO G R A P H B Y D i E G O j O S E

the good grain

Unhulled or partially hulled red rice gives your family the full benefits of thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin found in the grain’s germ. Its nutty flavor and texture will also be a hit with the kids

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bc-mag.com jennifer meyer maguire This mom has come into her own by designing special jewelry pieces that have carved itself as a favorite accessory among many women WORDS BY VAlEriE AnnE DEl CAStillO

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Jennifer Meyer maguire

ne piece of jewelry links two notable Hollywood Jennifers together, and that’s Jennifer Meyer Maguire’s signature leaf pendant, which was worn by actress Jennifer Aniston in The Break-Up. Inspired by her grandmother, Edith Meyer, at a very young age, Jennifer created jewelry out of enamel. It was this early start that sparked her interest in the art, which she went on to pursue later in her life. Today, she is not only known as Universal

Studios President and COO Ronald Meyer’s daughter, and SpiderMan star Tobey Maguire’s wife, but Jennifer Meyer Maguire—the jewelry designer, eco-conscious mom who is raising her kids as vegans. Her collection also includes signature diamond necklaces, as worn by celebrity moms Salma Hayek, Gwen Stefani, Reese Witherspoon, and Courteney Cox. Learn what fuels this mom’s creativity and how she manages raising her two little ones, 4-year old Ruby Sweetheart and 2-year old Otis Tobias.

“If we could all figure out how make sure that no child on earth goes to bed hungry, that would be my greatest wish.”

Your father is considered one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. Please describe your years growing up.

I’m really lucky because my Dad is also my best friend. Throughout my life, he has taught me to have an incredible work ethic and to be kind, loving, and loyal.

What is your best childhood memory?

My Dad drove my sister and me to school every single day until I turned 16. I loved having that special, undistracted time with him in the mornings.

Your parents are divorced and both remarried. How has their relationships affected the way you want to raise your family?

I’m grateful because even though my parents divorced when I was 8 years old, they’ve always remained very close friends and extremely loving parents.

Three words that best illustrate your relationship with your grandmother, Edith, who helps inspire you as an artist.

Love, happiness, inspiration, grateful, relaxed. Couldn’t stop at three.

You worked in the PR industry, and were a magazine editor before launching your own jewelry line. What made you finally decide to go into the jewelry designing business full-on?

Designing jewelry is always something

I wanted to do and because I hadn’t had any formal training, I had to teach myself the craft. Fortunately, I had the experience of working with two of the most talented fashion designers in the world, Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren. They taught me a lot about being hands-on.

Can you tell us more about the leaf and wishbone pieces that launched and are signature to your career?

I designed the leaf first because it represented “turning over a new leaf ” and starting a new business—a new adventure.

The wishbone is part of a series of pieces I designed around symbols that represent luck. Because, let’s face it, who doesn’t need a little luck?

How does it feel to be recognized as one of the most popular jewelry designers in the country today?

Am I? That’s so flattering!

Other designers you look up to?

There are so many talented designers I admire, from Shoshanna for her bikinis, to Isabel Marant, to Kathy Rose for her delicate snake bangle. Hard to narrow it down.

Tell us more about your new collection, and how it differs from the past ones.

I’ll always design pieces that will become part of my core collection—pieces that

can be worn from day to night. Lately, however, I’ve started to work with different stones and materials, which has been a lot of fun. I’m also focusing on expanding on my personalized collection, which I feel very connected to as a mom. I love being able to wear my kids’ initials around my neck.

How is Tobey Maguire like as a father?

I happen to be married to someone who counterbalances me perfectly. For example, he has mastered keeping the kids and me calm in all situations!

Funny stories about him and the kids?

Something happened the other day that comes to mind: Tobey’s Grandma was reading a book to my daughter, Ruby, about princesses and she said to her that, “One day you’ll meet your prince.” In response, Ruby said, “That’s Ok—I’ve already found my prince. My Daddy.”

What is it like being a parent to a daughter and a son?

Best of both worlds.

What made you decide to raise your children as vegans?

Whether you’re a vegan, a vegetarian or a meat-eater, it’s about making informed, healthy choices. It’s about putting the healthiest possible options in your body.

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Jennifer Meyer Maguire

“Tobey’s Grandma was reading a book to my daughter, Ruby, about princesses and she said to her that, “One day you’ll meet your prince.” In response, Ruby said, “That’s Ok—I’ve already found my prince. My Daddy.””

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The Little Seed is my one-stop shop for everything kid-related—from organic cotton burp cloths and blankets, and soft, cozy T-shirts. Wipes are also a must-have. I use them for everything from taking off my makeup to cleaning a runny nose to wiping my son’s bottom!

What kid-friendly vegan recipes would you suggest to parents who have little to no time to cook?

Style tips for moms?

We’ve read that you’re a self-confessed, bona fide California Girl. Do you see yourself raising your children somewhere else?

Personally, I love California because I was born and raised here, and if this is where I end up raising my children, I’ll have no complaints. Very fortunately because of my husband’s job, we have the opportunity to visit a lot of places.

Must-haves now that you have two little ones?

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decisions for my kids, I am going to be careful about what they’re eating. My stepmother started a charity called the Teaching Garden that advocates healthy eating for children and adults. We need to be better informed, and we need these options, and Kelly is spearheading this effort beautifully.

Some of my quick favorites are sliced apples and fresh peanut butter; carrots and celery with hummus; black bean and brown rice burritos with chopped tomatoes, guacamole.

Jennifer’s pieces are versatile, as they can be worn from day to night

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Buy jewelry that you can wear from morning to night. I often wear the same pieces from school drop-off to an evening dinner with friends. Wear comfortable shoes that are stylish—ballet flats are the perfect complement to any outfit. I don’t wear makeup, but love to put on some bronzer if I need a little pick me up. My favorite is Instant Sunshine bronzer by Philosophy.

Basic parenting advice?

You can never spoil your kids with too much love.

With such a successful family life and career, is there anything else you wish for?

If we could all figure out how to make sure that no child on earth goes to bed hungry, that would be my greatest wish. bc

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(baby) elephant in the room If you think your bed has become too crowded for sex, it’s time get those creative juices (and libidos) running in a slightly different direction

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hey say that absence or distance makes the heart grow fonder. In reality, it also makes the heart and body go insane. Such is the case of couples who share their beds with their little ones—co-sleeping, or bed sharing, as many call it. With the advent of such child-rearing principles like attachment parenting, co-sleeping has become more than just a trend, but an adapted lifestyle by a lot of parents.

An adverse effect of such practices includes the assumption that couples have less privacy, and thus, less of an interesting sex life.

This common misconception has led some moms and dads to keep co-sleeping out of the question. What most people don’t see is that co-sleeping and an active, satisfying sex life is in fact possible, if not pretty simple.

For parents who have babies or toddlers, it’s quite manageable to copulate in their presence, because they are too young to understand (or even care about) what’s going on—but maybe hide under a comforter or blanket if you’re uneasy. You can opt to have scheduled nights off, wherein your baby will have to sleep in his or her own room—with a caregiver, if you can’t stand the thought of your infant being alone. In turn, this prepares them for the move once they’ve grown too big for your quarters. If your kids are, say, 3 to 10 years old, and have no plans of moving out, then find another way to get physically intimate with your partner.

Here’s the reality: you may have grown too used to having sex in the bedroom because it’s convenient. Why not have sex in other, unexpected places? The kitchen might be a good place to start.

Remember when you first wanted to christen the smooth, marble counters after you moved in? Of course this goes without saying that you disinfect after you are done. There’s always the couch or

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recreation room. You can always bring a baby monitor if you’re paranoid. You might have a billiard table or swimming pool (how about a midnight rendezvous in the water?), and the good old bathtub or shower, which you most likely have overlooked. Surprise the hubby and try an early morning bath, and you’ll surely have a wonderful day (after all, men are thought to be more libidinous at this time of day). If you really want to get creative and romantic, set up a guest room like a hotel, and keep the lights low with just some candles along the perimeter of the room. Sprinkle some rose petals, pop the champagne (or whatever your preferred drink is), and sneak out of your bedroom once the kids are asleep. You’ll have your very own getaway, without literally having to get away.

Treat your spouse to an evening out, if you have a trusted nanny, or a relative is available to watch over your kids for a night. Check into a real, fancy hotel and do “date night”—dinner, massage, and a slow, satisfying romp in the sheets. The excitement of finally touching each other again will definitely increase the sexual tension between you, and result to some really amazing copulation.

The key to being intimate with your spouse is creativity and compromise. The decision to co-sleep should always be paired with the commitment to give time for physical intimacy. Remember that both of you are sexual beings, regardless of how many kids you have.

The sex itself might not be the same down the road, but it does not mean that you can’t find that intimate connection you once had. Just re-sync your hormonal clocks, and find a way around your schedules (and your kids’). Love-making is not an activity you can place on the back burner because your children are your priority and they sleep in your bed. Regular intercourse is also one of the factors that keep relationships healthy, and ready to stand the test of time. bc

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shopping bag

MOtOrOlA Boasting of a long history and innovation heritage of more than 80 years, Motorola has been fusing technology with human insights in order to create an enriching mobile experience for their consumers. Motorola offers a broad array of mobile devices that includes smart phones, tablets, and mobile computing devices, as well as comprehensive software and services, Bluetooth accessories, cable modems, and video distribution systems in and beyond the home. motorola.com hulA StAr let your favorite little girls be the star on the water with Hula Star’s adorable and colorful swimsuits. You and your kids will have fun perusing the line’s pastel colors which are designed with sparkles, bows and ruffles. This season, Hula Star offers themed suits such as Picnic Gingham, Day at the Zoo, Princess Diary, Pretty For Spring, and Daisy love, to name a few. hulastarswim.com CYbEx Cybex promotes an innovation principle that moves away from conventional designs to create car seats, strollers, and baby carriers that parents would love and enjoy using. Combining the knowledge of various European engineers, international designers, and lifestyle strategists, the brand offers “over-average safety and quality, and unmistakable design that joins forces with intelligent functionality” in every product. cybex-online.com

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AnitA G. With a philosophy to provide kids’ wear made with quality garments that are simple and easy for moms to take care of, Anita G. is the brainchild of Anita Goodall. Anita G.’s mission is to provide the best products which are simple, comfortable, and reasonably priced. Their Girlfriends line features brightly colored patterns and fun prints which girls will love to wear again and again. anitag.com

Made in the

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StEllA COVE • www.anitag.com For a mommy-and-me experience like no other, check out Stella Cove’s collection of 800-717-0789 stunning swimwear for moms and kids, which are meticulously designed and created to provide you with the best quality. The brand prides itself on their fresh take on swimwear, which fabrics are carefully tested to guarantee style, comfort, and safety for their customers. All fabrics also have the European Oekotex Standard 100 certification.

Stella Cove’s collection includes swimwear and cover-ups for women, girls, and boys. stellacove.com BPA FREE NO LEAKS

WEil bAbY Together with world-renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D., the Weil Baby line of products was designed to provide feeding products that are guaranteed ultra-safe, healthy, and functional. The line includes baby bottles, training and drinking cups that are BPA- and EA-free and made entirely in the U.S.A., using revolutionary new materials. Their pediatrician-recommended nurser bottles (that are big on style) incorporate a special one piece venting system called AirWave that uses silicon nipples and is clinically proven to reduce colic. Their award-winning sippy cups, which come in a wide array of attractive colors, also feature silicone drinking spouts. weilbaby.com

WOW BABY!

Introducing a new ULTRA SAFE approach to HEALTHY & NATURAL feeding that is truly EASY TO USE Weil Baby™ delivers superior products developed with Dr. Andrew Weil—world-renowned leader and pioneer in integrative medicine—for the first years of health and wellbeing.

Trusted and tested, Weil Baby bottles, nipples and feeding products are based on Dr. Weil’s thirty years of clinical practice and healthy lifestyle recommendations.

Visit us at weilbaby.com.

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Andrew Weil, M.D., donates all of his after-tax profits from royalties from sales of Weil Baby™ products directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine through training, education and research. For more information, visit: www.weilfoundation.org. and www.weilbaby.com or call (877) 596-4455.

buzz bASiCS Encourage your child to express herself with Buzz Basics’ line of simple yet comfortable clothes for toddlers to tweens. Your daughter can select from a wide array of pieces for both school and playground. Encourage your child to express herself with Buzz Basics’ accessories, including pins, sparkly jewels, and layers. buzzbasicsforgirls.com

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the great gatsbys P H OTO S C O U RT E S Y O F t h E S t Y l E n E t W O r k , W h i C h A i r S j E r S E Y l i C i O u S O n S u n DAY S At 8 P M

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Fierce and sassy, these Jersey mamas certainly know how to make a statement with their straightforward personalities and spirited styles. Get to know another side of the women behind Jerseylicious’ Gatsby Salon, where fun and mayhem combine for an hour’s worth of entertainment guilty pleasure

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JerSeyLiCiouS

2010, Jerseylicious changed the landscape of reality television. It follows the colorful lives of the owners and crew of Gatsby Salon in Green Brook, NJ, headed by mother-anddaughter team Gayle Giacomo and Christy Pereira. The salon is also home to a crew of animated hair and makeup artists who also bring an interesting mix of drama and comedy to the table. BC brings you an intimate conversation with the owners of the salon, as they think back to amusing stories, starting out, and motherhood.

Gayle Giacomo Can you tell us a bit more about the history of Gatsby?

In 1977, my husband Daniel [Gianfrancesco] fulfilled his dream of creating his own ideal of a salon experience, opening the worldfamous Gatsby Salon. Daniel was always ahead of his time when it came to trends, techniques and tools. His inherent artistic ability is what drove him to new innovations and creative ideas. His love of creating beauty brought his teachings to television, showcasing hair styles based on face shape and hair texture. He would inform the audience what style worked best with their face shape, as well as how to do their styles at home. He backed up this education with tools that we sold to assist in at-home styling, such as the “face framer.” Daniel also invented artistic tools to help fellow hairdressers with precise cutting techniques. Daniel is recognized as one of the most influential and inspiring educators and artistic hair designers that has trained thousands of hair stylists in the art of hair design and salon management. When Daniel passed away in 1998, he left the legacy of his unique exceptional hair design techniques to me, which still lives on at the Gatsby Salon.

How did your husband influence the success of the salon?

Daniel brought his dream to life by opening Gatsby Salon on the core beliefs that this industry required constant education, impeccable customer care as well as ever-changing décor. He was a leader, innovator, and a true visionary. Before his passing, the salon was under construction to be Gatsby Salon & Spa. He was always expanding his business to meet his clients’ needs, and at this time, adding spa services did just that.

How was it like raising a family, and having to manage the salon?

It was difficult as it is for any working mother trying to raise children. But we had a great staff and a wonderful family to help watch Christy and baby Daniel when they were too young to attend school.

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move and renovation was difficult for me, but equally as hard for my staff. The old location and design will forever be linked to my husband. It was his last gift to them and we had to say goodbye.

Any funny stories about Christy when she was young?

When Christy was a little girl, I would dress her up depending on the holiday. On Christmas, she was an elf handing out gifts to the staff, and cupid on Valentine’s Day handing out carnations to guests.

Christy grew up within the walls of Gatsby, so many of her funny moments were at the salon.

Who is your personal style icon?

Elizabeth Taylor. She was sexy yet sophisticated, elegant, classy, she had it all.

If you had only 5 things you could use for a quick beauty touchup, what would those tools be?

Stila’s One Step foundation! It’s a concealer, foundation, powder, everything all in one…Definitely comes to the rescue. A blow dryer and boar bristle brush to tame my hair. Mascara and lip gloss.

Can you tell us about the renovation? Who designed its interiors?

Describe the moment when you first found out you were picked for the reality series.

I reinvented Gatsby Salon to reflect my personal style and vision, all the while continuing to build upon the fundamental values Daniel instilled in Gatsby. For the first two decades of Gatsby Salon’s existence, I was the woman behind the man. Although he had been gone for ten years, I never felt it was time to step out of his shadow and make it my own. As hard as it was, I knew it was time. This

I was thrilled! I was out with my girlfriends and I yelled like a school girl when the call came in. Who would have ever thought I would have this opportunity to live my husband’s dream of television fame through his salon.

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bc-mag.com bc-mag.com After my husband died, I had to play the role of mother and father to my youngest, who was only eight years old. I juggled running a business and parenting my distraught children. Getting through those years in one piece was my biggest accomplishment.

Definitely here in Jersey. I’m proud to be from Jersey and my daughter will be too. Although many winter months make me want to move to Miami, I really love experiencing the changing seasons.

How did you feel when Christy gave birth to your granddaughter?

Gayle is a great mom. She always made sure she had time for family, no matter how busy she was with work. My brother and I were her priority at all times. She taught us to dress nicely because the better you look, the better you feel. However, having a hairdresser mom so into fashion was a little difficult to keep up with.

Unbelievably ecstatic! It’s extraordinary to have a grandchild. Seeing your child have their own; knowing the emotions and joy that she was feeling as I had felt thirty years prior when giving birth to Christy. I was quite emotional during that time. It was even more special to me that my father got to meet her before he passed.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned as a mother?

Selflessness. When you become a mother, your life isn’t about you anymore. It’s about showing and giving all the love and nurturing you possess to your new bundle of joy. And as they grow, you continue to be selfless, always putting your children and their needs first. That’s why women are made for this job!

Did you ever think that a salon in NJ could garner this much interest from viewers?

Yes, actually. I think people from NJ are quite interesting, especially for television. We are bold and loud. We are not afraid to share our opinions. So no, I’m not surprised that television audiences would want to watch the mayhem of NJ on television.

Christy Pereira What was it like growing up in New Jersey?

I’ve never known anything different! But I always loved the change in seasons and looked forward to summers down the shore at Cape May. If you had a choice on where to raise your daughter, would you raise her in NJ?

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How is Gayle like as a mother?

Favorite childhood memory?

That would have to be Christmas mornings with my mom and stepfather, Danny. They were insane! You couldn’t see the floor of the living room because the gifts were piled high. Now as an adult, I think they were crazy because I know all the money that went into it.

What sparked your interest in styling?

I grew up at Gatsby so it was a no-brainer to get involved, but styling was not for me. So I went the management route!

What are your favorite cosmetic products and brands?

Gatsby’s Structura Shaping Spray saves my hair on many days. It took me a long time to find a signature perfume, but I found Flower Bomb by Viktor & Rolf and it rocks!

What are the values your mother taught you that you’d like to pass on to your child?

My mother and father have always been big on family. We would spend every Sunday at my Grandma and Pop’s house for Sunday dinner. And every chance we got to see each other, we did. My family is very close, and I hope it continues to be as it grows.

How was it like dealing with your pregnancy while filming?

As you saw, my feet and legs swelled quite early on, which presented

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JerSeyLiCiouS

“When you become a mother, your life isn’t about you anymore.

It’s about that little person that you’ve brought into the world.

It’s about showing and giving all the love and nurturing you possess to your new bundle of joy.” its obstacles. It was crazy and tiring, but I trucked along and now have those memories through the Jerseylicious episodes. I like to think I was a trooper.

What are your mommy must-haves?

The only craving was chocolate chip cookies. Prior to being pregnant, I never really ate sweets, but when I was pregnant with Daniella, I would eat them all the time, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, if I could. I was obsessed with them.

The first is my Timi and Leslie diaper bag. I need a stylish yet practical bag because you need something big enough to hold all of your baby needs, yet stylish enough to pass as your purse. The second is the DVD player in my car. Daniella hates [riding] in the car! So to keep her occupied and from screaming while I’m trying to drive, the DVD player distracts her. And I love my Helen Ficalora necklace with Daniella’s initials so I feel her with me when she’s physically not with me.

Describe the moment when you first saw your daughter.

What do you like shopping for when it comes to Daniella?

I was amazed, just absolutely amazed. While I was pregnant, I truly did not have a preference whether I had a boy or girl. But when she was born and my husband Danny told me it was a girl and that she was beautiful, perfect, and amazing, I got really emotional. This made me realize that deep down, I must have really wanted a girl.

All girly clothes. I can’t get enough of them. I love getting her entire outfits from her tops and bottoms to matching headbands and shoes.

Did you have any unusual cravings during your pregnancy?

How did you get back in shape so soon after giving birth?

I tried sticking to a healthy diet during and after being pregnant, which I think has helped a lot. But I wasn’t allowed to do any exercise right after giving birth to get back into shape, because I had a C-section. So I feel lucky that eating healthy was all that I needed for the weight to come off. Now, I try to work out once a week to keep tone, but that’s all.

Are there any major lifestyle changes now that you’re a mother?

Of course. I try to not let my life revolve purely around her eating and sleeping schedule, but it’s really hard. I feel guilty when I don’t keep her on her routine and be at home for naps and whatnot.

Danny and I used to go out for dinner every Saturday night, and now we go for the “early bird special” with Daniella before her bedtime. We’ve tried to stay true to ourselves, just modified.

How is Danny like as a father?

He’s great. Danny has always been very good with kids, having our niece and nephew as practice. But with Daniella, he’s very handson, helping out with everything. We split everything for the most part down the center–from feedings to changings. There is no dirty diaper that he’s afraid of.

What are the best and worst traits you are finding out about yourself now that you’re a mom?

I’m extremely organized, which helps with my everyday life with work, filming, and family. I found that when you become a mom, you can be overly obsessed with little things. So learning to let things go has definitely been therapeutic and relaxing for me.

The hardest thing has been punctuality. I’ve always been early for everything, but now I’m finding that I run about ten minutes behind. Learning to juggle life with child has been good, but an ontime life with child is still difficult to achieve. bc

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Want to get rid of those stubborn lbs that threaten permanent residence in your stomach, thighs and backside?

Check out these cleansing tips that are easy on the tummy and incredibly healthy

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hile year-round celebrations are the best time to bring out the finest drinks and best-kept secret recipes, it also encourages increased food intake, making us more prone to stocking up the pounds—and inevitably, the toxins. Before you go on a diet spree after your vacation, however, take the time to understand how to detoxify, and what it really means to ‘take out the trash’ from your body.

Tracing its roots back to Chinese culture, detox is actually one of the principles of naturopathic medicine. Naturopathologist and author of “Clean Up Your Diet,” Max Tomlinson explains that when the

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No matter what time of year, it is always good to add exercise into your health regimen.

Sweating is one of the best ways to get rid of the toxins in your body, so go ahead and take a 20-minute brisk walk or jog in the morning.

food intake is increased, the toxins in the body may accumulate, and may not be disposed of properly, thus forming fat. To prevent this from happening, people undergo a detoxification diet, which requires more health-conscious food choices, and more nutritious meals.

A word of caution before going on any type of diet, make sure to check with your dietician for any special nutritional needs that you may have. For pregnant and lactating women, it is best to stick to the diet recommended by your doctor. For those who just want to get rid of the amassed toxins in your system, try these simple but beneficial guidelines for a better digestive system throughout the year.

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W E L L NE S S FIBER UP Go easy on your stomach by downing natural fruit and vegetable juices, which are low in fat and high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Whole grains, such as oatmeal, are recommended for breakfast. It helps kick start your day with a full tummy, while maintaining your digestive system’s regular movement. Daily servings of natural fruit and vegetable juice also keep your body hydrated, especially after the all the booze.

GO ORGANIC If your party menu involved a lot of processed or preserved ingredients, chances are, your body has already absorbed some added chemicals. Make a positive change by picking all-natural food ingredients from fresh produce. Try to veer away from anything processed, as it is most likely loaded with artificial ingredients.

Cut Back Watch out for food that are high in fat, salt, and sugar. You may have already had your fair share, so you must go back to eating in moderation in order to enable your body to deal with the toxins that are taking residence.

SUBSTITUTE Go for brown rice instead of white, as it contains more amounts of selenium, magnesium, B vitamins, and manganese, which aids in converting protein and carbohydrates into energy. Brown rice is also less processed than white, giving you the health benefits of its bran and germ. Red meat can also be replaced with kidney beans, pinto beans, mung beans, garbanzos, green peas, and lentils, which are easier to digest. If you can’t give up eating meat, go for alternatives such as fish and chicken.

Use oils that are rich in Omega-3, a polyunsaturated fatty acid that helps flush out the toxins from the intestine.

DECAFFEINATE If you can go slow on caffeine-laden drinks and food, try it for a bit. Coffee is loaded with calories, and its caffeine content can induce anxiety, making you feel more stressed out than you already are. Calm your bundle of nerves with chamomile tea instead. bc

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DETOX STAPLES FOR A HEALTHY STOMACH (AND BODY) PRUNE JUICE

Prunes contain sorbitol, a stool-loosening sugar.

Its juice is a vitaminpacked, fiber-rich drink that is also a good source of iron and potassium.

It’s also loaded with phytochemicals, which prevent the oxidation of bad cholesterol.

LEMONS

GREEN TEA

Lemons contain high levels of vitamins A and C, and minerals like potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and iron. It is also rich in bioflavonoids (or vitamin P), antioxidants that stimulate bile production for better digestion.

Green tea contains catechins, which helps lower LDL cholesterol.

Studies have also shown that the antioxidants present in green tea aid in more efficient fat elimination and control, by raising the body’s metabolism.

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“I do Pilates three times a week.”

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hip to be squarepants Who could resist those big blue eyes and infectious smile? Despite a slew of movies and DVDs under his belt, Spongebob remains down to earth (or ocean). BC had the exclusive privilege of getting personal with this perpetually enthusiastic—and undeniably cool—sea sponge

rom television favorite to pop culture icon, Spongebob Squarepants has taken the world by storm. Whether it's his crazy antics or lighthearted humor, he never fails to entertain. He returns with Legends of Bikini Bottom, which finds him and his best pal, Patrick, in the hands of a scheming gang. The title is very intriguing. However, if you live in a pineapple under the sea, absorbent and yellow and porous as he, it’s hardly batting an eyelash.

P H OTO C O U RT E S Y O F n i C k E lO D E O n

BC: Is it hard being a sponge and living underwater?

Spongebob: No. Being a sponge is soft and squishy, not hard.

BC: How do you not expand and dry up the ocean?

S: I do Pilates three times a week.

BC: What can you say about those people who think you're more like a block of cheese or a kitchen sponge than a sea sponge?

S: I’d say “cheese off!” and the gouda sea horse they rode in on.

BC: Describe your neighborhood in three words.

S: 1) FAB.

them all. Why, is one of them in trouble with the law again?

BC: Best birthday gift you've received?

S: Once Mr. Krabs let me work for 24 hours on my birthday!

BC: What is your favorite song?

S: Whatever song I’m singing while I’m flipping Krabby Patties.

BC: What country would you like to visit one day?

S: Actually, I would prefer if countries would come and visit me. I

2) U. 3) LOUS. 4) Period.

Sorry that’s four words.

don’t get much vacation time.

BC: Random childhood memory?

S: Eggs.

BC: What can we expect from "The Legend of Bikini Bottom"?

S: Lots of adventure and comedy and romance and suspense, then

BC: Who are your heroes?

S: Mr. Krabs, for inventing the Krabby Patty, and of course, Mermaid

Man & Barnacle Boy—Defenders of the Deep!

BC: Describe your relationship with your cousins, Todd, Stanley,

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and Blackjack.

S: They’re family and us Sponges stick together so I can vouch for

BC: Do you know any ancient merman languages?

S: It was an elective in high school, but I went with Salmonese.

back to comedy, a little swashbuckling, back to comedy, then some cooking recipes then immediately back to comedy, then uncontrollable sobbing. Not necessarily in that order.

BC: One last message for your fans all over the world?

S: Eat more Krabby Patties! bc

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online contests Check out the winners of BC Magazine’s virtual promos. Log on to www.bc-mag.com to join the fun!

Best and Cutest Photo Batch 1

Lex

Laila Gianna

Masha Aleksandra

Kyra

Vanessa

Khloe

Camila

Lillix Denise

Adriel Fillip Best Photo

Best and Cutest Photo Batch 2

Kalia

Best Photo

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SWiMWEAr tiPS: if you’re pregnant, this is the best time to wear a bikini! You will not only look cute as a button, your belly is relaxed and free from constriction. If you’ve been swimming in salt water, soak the suit in cold water for 15 minutes before washing in gentle cycle with cold water and mild detergent (try Vaska’s Herbatergent).

For hand-washed swimsuits, make sure these are rinsed well to get rid of all the detergent. Hang out swimsuits under the sun to let dry. Never put them in the dryer, because the heat breaks down the elastic and spandex materials. Wash swimsuits before storing through the cooler months.

bathing beauties

This lineup of swimsuits get exceptional marks for cuteness and functionality P H O T O G R A P H S B Y M A R T I N A N D k A r i z FA V i S

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Top row: Left: Fudge velvet hat by Gigis, gigisapparel. com . Pollen ink girls maillot by Stella Cove, stellacove.com . White flip-flops by Havaianas, havaianas.com Right: Picnic gingham bikini by Hula Star, hulastarswim.com . Red rubber boots by Aigle, aigleboots.com Middle row: Left: Cardigan by Right Bank Babies, righbankbabies.com . Peace swimsuit by Anita G., anitag.com or 800.717.0789 Right: Duran Duran girls maillot (on both girls)

by Stella Cove, stellacove.com

Bottom row: Left: White jacket by Pinc Premium, pincpremium.com . Nappy Swimsuit by Bambino Mio, us.bambinomio.com or regallager.com Right: Halter maillot by Stella Cove, stellacove.com for stores . Denim skirt by Diesel Kid, dieselkid.com

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The whimsical and stunning line is back with a vengeance as the company goes back into the hands of its creators

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rom design to production, the creation of garments is a meticulous yet inspired process that brings together groundbreaking design ideas to produce quality products that hold a special story in between its threads.

Such is the case for Oilily, whose history as a children’s clothing company is as interesting as the family behind it. Founded almost 50 years ago, the Dutch brand is known for their breakthrough designs and color combinations.

At its peak, they reached 300 stores globally, and in 2000, the Olsthoorn family licensed out the brand and bought it back eight years later. The much-anticipated Spring/Summer 2011 is the first season designed by the original family in almost ten years. Find out how the family’s next generations are creating a new lifestyle through fresh ideas and exceptional products that cater to all ages, in BC’s exclusive interview with the founders’ son-in-law, Gijs de Kogel.

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the Oilily Founders Willem and Marieke Olsthoorn back in the 1960s

BC: What does “Oilily” mean?

Gijs de Kogel: In the beginning, Oilily was

named Olly’s, after the founding father of the company—Willem Olsthoorn’s nickname.

When Olly’s star started to rise, Molly’s, a Swiss clothing company, filed a lawsuit against Olly’s forcing to change the name. The two i‘s were later added and the “s” was removed. The company was now Oilily.

BC: What was the initial inspiration behind creating a children’s clothing brand?

GDK: Oilily was founded in 1963. At that time,

children’s clothing was a smaller version of adults’. Plain and ordinary made of primarily

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“We are not led by the latest trend, but prefer to be the basis of a new trend.” grey, white and black colors. Not exactly the colors which appeal to children. Oilily distinguished itself through amazing color combinations, a mixture of influences from every corner of the world, humorous details, a combination of unlikely fabrics, and very high quality. These elements became the brand’s signature, and it came from placing the child’s world and experiences at the center of its creative process.

BC: Give us a bit of background on the line.

GDK: When Marieke Olsthoorn gave

birth to twins, Brechtje and Jacobijn, she found it very hard to acquire nice clothing for them. She later decided to create her own line. Once Willem saw her creations, he instantly knew it could be a huge success. They started working out of their own house and later moved to the Houttil in the city center of Alkmaar.

BC: What are the differences between Oilily when it first came out, and now that it’s back with the family?

GDK: The shapes have become slimmer

and more modern and the coloring has become less exuberant. We no longer combine 3 or 4 different primary colors in one style, but we prefer to use—for instance—four different shades of red.

BC: Why is the brand now back in the hands of the family who founded it?

What happened along the way?

GDK: At the end of 2008, seven years after

Willem and Marieke sold their shares to a bank and an investment company, Oilily went bankrupt. As a result, all Exclusive Stores were also lost and it looked as though the entire brand would disappear.

However, the second generation of the Olsthoorns could not bear this thought and at the beginning of 2009, the family bought the brand back. Simply because

they couldn’t stand the thought of a world without that little old quirky brand from Alkmaar, the Netherlands.

BC: Describe your creative team. How do you come up with such amazing collections?

GDK: We search for people with a style of

their own. People who dare to stand up to the conventional way and dare to take risks.

People who look at the world differently.

By looking at the world differently, they are in a position to add new designs to the lives of the people around us. It is by being ourselves that our designs remain authentic and extraordinary.

BC: How long does it take to come up with a complete line?

GDK: It takes us a full six months to create

a new line of children’s wear. First, we pick an inspirational theme. Then we decide upon the colors and draw up a color card of the collection. After, we make a line plan describing all the styles we plan to create.

The next step is taken at the drawing board where we create the designs we want to use, all of them are drawn by hand and digitalized later. Once the designs are finalized, the line plan is manufactured and the shapes of the different styles are drawn. The colors, designs and trimmings are added later. After the strike offs of the materials, the initial samples are made.

Most samples need some more work on them. The final samples (known as the salesmanship samples) are finished in the factories in the country of production.

BC: Was it difficult entering the U.S. market at first?

GDK: The American market is a very

precise market with very specific demands.

But somehow, many appreciate our brand.

Probably because our style includes different influences from a variety of cultures around the world, making it

recognizable for many people.

BC: What earned you a following among both the young, and young at heart?

GDK: We truly follow our gut feeling. We

are not led by the latest trend, but prefer to be the basis of a new trend. The fact that we challenge conventions and try to draft something completely new is what people like about us. New design, for new experiences is what makes life worth living.

BC: How do you describe the response of the public towards the brand’s evolution?

GDK: Actually, our fans demanded all

brand extensions. They wanted more Oilily, so we gave them more Oilily. And we still do. We created clothing, bags, shoes, bikes, cosmetics, hair accessories, stationery and tableware. Once you try to make a difference in the product category you’re infiltrating, people will like what you do.

BC: How does it feel to have prominent clients and fans (such as Madonna, Heidi Klum, and other celebrity parents) as notable names?

GDK: Our brand distinguishes itself

through creativity, thus attracting all types of creative people. It really makes us proud that some of them are famous, but we have to say we like all our fans, famous or not.

BC: Your plans for the coming years?

GDK: Oilily will create a lifestyle for

the entire family. High-end fashion will always remain the basis of our brand, but we plan to introduce all kinds of new products for the whole family. Why? We believe in creativity. Creativity leads to amazing products and amazing products lead to new experiences, and that is what makes life worth living. Our motto is the exclamation mark behind this notion: Make new things happen! bc bc-mag.com { SPRING 2011 } b c

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party planning Whether it’s a birthday celebration, summer party, or a simple family get-together, make note of these tips for a hassle-free, memorable gathering

T-MINUS 3 DAYS:

Collect - Head to the grocery for the perishable items you’ll need. At this point, the ingredients for the menu should be complete.

Assign Tasks – If you have house help or family members pitching in to do the work, ensure that they are aware of your guest list, especially the elders and kids. Assign them to watch over the little ones, and make sure they stay out of the kitchen while you do the last-minute preparations on the day of the party.

Gear Up – Start preparing tableware, glassware, tablecloths, and napkins. If you’re planning on playing music but don’t want to deal with hired disc jockeys and their spaceconsuming equipment, grab your iPod and create a playlist or burn a CD of your favorite, catchy tunes for the celebration.

Keep the music GP by checking the songs for inappropriate lyrics, as you don’t want your kids (or worse, your guests and their children) to hear profanity or offensive messages.

Connect your iPod to speakers and crank it up to create a full party experience.

T-MINUS 7 DAYS: T-MINUS 30 DAYS:

Get Organized – The first step to every party plan is to know the when’s, what’s, who’s, and where’s of the occasion. Are you planning a baby shower, Christening party, or a Thanksgiving gettogether? Determining the purpose of your party will help you in deciding on the details such as theme and menu. Pick a date and venue, estimate your guest count, and decide on the budget for your party. When sure about your guest list, send out invitations as early as you can. Create a weekly schedule that will help you eliminate tasks gradually, and help decrease the pre-party rush.

note to self...

T-MINUS 21 DAYS:

Clean Up – It’s never too early to remove all the clutter around the house. Do the major cleaning up now, so you won’t have to worry about it later.

Minor tidying up can be done a couple of days before the party. Ensure that your home or venue is kid-and-elderly-friendly by fixing uneven floors, covering protruding knobs or screws, and installing safety gates on staircases (if your party is to be held on an upper floor, or by the pool).

Rearrange – Take out your guest list and map out the areas for your guests according to age groups.

Keep kids in one area where they can play without disrupting the party for other guests. Elders can stay in a section where the food, rest rooms, and exits are easily accessible. If the party is at your home, check the lights, and if appropriate, sound system. Replace accordingly and purchase back-up equipment, if possible.

Examine the Guest List – Once you’ve sent out your invitations (remember to place RSVP requests), organize the attending guests list into age groups.

Count even the youngest guests, so you can keep track of how much, and the type of food you will serve, plus how much space you’ll need for everyone.

Start Stocking – Never wait for the last minute to purchase non-perishable items for your event, as you’ll never know when the nearby grocery will run out of what you need. At this point, you must have the menu planned, with everyone’s health concerns in mind. If you have a guest who’s allergic to a particular type of food, make sure your menu accommodates their dietary constraint.

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T-MINUS 14 DAYS:

Practice – Avoid failed attempts at cooking an unfamiliar dish by practicing a new recipe, weeks in advance. When your party date arrives, there’s very little to no room for mistakes.

Delegate – Family and friends may opt to help you out by bringing food, wine, or other perishables to the party. Inform them of what they could bring, so it would go well with your menu.

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T-MINUS 24 HOURS:

Decorate – Get the young ones to help you spruce up the place and hang up the lights, streamers, and other party paraphernalia within their safe reach. This makes your celebration a family affair, aside from teaching kids the basics of decor.

Prepare – If your menu includes recipes that require hours of marinating, thawing or pre-cooking, you should do it well in advance, so that you’ll have enough time to do the last-minute arrangements. Charge your iPod for non-stop music, and ensure your camera and video camera’s batteries are full, so you won’t miss out on those pictureworthy moments.

T-MINUS 4-8 HOURS:

Set Up – You can chill the wine and refrigerate drinks at this point, while you do the last-minute cooking, baking, and preparing. Put together your menu, and begin arranging the tableware. Bring out the Wii, video games, and other toys the little ones would love to play with in their own “kids’ zone.”

Place storybooks, coloring books, paper, pencils, and crayons on the tea table (or if you have enough space in your venue, a children’s desk or a small furniture set would be great) for those who would like to draw or read instead. Turning on the TV is often discouraged, unless it’s a viewing party, but you can have the children watch cartoons, movies, or kiddy shows, a long as the kids’ zone is in a separate area.

T-MINUS 1-3 HOURS:

Finalize – Lay out the appetizers in your receiving area or cocktail table, and get the whole family ready for the party.

Test your lights and sounds, and put on some music while you do the last-minute preparations. Get your digital camera ready to take snapshots once your guests arrive, for a full documentation of the party, from start to finish!

Plan Ahead – If babies are expected, have a diaper-changing area away from the crowd. A guest room with its own bathroom can serve as the changing area, where basic supplies such as water, cotton, wipes, hand soap, or hand sanitizer should be readily available. This will help avoid the unnecessary bustling around to look for the host to ask for such items.

HOW TO INVOLVE ELDER FAMILY MEMBERS IN THE MERRYMAKING

“There comes a time when older adults may not be able to do all the things they once could. At this point, family members and friends can find ways to include older adults in these traditions or start new ones.” –David Haber, Professor of Wellness and Gerontology at Ball State University, Indiana Make the festivities easier and more comfortable for your beloved seniors with Haber’s simple yet effective tips on how to accommodate them in any get-together:

If you’re planning an event, make sure that most of the activities will be seniorfriendly, by “tailoring the level of their participation to their physical abilities.” Ask your elderly relatives for input and ideas when planning activities.

Remember that their comfort and security should also be a priority during these festivities.

Be aware of the nutritional, physical, and health needs of the elderly. Whether your grandma is allergic to nuts, or your uncle is a vegetarian, ask about their health conditions and dietary preferences, so that the food you will serve will not cause any problems for anyone.

Stay connected. Encourage your elders to try social networking sites that will keep them in the know. Because elders are often reluctant to learn new technology, you must have a supportive approach in teaching them how to use e-mail, instant messaging, and social media.

If an elderly relative is disabled, tell your children about his or her condition.

Remind them to behave around the person, and be accommodating with seniors, especially those who are using a wheelchair or cane. Teach kids how to be sensitive and considerate to their needs.

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This entrepreneurial globe-trotter and (very tall) father of two couldn’t be prouder as an accomplished founder of a company that provides child safety gear that has crossed borders in its popularity. Add to that, he is husband to a constantly supportive and loving wife, and best friend to his two children—who are also proving to be the two best product quality testers he could ever find W O R D S B Y k A r i z FA V i S A n D V A l E r i E A n n E D E l C A S t i l l O

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ike any success story, that of Cybex’s started out with a fantastic plan from founder Martin Pos. His idea is simple yet effective—to take his knowledge as a parent and use that to create safety products for kids, with the help of leading European engineers, international designers, and lifestyle strategists. Together, they came up with a brand rooted in its core principle of over-average safety and quality, unmistakable design and intelligent functionality (which the company calls the S.D.F. innovation principle). This became the core belief of Cybex.

In the U.S., Cybex is distributed by Regal+Lager, a company dedicated to delivering the best products for the family. The latter’s co-founder, Bengt Lager, lauds Cybex’s innovative strategy in creating their collections, recalling, “Martin and I connected about two years ago. We were looking for a new brand of high quality juvenile products to bring to the U.S., and Cybex was ready to take the step over the Atlantic. Besides hitting it off great on a personal level, we really liked the direction the company was headed with their car seats, strollers and baby carriers. With their emphasis on contemporary design, fashion, great technical solutions and quality, we see them just at the point of breaking through in North America.

We firmly believe that 2011 will be the year when Cybex breaks through and becomes recognized for its forward-thinking products, along with great fashion, for demanding parents.” Discover what, and who, drives the towering Martin Pos to new “heights.”

BC: How has your life been, traveling around different countries all over the world?

Martin: Actually, I feel very lucky having had the opportunity of

travelling around the globe for so many years already. I find it very inspiring to meet with all sort of fascinating people from different countries and cultures. Traveling has become an essential part of my life and I won’t miss it. There is so much to discover out there. Behind every corner, there is a new surprise waiting to be discovered—I’m loving it!

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BC: Were you always a trailblazer?

M: I think, yes. I was always a very curious person, and didn’t

like to stand still at the same place for a longer time. Already as a little child, I always wanted to go out, discovering the world. I always worried that I’d miss something.

BC: How has fatherhood helped in making business-related decisions?

M: Actually, a lot. Being a father of two, my kids always helped

me to find potential for product improvements. Both of them grew up in products that I was working with. I believe that you get a different view on a product when you use it yourself. Your own kids always give you their true opinion, and you can easily find out what the problems may be in daily use. All products and innovations which Cybex developed are based on my own or our team members’ experiences with our own children. Now both of them being older, I still value their opinion. My son’s more from a functional point of view, my daughter’s from a more esthetical perspective.

BC: What inspired you to build a company dedicated to children’s safety? How did it all begin?

M: I had the impression that there was still a lot of room for

improvement in the technical/safety field, but a lot in the area of design, as well. I felt that we could do better by building a team of experienced people from within the industry, and combine them with experts from other industries, like the car industry and professionals from European consumer test organizations.

Our team members come from top car and fashion design environments. By getting all these fantastic people together, there was lots of room for creative interaction, combined with technical premium know-how. I believe that products have to be not just safe and of high quality, but from the design point of view they need to touch our senses and underline our personality.

BC: What are the core values of Cybex, and how has it influenced

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M: Simply spoken: Passion! I believe in

“i know my Mom quite well, Brad not so much, but they seem to have in common, being great friends and creative leaders to their kids. people who have had great ideas, but only a few who stood up and made them happen.”

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our strengths, and speed combined with fun. Have a dream—make it happen— now! I have met many people who have had great ideas, but only a few who stood up and made them happen. Also, I met many successful people who have lost the smile in their face. I think that passion is one of our true core values. I am very lucky to be surrounded by a group of fantastic people who have the passion and ambition to do something special with their lives, and are willing to work hard for it. We enjoy what we are doing and have much of fun along the way. It’s a great feeling if you have a dream that seems logical, then you stand up and start working on it, later to find out that it

works! Making things happen where other people don’t have the imagination, that’s what I believe is a fantastic feeling and a great satisfaction. I think that life is too short to waste precious time and to not enjoy every single second of it.

BC: How do you manage your time as a father, husband, and as an entrepreneur?

M: I am blessed having a fantastic wife

who gives me lots of support. She realized very soon that she was not raising only two, but three kids. She has a great sense of patience and humor, which she needs to survive, living with a person like me.

She gives me great support in everything that I’m doing, and helps me to keep my feet on the ground. My family is the most important value that I have. They don’t

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bc-mag.com care about the excitement of the business world and they see me as who I really am. With my kids I have a great relationship, more of a big brother, than the restrictive father. We have lots of fun together, and I try to support them as much as I can in their personal development, teaching them to always believe in themselves and their visions.

M: Having great trusted friends in them and watching them grow.

It’s fascinating to watch them grow from having them in my arm when they were born, seeing their first steps, going to school, becoming teenagers and developing their personalities over the years. It’s incredible to see how much parents can influence a child’s personality and it’s a great responsibility that we have.

BC: Who is your parenting role model?

M: My Mom and Brad Pitt. I know my Mom quite well, Brad

BC: Funniest memory about your kids?

M: There’s too many to remember. Maybe several years ago

not so much, but they seem to have in common, being great friends and creative leaders to their kids. My Mom always gave me enough room for my creativity, trusted in my abilities on one hand, but gave me clear directions, on the other hand, for me to grow up to be an honorable and respectful person. Brad seems to be a very grounded and cool dad, finding ways to combine his career with time out for his kids, and being there for them as a friend when they need him.

BC: What’s the best thing about being a father?

when they were little enough to still believe in Santa Claus.

It was unbelievable how fast they cleaned up their rooms and were nervously standing by the window watching out for Santa, thinking that Santa just passed our house, just to find out it was only the neighbors’ dog chasing a cat.

BC: Proudest daddy moment?

M: When they were born. I was there together with my wife both

times she gave birth. Those times were the proudest and most emotional moments of my life. bc

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nce upon a time, we entered into a life of fables. We fell in love very quickly—I, at least, knew at first glance.

We were quick friends and soon into the quick. The thick of it had us off within the year to India to be married in a Hindu ceremony at dusk, sprinkled in holy milk, incense, marigolds and sanskrit promises. All of this on a palace floating in the middle of an ancient lake in the desert folds of the storied land of Rajas south of Delhi. Parenthood, equally mysterious, came the next year. To our growing daughters we often told of how mommy and daddy were wed—truly bound up—in their marriage odyssey in India!

After a decade of traveling with them all over the world, our daughters were seasoned enough for induction to Indian

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impromptu elephant ride

travel themselves. For a voyage to India, a child must be ready in the simplest and most fundamental ways. They must be self-sufficient on long plane rides and not afraid of new foods or exotic places to tuck in for the night. We also figured it would be a good idea if our youngest daughter, 6, was big enough to not put everything in her mouth. The girls are now also savvy enough not to rush headlong into the typical Indian oncoming traffic of cars, tuk-tuks, camels, cows, rickshaws, Tata trucks, sadhus, brightly sari’d waterpot-on-head bearing women, red-beetlespitting-London-toady-pant-wearing men, cripples, lepers, urchins, milkmen, sweet chili-crisp food carts, Hindu funerals, Muslim 3-story-papier-machetower-toting parades, elephants and the occasional really cute little puppy covered in mange.

They had to be metaphysically ready as well. I mean we, as nurturing parents, had to steel them for the full cosmos of madness that India presents to the Western mind.

India is all about submersion, plunging full into a world that is seemingly not of our ken. It is the dream turned inside out. India is the richest silk, the most threadbare cotton, and constantly the wildest, most garish glittering rayon. We keep a vibrant and colorful home, full of creativity and gardens and pets. They know about life and death and the sense of cycle this entails. We guessed, very correctly, that they were out of their milk teeth far enough to bite into this old, weird apple.

You have to be able to go all the way in, in order to get all the way back out of India.

Our CHICKS proved to be heartily up to the task.

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D e s t i nat i o n 1. The trio of women go three wheeling. Tuk-Tuks are the preferred way to inch through traffic. No car seats, no seat belts, no doors even. 2. Everywhere we went proved a perfect photo op for my sister, Soleil’s Little Seed Clothing line. 3. Shopping expedition. Festive outfits for Christmas. 4. 11 years ago we made vows to create life together. We brought our girls back to this lake of the Floating Palace to remind them of their origin, to assure them they are a promise well kept. 5. Hanging with the Raja of Palace Bijaipur himself at the Christmas festivities.

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1. Originally this was the temple room in the exquisite Kankarwa Haveli along the Lal Ghat with views of our Floating Palace. Now it was a perfect little bedroom for our CHICKS. 2. Our first day in Delhi. We tried to do kid-oriented outings. The train museum is a good introduction to the sense of history that pervades the place, as well as to the discord and disintegration of infrastructure at every turn. The International Doll Museum was even freakier. 3.

Fun with pigeons outside the City Palace of Jaipur. 4. Life takes on a different pace down on the farm. A camel hayride through rural india. 5. There used to be all manner of wild animals in Rajasthan.

Then the Rajas, while hanging out with the likes of Errol Flynn, put them all in museums. 6. A bird’s eye view of the elephants from behind the harem screens high atop the amber fort. 7. the Maharani’s bedroom in the City Palace. All mirrors and colored glass! 8. With the manic eyes of Krishna staring on, Mette makes good with the temple woman after her sister chucked the offering sweets on the floor, thinking them dangerous to eat coming from the hand of a crone. Mette, younger but wiser, is never one to turn down rock sugar and fennel. 9. Typical tea-stall street scene. 10.

Eschewing rail travel due to continuing Gujar, milkmen, rail delays we quickly learned that the private jeep is the way to move around the Sub-Continent with kids. 11. the height of civilized culture, a deco indian movie palace in Jaipur.

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“they know about life and death and the sense of cycle this entails.

We guessed, very correctly, that they were out of their milk teeth far enough to bite into this old, weird apple.”

1 1. That’s the way to handle a dirt floor! 2.

Muharram Parade, the Muslim kids carry small effigies of towers through the streets and down to the ghats. Later that night the men carry huge replicas of the towers. They have to cut down the power lines in order to get them through. 3. Chittorgarh, Asia’s largest fort, 13km along the top of a fully defensible hill, two entrances, 14 gates, given up in siege only 3 times in the past one thousand eight hundred years. and those times all the women and children threw themselves on giant self-sacrificial funeral piers. Seen here is the 9 story Vijaya Stambh, The Victory Tower.

4. Fireworks factory on the cusp of the new year. 5. A sneak-peak of our INDIA! CHICKS fashion shoot. ilse designed these clothes and had them sewn by local tailors from beautiful indian cotton. 6. Our beloved floating palace, formerly Octopussy’s lair, turned into a disco for the night by reveling members of India’s new Econ-Aristocracy. 7. Early Holy Cow encounter, later to become as commonplace as a parked bicycle. 8. our much anticipated 1st train ride with the girls; cut short by the Gujars, the milkmen, sitting on the tracks in protest of government quotas. It forced us off the rails and into our next grand adventure.

9. They don’t build ‘em like they used to. City palace, udaipur. 10. our hindu Wedding on the floating palace a decade ago. 11. Dawn on Lake Pichola and the floating Lake Palace, udaipur.

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Sticks and stones may break my bones, and bullies can always hurt me

ost members of Generation-X (now in the 30s to mid-40s), are probably familiar with the movie, Can’t Buy Me Love, which launched a then-scrawny Patrick Dempsey.

In it, Dempsey’s character is an outcast, misfit, and daily target of taunting in schools. Molly Ringwald as the ever-resourceful and self-assured Andie Walsh in the screen adaptation of Pretty in Pink, was every young girl’s heroine in the stand against high school bullies. Eric Stoltz became the unlikely heartthrob “Keith,” opposite high school knockout Lea Thompson, and tomboyish Mary Stuart Masterson in Some Kind of Wonderful.

In them, all three fall victim at one time, or in some form, to the cruelty of bullying.

It’s been over two decades since those films first came out, and while there are modern adaptations (see Mean Girls), the storyline remains the same. A lot has changed, and much has happened in the way of technology and modernization. With the advent

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of what is known as the cyber age—an era where the world has grown smaller thanks to increasingly advanced communication equipment—peer pressure, discrimination, and bullying have moved well past classrooms, cafeterias, and school halls. Though modern gadgets like mobile phones and computers are meant to bring people over various distances closer together, recent events have shown how they can be utilized to widen social gaps, and push people over the brink.

In recent years, more and more cases of teen suicides resulting from bullying have come to light. It has gotten so, that even global music superstar, Madonna, has voiced her concern about it. During her appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in the U.S. last year, the pop icon said, “I’m incredibly disturbed and saddened by the overwhelming number of teen suicides that have been reported lately because of bullying. To hear that teenagers are taking their lives because they are being bullied in schools and dormitories, what have you, is kind of unfathomable.”

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C Y B ER S C ARE

“...Bullying can now occur 24/7, allows content to spread like wildfire from one e-mail, text message, or website to countless others, and live on...for all eternity.”

Nowadays, mean teens have evolved beyond snickering and playing pranks in the gym showers, hallways, parking lots and lunch rooms. Bathroom stalls are no longer the only billboard of choice for writing profanities, obscenities, insults, and attacks on schoolmates. These days, e-mails, text messages, wall posts on social networking sites, digital images, live chats, forums, instant messaging, streaming videos and the like have become the preferred methods for delivering potentially life-ruining content.

In 2010, Irish native and 15-year old South Hadley High School student Phoebe Prince also took her life following repeated harassment from her schoolmates, who were attacking her for dating one of the more popular male students.

A soda can was thrown at her while she was walking home from school. Her 12-year old sister found Phoebe hanging from a scarf on the staircase.

Following her death, crude remarks still continued to appear on her Facebook page.

In September of the same year, 18-year old Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi made headlines after he jumped off the George Washington Bridge. He was said to be repeatedly teased by schoolmates for being gay. The turning point was when his dorm roommate secretly video streamed Tyler's encounter with another male student, thus forcing Tyler to face further public humiliation.

A few days later, he posted a suicide message on Facebook and dove to his death on the Hudson River.

Because the internet never sleeps, and is as far-reaching as you can imagine, bullying can now occur 24/7, allows content to spread like wildfire from one e-mail, text message, or website to countless others, and live on in the bowels of the World Wide Web for all eternity. This can scar, ruin, and traumatize the victim for life, making it difficult for him or her to recover, and live normally.

“The truth is that technology has moved faster than parents’ ability to keep up with it,” former educator Jacquie Ream, said. Ream is also the author of YNK—“You Never Know,” a book that aims to teach today’s youth about the pitfalls of technology. Mary Kay Hoal, the COO of yoursphere.com, a positive place for kids online cautions that, “The Internet is an integral part of all our lives, and the benefits for Internet-savvy kids are boundless, but there can be a very concerning, dark side to our children’s online interactions. We need to eliminate those pressures so our children can reap the benefits of living in a world made smaller by the Internet, and promote an Internet culture that focuses on the wonders of the online world, and not its dangers.”

But even before kids learned how to threaten and harass their peers online, they have been victims to different types of bullying, and such hate crimes. In 2008, Jessica Logan hanged herself after an ex-boyfriend sent malicious images of her to his peers, causing the student body to verbally harass her. The

same year, Oxnard, California native Lawrence King also fell victim to a hate crime, as he was shot to death by a bully while inside the campus, because he was openly gay. Even in our country, homosexuals and those who appear to be the slightest bit different (whether in terms of appearance, race, family and religious background, or interests), are also targets of bullies, who continue to believe that discrimination is okay, if not a perfectly normal part of growing up.

As daunting as the pressing threat of bullying both in the real, and in the cyber worlds may be, parents need only remember the importance of establishing a strong, open relationship with their children. We should promote an atmosphere of trust where kids can feel comfortable about sharing their positive and negative experiences. We should also reinforce the idea of respecting others and their boundaries and beliefs, and at the same time, open our kids' eyes to the harsh consequences of bullying.

Overall, we must foster an environment where children can learn from them, share their experiences, and still feel secure that no matter what they confide, we will still be there to support, understand, and protect them accordingly. Parents should take a proactive approach in instilling good values in our children, and aid them in fostering better relationships with others. We must also control what our children see online, and teach them how to positively react to stimulus. We may not be able to control what goes on in school, but we can control what goes on at home, and raise children who are able to practice acceptance, and encourage a safer, more harmonious community to live in.

“Parents need to take an active role in preventing bullying from becoming a part of their children’s lives,” Jacquie Ream urges. She adds that technology is merely a means, and that the prevention of bullying still starts at home. “We cannot sit back and blame technology for the crisis facing our kids today. Technology is a tool. There is a human hand and a human mind behind every vicious text message and every texted threat. We need to bring our children a sense of basic core values about their relationships so that they don’t fall down the slippery slope that cell phones and the Internet is paving for them.”

For his part, Malcolm Gauld, the president of Hyde Schools, which is a network of prep and charter schools focused on character education and leadership development, sees the need for the participation and cooperation not just of the immediate family. “An honest and positive school and home environment where kids and family members look out for each other is possible. The kids can't do it by themselves. We cannot do it for them. But we can form a partnership with communities and schools that gets it done,” Gauld said. In the U.S., one such partnership is the It Gets Better Project (itgetsbetter.org), established by noted writer and media personality, Dan Savage.

It aims to promote the urgent message that life has so much more to offer, and that bullying isn’t the only reality that teenaged kids have to know and fear. bc bc-mag.com { SPRING 2011 } b c

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Entertainment Tonight co-host Nancy O'Dell may be a familiar face, but there's definitely more to her than just an admirable career in the media industry. This former beauty queen and Access Hollywood co-anchor goes on the flipside of the TV cameras for BC

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ringing a fresh perspective to collecting heartfelt memories, Emmy Award-winning entertainment journalist Nancy O'Dell is an advocate for the hobby art. As a prominent TV personality (who is an often fixture in award ceremonies such as The Oscars and Golden Globe), author, and busy mother, Nancy knows how important it is to spend quality time with her children. In her latest book, Full of Love, Nancy discusses her passion for scrapbooking, and draws importance to the ability of family albums to help nurture children who are happier, more confident, and secure. Nancy shares how she inherited the love for the craft from her mother and grandmother, who have passed on to her a special kind of heirloom—their very own family albums. Her admirable career has also provided her with a platform to spread the word on another cause close to her heart—the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Betty's Battle, an organization she founded following her mom’s passing due to complications related to ALS—all while she cares for her loves—3-year old daughter, Ashby; two stepsons, Tyler and Carson; and husband, Keith Zubchevich.

BC: As the founder of Betty’s Battle (bettysbattle.org) and the Vice President and National ALS Ambassador to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, can you tell us more about the causes?

N: My mother, Betty, was literally one of the sweetest people who

has ever walked this earth. I want to humanize ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), so people understand what it does both to those who have it, and to their families. It is a horrific disease and I want to do whatever I can to stop it from taking somebody else’s loved one. I founded Betty’s Battle with the Muscular Dystrophy Association in honor of my mom, who was always one to put others before herself. So it is not surprising that even in her passing, she is still helping people. MDA was there for me and my family every step of the way during Mom’s illness. They provided expert medical care, told us about the latest ALS research and clinical trials, and kept us informed about what might happen next. So I know I have a wonderful partner in this fight. My hope is that MDA’s Betty’s Battle will be able to fund the research necessary to find a cure, so other families don’t have to go through this like my family did.

BC: Who is your parenting model?

N: No question, my own parents. I couldn’t have asked for better

parents. There was never a moment in my life I ever doubted how much they loved me. They were there for every event in my life. I grew up feeling like I was the most loved child in the world, and I know my sister would tell you the same thing. I have the best memories of my mom and dad telling me multiples times in the morning before I would go to school and before I would go to bed, “I love you.” They showed it with actions as well. When my mom passed, she left around 50 photo albums, and my dad handed them down to me. As I went through them, I felt that same love all over again. She had scrapbooked everything I had ever done, every poem I attempted to write, every piece of artwork, every A+ paper. That’s how they always were. If I can be a quarter of the mom my mom was to me, I’ll still be a great mom.

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BC: What is your best memory as a mother yourself?

N: Everything! I say one of the best things about having children is

you get to experience your own childhood again through their eyes.

Disney World feels like you’re right back there as you get to see the same excitement in your children’s faces that you remember feeling as a kid. Some of my best memories are coming home after work.

Seeing the big smile suddenly appear on your child’s face when she sees you and then having her run into your arms...there is nothing better than that! Just the other day, I had a full work day and then an event right after. By the time I got home, Ashby was already asleep. But she woke up in the middle of the night. She saw I was home and said to me, “Mama, I missed you so much today.” My heart completely melted!

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bc-mag.com BC: That is so sweet...As a host, journalist and author, you seem to be very busy woman.

N: It is tough to juggle it all, but you have to make time for the

most important thing in your life, which is family. Jobs will come and go, but family will always be a part of you. And you have to make sure it is a lot of time, and quality time you spend with them. My husband, long ago, gave me the biggest and best piece of advice: Be in the moment. I had turned down a work assignment to be with my family and I was fretting over what my boss would think. My husband told me, “If you’re spending all the time worrying about a decision you’ve made, then you are not in the moment and you’re not making the most of the precious time you made the decision to spend.” So it is important to be present and really enjoy.

BC: You graduated Summa Cum Laude majoring in Marketing in Clemson University. Did you ever see yourself as an entertainment host/author/journalist?

N: I actually didn’t plan for this career. It’s ironic because I can’t

see myself doing anything differently now, as I love being a

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bc-mag.com journalist. Fortunately, I discovered that early on. I started out in TV sales at a small TV station, WPDE, in Florence/Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Because it was a small market, it didn’t require a lot of experience to be a reporter. I started doing some reporting on the weekends for them, and realized I really liked the fact that it was a different job every day, depending on the story you had. I loved the fact that it was so interesting, ever-changing, and that I learned something every assignment when reporting. I have always yearned to learn and have a curiosity about things... so a career in journalism works well for me, since I get to ask questions!

BC: You won Miss South Carolina in 1987, and you’ve been hosting some beauty pageants as well. Please tell us more about those experiences.

N: I know that beauty pageants can have a negative connotation to

some, but I have to say there were so many things I learned during my year as Miss South Carolina that have helped me today. I spent that entire year traveling around the state and country, speaking at various events. The public speaking experience came in handy

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My husband told me, “If you’re spending all the time worrying about a decision you’ve made, then you are not in the moment and you’re not making the most of the precious time you made the decision to spend.”

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for what I do for a living now. It was also an event in my life that matured me, as you can wind up having a lot of responsibility. I even traveled to Japan on an international trade relations program.

Also, that year taught me that you can take a platform and use it for doing good. I am grateful I learned that at an early age.

BC: What inspired you to write a book on chronicling a young child's growth through scrapbooking and album making?

N: Honestly, I couldn't wait to spread the word about something

that is so valuable to families and children. So that's the biggest reason I wrote Full of Love. When some people hear the word "scrapbooking," they think it’s all glue and glitter and way too time-consuming. I wanted to let the world see that you can do it easily and quickly, because those albums are so vitally important in making children feel loved, valued and confident. In one chapter of the book, I interview renowned psychologist, Dr. Kenneth Condrell, who told me that there are few tools more powerful or effective than family albums or scrapbooks in helping to raise confident, happy, well-adjusted kids! So it was so easy for me to write about something about which I am so passionate.

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BC: Congratulations on your new Hummingbird scrapbooking collection with Creative Memories.

N: I am so excited about my new line with Creative Memories.

Obviously, I am a huge believer in album-making so I wanted to make it beyond simple for busy parents to do. And that is exactly what the Hummingbird line is all about. It is foolproof and is available as a traditional album-making kit as well as digitally.

BC: What are your other must-haves as a mom?

N: I'm not just saying this because it is a part of the new line,

but my Hummingbird tote has totally become a mommy musthave for me. You spend so much time in the pediatrician’s and OBGYN's offices and I, of course, was making baby albums galore during that waiting time. (I have actually even done albums in between interviews at the Oscars; kid you not!). Also, you have to get Celine Dion's Miracle CD. It's amazing and has the most beautiful songs about children—and, of course, Celine has one of the most beautiful voices in the world. A friendly warning though—you might want to have a box of tissues handy as you will get so sentimental about your children. bc bc-mag.com { SPRING 2011 } b c

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closet therapy If stepping inside your closet means getting lost in a sea of garments and accessories, you know it’s time to tidy up. Discover the ways you can optimize your little space, for greater storage possibilities WORDS BY VAlEriE AnnE DEl CAStillO P H OTO G R A P H B Y b E n j O b i l lO n E S

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HouSeKeePing

elcome spring cleaning with these helpful tips that will not only encourage you to clean up your home, but also kick off bad habits, revamp our lifestyles, and gear up for a fresh start. A clean environment promotes a better state of mind, and what better place to begin tidying up than our closet? It’s certainly one of those parts of the house that we come face-to-face with everyday. We’d contemplate for minutes, wondering what outfit to wear, which shoes would match, and sometimes, unfortunately, where our favorite shirt has gone.

We often encounter such musings in the morning, when we’re kick starting our busy days, and the irony is that when you’re running late, that’s when your most treasured trousers have gone missing. One of the factors that contribute to the disorganization of our clothes room is having limited space and having so much to wear.

Organizing your closet is a tedious task, but as daunting as it sounds, it will actually pay off in the end, by giving you a clearer outlook (even if it’s just inside your closet), easier access to the things you need, and more time to go about your daily routines (a definite must-have for every mom).

SORT AND DISPOSE

CLOSET CASE:

Mind your space. before investing in any type of storage, make sure you know the space limitations of your room. Measure if you must.

HANG AND STACK

The initial step in closet organizing is sorting all your stuff. Whether it’s clothing, shoes, or accessories, you have to filter them into categories.

For shirts, blouses, and other tops, place them on wooden hangers, which are more eco-friendly than plastic ones, and work very well with jackets and other heavier garments.

The primary categories are “usable” and “non-usable.”

Non-usable clothes are those you’ve grown out of, have irreparable damages, or are simply too faded and worn out to use. As the rule says, if you haven’t worn it in a year or more, it should no longer belong to you.

Metal hangers are also long-lasting, but make sure that its finish won’t affect your garments. Multi-level hangers can store a number of lighter garments, without compromising space.

If you have a solid plan to bust the pounds, you may keep your favorite jeans that don’t fit just yet—as further motivation to lose weight. You can also donate them and reward yourself with a new pair once you’ve grown too small for the ones you’re using. Consider holding a garage sale for the whole family’s unusable items, which may also include outgrown children’s stuff, old furniture, books, CDs and DVDs, kitchenware, etc.

ARRANGE AND TIDY UP

Once you’ve sorted out all the items you still use, arrange them into groups—whether it’s by color, season, or type— you can come up with your own way to keep things neatly tucked in the closet.

For items that can be mixed and matched in layers for the cooler days, store them in easy-to-reach locations. For things that you use very often, or even daily, place them at eye level. All the other articles of clothing that you don’t use very often can be kept in clear plastic containers, which are recommended for its functionality—you can easily see its contents without having to take them down or out of the closet. If you’re using other types of containers that don’t allow visibility of items inside, place labels on them instead.

Sweaters and other stretchable material should be neatly folded and arranged by color. You can use dividers or containers to avoid the stacks from falling over.

MAXIMIZE SPACE

Limited closet space? No sweat. Install a pair of stick-on utility hooks, which can easily go on the side of closet walls or on its doors.

These small but useful hooks can help store light or soft items such as hats, caps, and belts, in easy to access locations. The back of your closet is often neglected and seen as merely a wall. You can install coat hooks to hang up belts, bags, scarves, and other accessories. If you find that the wall is too far to reach, you can opt to store less often used items there instead.

Your closet door can also hold up a hanging shoe rack, which can store up to a lot of your footwear and small accessories. You can also invest in a shoe wheel, which not only saves space but also makes for more organized storage. For accessories, a clear hanging organizer provides easy access to your stuff, and allows for easy mobility, especially for those who transfer residences often.

A certain level of discipline goes a long way when it comes to keeping your closet organized. The simple habit of putting things back to where they belong is a big step towards keeping your closet neat and tidy. Schedule regular clean ups, so that you won’t have to deal with a bulk of clutter. bc-mag.com { SPRING 2011 } b c

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In her 2002 rom-com hit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos’ character finds herself enamored with a ‘non-Greek’–and has since become a household name. In 2010, she was named National Adoption Day spokesperson once again in the U.S., and this Canada-born mom looks like she’s come across her biggest role to date B Y k a r i z FAV I S P H O T O G R A P H S B Y a n n e ma r i e fo x P H O T O G R A P H Y A S S I S T A N T s t ep h e n se i de l M A K E - U P B Y Ro b i n S i ege l H A I R B Y s h a n a f r u ma n sty l ing by j ess i ca pas t e r

it

was one serendipitous day in LA when I was in a meeting with Soleil Moon Frye and her business partner, Paige Goldberg, at their eco-friendly family store when I met Nia, who was with her daughter at the time. I had no clue that she was not her biological child, since judging from their looks and chemistry, it all felt intrinsic. Nia chats with my husband and I for a bit as our girls excitedly played together with some toys on display. Some people you instantly feel a connection with—and Nia has that welcoming, trusting presence about her that makes you feel like you’ve been friends for a while—and this “girl’sgirl” aura resonates on-screen, which is why many women identify with her. This year, she embarks on many journeys. Career-wise, she co-wrote a movie with pal, Tom Hanks, which will be topbilled by the latter and Julia Roberts. On the homefront, husband Ian Gomez is one of the stars of the TV show Cougar Town, and has also taken to his daddy duties seamlessly. Nia shares stories of a love she never thought possible.

Kariz: In a nutshell, can you tell us how your seemingly endless wait to have a child was cut down to 14 hours?

Nia: I love your question because it shows

how your life can change with one phone call, like what happened to us. We have been trying to adopt for a long time and domestic adoption, I found to be difficult.

I wanna point out that other people find it very easy sometimes. They are matched with the birth mother and everything’s easy for them. For us, it didn’t quite work out that way, and we were waiting for a really long time for things to follow through. Then I found out about American Foster Care, which is the American equivalent of the orphanage, because we

don’t have orphanages in the United States.

What we have is—our kids are placed in foster care—and I found out that there are 129,000 kids that are legally free for adoption. So I met with these social workers…You click on childwelfare.gov/ nfcad for your state, and they match you with something called a foster family agency. It is a 100%-free service. These social workers will then help you get fingerprinted, help you do the background check, and then you go into the system.

What happened to us is, after years of waiting, I matched up with American Foster Care, and 14 hours later, our daughter walked in our door.

K: Amazing, I didn’t know it was that simple.

N: It was the easiest, most lovely process.

They provided us with counseling before, during, and after the process. So when the phone rang and they said, “There’s a little girl, she is legally free, she is 3-years old.

You have been matched with her.” And I’m like, “Oh, okay!” And they said, “She’s going to come and live with you.” And I said, “When?” And they said, “Tomorrow.”

And 14 hours later, she walked in the door and we had nothing, no preparation. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t even have, you know, a pink bedspread in our house. But we had help bought mattresses because my nieces and nephews had slept

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“She asked me in front of a male colleague, “When I grow up and I get my grown-up lady boobs, am I gonna have four boobs too?” I was like, “What? Do you think I have four boobs?” And she pointed to the nipple and the boob area and she had a feeling that it was a breast on top of a breast.”

the dog licked her and she giggled—and that was it. Suddenly, we were parents.

and that woman wasn’t ready to be a mommy, but I was. I tell her that one day we’re gonna meet her, and we’re gonna say thank you that she took the time to grow my daughter. We’re really honest about it because I think it’s good for her heart and mind, the closure.

K: Literally your life changed in a few hours.

N: Yeah, it was just incredible. We had told

K: How does a child actually become legally free?

N: There is a process called relinquishment.

over, and we put some Spongebob sheets on it.

K: Spongebob is always a good choice.

N: Thanks a lot! She walked in the door,

the social workers there are a lot of myths about foster adoptions, like a child could be placed with you and then taken away as the biological parents could fight for them in court. This is not the process that I’m talking about. There are 350,000 kids who are living in foster care while their parents get it together. I am talking about 129,000 kids who are legally freed, that once they’re placed with you, they’re not gonna be taken away. If people are looking to foster, oh my God, go and get matched with one of these kids, the 350,000 kids who need, quite frankly, a loving home. That is a different process. I had told our social workers to please don’t match us with something that could fall apart on us—after everything that we’ve been through. They never, ever brought us into a situation that we weren’t emotionally equipped to take on.

K: How long were you trying to have your own biological child?

N: It was, from beginning to end, a 10-year

process.

K: Wow. Pretty taxing.

N: I put a lot of pressure on the “real” feeling of parenthood, and you’d think that maybe I’d set myself up to be disappointed.

The capacity for love and understanding is beyond anything I thought I was capable of. You know, I’m married, I have pets—I get love. But this is different. It’s just an incredible feeling of being responsible for teaching this child. She’s 5 now and she understands everything. We talk about how she was born in another lady’s tummy,

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A lot of these children are relinquished into foster care because domestic adoption is for infants. Most people are looking for infants, so if a woman is pregnant and decides she wants to keep the child and then give it up for adoption, she is matched with a lawyer and then matched with potential parents. But sometimes women are in situations where they realize that they can’t do it—they’re single parents, or may be circumstances like a relationship doesn’t last that they thought was gonna last. These children are then relinquished to foster care, which means all biological ties to them are signed off, and they are put in the system and they live in really loving foster homes. Here’s another myth I wanted to stop—you know, about those people who take in kids just for the money and end up giving them…crackers and ho-hos to live on, while they eat the rest of the check. I never encountered those people. Sure, they exist—but I’m trying to tell the stories about these wonderful parents taking these kids in, and these kids are legally free and are available for people like me who wanna be parents.

K: Do you guys plan to adopt or foster any other kids soon?

N: We’re open to it, but I’m not pursuing it

right now because she’s my project. But if the phone rang, I would not say no.

K: I understand. For the purpose of this story, what should we call your daughter?

N: Well, I am trying very hard to just to

protect her anonymity...

K: We’ll just refer to her as your daughter.

N: Just call her my daughter. That would

be great.

K: Greatest joys and challenges for you as a mom?

N: Definitely organizing. I used to have

the benefit of—you know—the alarm would ring at 7 AM, and if I didn’t get to work out then, I could work out later or I could write when I wanted to, and do what I wanted to do through the day.

The only time I had to be pretty focused on my schedule was when I’m shooting something. (Laughs) Now, my alarm is when she jumps on my face at 6 AM, so it’s a little different. I get up and spend as much time as possible with her, take her to school, come home, work out, sit down, write, finish writing, then get her from school. When I’m shooting something, I bring her with me. My husband and I try not to shoot things at the same time. He is on Cougar Town. If he is gonna shoot late, like he is today, I’m going home now to get her, and take her to work so that she can see him.

K: Aww, that’s so sweet.

N: We just try, everyday, you know?

We have cellphones, we have ways of communicating. I wonder how my parents did it with four kids, but this is how we’re doing it.

K: When are you actually giving her, her own cell phone?

N: That’s hilarious! No way. (Laughs) I

don’t even know how to work my iPhone!

It is astonishing, and she just figured it out pretty quickly.

K: My 4-year old works the iPad like she’s been using it forever.

N: Can you believe the confidence they

have on these things? I use the computer

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as reward time. Like if she wants to play a game on the computer in the morning and I’m like, “Ok, but get dressed first, brush your teeth, and then you can play this game.” It’s the best thing ever. I used to feel that way about chocolate.

BC: Haha! It’s a different world after all.

Most memorable mommy moment so far—this could be funny or touching.

N: I was wearing a top with a stretchy

neck and she pulled it down and showed everyone my bra. In that moment, if I was filming it for film, I would have the actress in a good bra, but I was wearing my badly worn-out workout bra and I was like, dang, it doesn’t even have push-up!

K: (Laughs) That’s hilarious!

N: Also, I’m trying very hard so she won’t

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have body issues—especially in L.A.—so we’re naked a lot around the house. She takes a shower with me, and we’re kind of comfortable with each other. She asked me in front of a male colleague of mine about my boobs and I said, “Hey baby, we should talk about that later…” And she said, “No I just want to ask you something.

When I grow up and I get my grown-up lady boobs, am I gonna have four boobs too?” I was like, “What? Do you think I have four boobs?” And she pointed to the nipple and the boob area and she had a feeling that it was a breast on top of a breast. So, yeah, I feel like she lives to embarrass me. We went to Sunday school last week and we were in Canada and it was Thanksgiving, and all the kids were drawing what they were thankful for. Our dog had just had surgery and he was on antibiotics which meant he didn’t go to the bathroom for a while. When he did, it was a great feat. So she drew in Sunday school, a picture of dog poop and without explaining it, said to the teacher, “I am thankful for my dog’s poop.”

K: (Laughter) Oh my God, children. What kind of dogs do you guys have?

N: We have a giant Labrador Retriever

whom we found in a pound, and a little dog that’s like a mixture of a Schnauzer and Beagle, that we found in a street.

K: Nobody every claimed him?

N: No, we put notices up from Craigslist

Nia’s daughter: Plaid dress by HULA MULA, hulamula.com

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to Twitter, vets, shelters. Nobody claimed him and we adopted him.

K: I’m glad you did.

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bc-mag.com N: We adopted our first dog about seven years ago, and we felt like she needed a companion, so it’s just fate. I’ve just gone so zen about life after being matched with our daughter. Rather than even go to a pound, we found this dog running down the street with a queued up rope tied around his neck and a cut in his ear—like he’d been tied up in someone’s backyard and had been bitten and just went, ‘I gotta get outta here.’ And I thought, he’s ours now.

K: You have three kids, pretty much.

N: I do. The husband...make it four.

K: So how’s your ‘son’, Ian, like? How’s he like as a father?

N: He’s really good at it. He loves it, he is

very attentive. He tries very hard when he’s with her, just not to study lines, not to be on his cell phone. We’ve really taken the advice of our friends who have college-age kids, who have said, it goes by so fast.

K: It does fly by. I have two daughters, and I feel the same way.

N: I’m trying to just memorize every facial

expression in every moment. She is never gonna be exactly this age again, so that’s why we’re trying to be with her as much as possible.

K: You’ve been named the National Adoption Day spokesperson again. How did you manage such a wonderful feat?

N: I don’t know. When they asked me, I

Care. I said to a social worker, “Why didn’t I know about this?” And she said, “Because we don’t have a spokesperson. We’ve been waiting a long time for someone like you.”

And that’s when I realized, I do have a duty and responsibility to tell people how easy it is because why not? It takes so little of my time to just say, “This is how we do it.” And I would never push people to adopt, I’m speaking to the people who think, “Hey, I don’t have the means to go to another country. I don’t speak this language in this country. I don’t know how to do this.” And I fully, fully support adoption from another country, but if you don’t think you’re financially able to do it, or have the time to do it, I wanna tell you how to do it here.

K: So much kids here who need homes.

N: I know. People have fears about

was really flattered, actually. It’s kind of my favorite topic right now, and I feel like I just got started in 2009. Last 2010, I made it a how-to tour, because I told my story [two years ago]. I’m going on these talk shows and I’m gonna say, here are the three steps. This is how you do it.

adopting from Foster Care and I understand that, and I never want anyone to feel foolish for asking the questions that I myself asked like, “Are these kids damaged?” The answer is no, they are not.

There’s no damage done to a child that cannot be undone with love. People are more willing to take an abused dog into their home than a child.

K: What are those three steps?

N: The first step is, in your state Google:

K: That is so true.

N: These children are not all abused

childwelfare.gov/nfcad. Find your foster family agency. Step two, meet with the social workers. Step three, get your fingerprints and home study kit that they will help you with, and then you wait. And something amazing is gonna walk in your door.

or have horrible situations in their background. You will not be urged to take on a situation that you’re not physically and emotionally equipped to handle because the social workers want it to stick.

They will match you with a person that you are capable of taking on.

K: Do you feel that you have a responsibility to inform people about the whole process? I mean, not just after the awards, and all that.

N: I do. Yes, there’s something going on

K: I took a quick look at one of the websites, and saw kids that have medical problems too. What happens to children like them? Forgive my ignorance…

N: It’s not ignorance. Don’t feel bad,

that I kind of now understand what exactly couldn’t happen to me, I felt like I couldn’t make sense of it. I really wondered—and I’m not a fake humble person, I’m clearly grateful for everything that happened to me—but I kept thinking, why? Why me? Why does this extraordinary thing happen to—you know I consider myself to be a pretty ordinary person. Why? And at the same time that was happening, I was struggling in keeping my infertility problems a secret. Now I realized there’s a reason that everything happened when it was so easy to adopt from American Foster

honestly, it’s not. You’re only asking the stuff that, I’m telling you, I asked, too.

When we were cleared, I would look through the websites all night. One time I saw a child that was clearly Down Syndromed and on a respirator, and you just think, they’re for the grace of God. These poor kids. About a month later, I went back on the website, came across that case: adopted.

K: Oh my goodness. That’s wonderful!

N: There’s one case that our social workers

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told us about, they had a child with cystic fibrosis that got adopted into a family who already had a child with cystic fibrosis.

They felt it would be good for their daughter to have a sibling with cystic fibrosis that they could help each other deal with the disease. Isn’t that amazing?

K: I was just about to say...

N: Again, there’s a lid for every pot. I’ve

met people who, when they die, will probably just go straight to heaven. They’re angels on earth, these foster parents and social workers, who would go out of their ways to give everyone the life that you and I had. They made me realize that there’s a reason. We’re all part of the social fabric and we’re responsible for each other, so if people are reading the newspaper and complaining about crime, these kids graduate out of the foster family system at 18, and are often handed a toothbrush and their walking papers. What’s gonna happen to them? I feel like we’re responsible. Oh, and here are the other benefits that I wanted to tell you about.

Number one, it’s free. Number two, you’re not gonna have legal fees. Number three, the medical history of that child must be legally disclosed to you, as opposed to if you go to another country, you don’t know for certain what’s happening or what you’re getting. And again, I don’t want to discourage people from going to another country but I’m just saying that it’s better here in a language that you understand if you’re concerned about the history of the child. If that child hit another child in the playground, it’s documented. I even have our daughter’s ultrasounds.

K: My notion of foster care is that there would be some sort of trial period. Does that hold true?

N: It is true, and that’s good for everyone.

What they do is that you have a few meetings just to make sure that everyone understands and feels good about each other. The reason our daughter was placed in our home right away is because we have been cleared by the foster family as well.

So she came to us as a foster child and ten days later, we got the state stamp that we were also on the path to adopt her.

K: How do you and Ian manage your time as parents, with successful careers at that?

N: We definitely have less of a social life,

and we’re okay with that. We’ve learned to

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entertain a lot at home so we’ll have movie nights at our house. We’re lucky we’ve had the same friends for 15 years, who were so excited about us being parents that they supported us in that. We’ve learned that she’s the most important thing for us and she feels secure when I’m home, and that’s what’s important.

K: Whose parenting style do you emulate?

N: Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks. Tom left

a meeting very early in the development of My Big Fat Greek Wedding because it was his day to car pool. I remember him wrapping it up and like, “Okay, so we’re good here? Alright, I gotta go.” And he left because he needed to pick up the kids.

lipstick came back in. When that nude lipstick was in, I just looked like a corpse.

Not good. I have a trick that I’ve used from doing so many kissing scenes in movies. It’s Stila Red Lip Stain. Put it on like lipstick, it stays on all day and you put a gloss over it.

K: Favorite designers for yourself or your daughter?

N: We both like Ella Moss and Splendid,

coincidentally...Flowers by Zoe for her, she really likes those. I love Phillip Lim, Derek Lam, and Stella McCartney when I’m feeling kinda edgy. I live in Wolford tights because they suck everything in. I just got a pair of crazy, shiny, Louboutin boots that

K: That’s a fantastic story.

N: That’s how Ian and I feel too. Our

daughter does not know what we do for a living, which we both love. She has no idea. Because this is the age of You Tube and Skype so it’s common to see your cousin on a computer screen with Skype, and your cousin can make a little video and upload it on YouTube from Australia. So she happened to see on the plane just last week, my husband’s TV show was playing on the plane and I didn’t see it and over my shoulder, she pointed at the screen and like “It’s daddy!” and I went, “Oh my God!” and she kind of watched it and I said, “What do you think he’s doing?” She went, “I don’t know. I don’t know any of those people,” and opened a book and started reading.

K: How long do you think that’s gonna work out for you guys, the anonymity?

N: I’m not sure. I taught her, when

paparazzi jumps out, just to turn and look at me because that way, it’s the back of her head. She calls them “the rude boys.” She doesn’t know why they’re trying to take her picture, she also knows that we only allow family and friends to take her picture because that makes sense, doesn’t it?

K: Of course. By the way, speaking of photos, I see how your style has evolved throughout the years. What do you think works best on you now?

N: I, because of Mad Men, am totally

addicted to the ‘60s. My skirts cannot be short enough, and I’ve got platform wedges on right now and my hair is poofed.

K: As far as make-up is concerned?

N: I love big lashes and I love that red

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are gorgeous and I look like Catwoman in them. Sometimes for day, I’ll wear a lot of Theory or Banana Republic, and then at night, I go from Prada, Armani, K-Mart. I am a sucker for purses. That is actually my life motto: You’re never too fat for a new purse.

K: What’s in your mommy purse?

N: I have a black Prada purse today, the

best thing about it is there’s three sections.

On the left hand side is all her stuff and here it is, in a container that I’m unzipping.

I have three cookies low sugar, Goldfish crackers, and three Purell sanitizing hand wipes that honestly, I don’t know if you noticed this but they look like condoms.

You know what I’m talking about, right?

K: (Laughs) I do know what you’re talking about!

N: So that’s on her side. Then I have that

Halloween book that I had from the plane, sugar-free gum and then, here’s my little trick. I have four colors of face paint crayons because if we’re in the area, if we suddenly go into Beverly Hills, where I know there are paparazzi, I face paint her, which she loves, and we’re trying to get away with it until she’s 18. I turn her into a cat or something. That’s really the best way for her not [to be photographed.] There are a couple of images of her on Wireimage.

We went to a children’s event and my mom

was visiting. So I said, Okay, I’m gonna take her. I was assured that we wouldn’t be photographed but I know that there are always long-range photographers so I face-painted her at the gas station and sure enough, it was fine.

K: What’s your family’s comfort food?

N: She likes macaroni and cheese, which I

make, and I mince cauliflower and hide it in there. Meatballs that I chopped broccoli and spinach in and hide it in there. She does eat green peas, she likes them cold, out of the freezer. We eat all organic. I have so far gotten away with not giving her McDonald’s, except for once when she got stitches. We got her a Happy Meal.

“So she drew in Sunday school, a picture of dog poop and without explaining it, said to the teacher, “I am thankful for my dog’s poop.”

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(On the cover) Nia’s daughter: Dress by ANITA G, anitag.com for stores or 800.717.0789

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Other than that, I’ve since convinced her that McDonald’s puts poison in their food.

I’m not anti-fast food, I’m anti-hormones because you see these articles about girls getting their periods younger and younger, and I think it’s pretty easy to figure out why. We cook a lot. She loves to cook with me. I think that that it can be empowering for a little girl to understand the cause and effect of what she puts into her body.

We make cookies from scratch, instead of using mixes which is actually very easy— and her favorite of course is chocolate chip.

Chocolate cures anything.

K: Pretty much channeling your inner Martha Stewart.

N: At the end of the day, I like to come

home and make a meal. She eats before we do because Ian will shoot for longer sometimes, and I wanna eat with him.

When we went to a beach house last summer, I let her stay up for what I call “grown-up hours,” which she was very proud of herself for. I taught her that you have to give and take at the dinner table because a lot of our friends slept over at this place, we all rented this beach

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house together. I wanted to show her that you just don’t get to monopolize [the conversation]. You tell a story, and then this person tells a story, and she really enjoyed that. Anyway, because of that, I realized how important dinnertime is so I don’t have the TV on at dinnertime now.

We sit and we talk about the day. Also, I’m trying something that a friend with an older child told me. “Don’t chastise her for telling you anything. Turn it into a life lesson.” So when she’ll say to me, I had a consequence at school today, meaning like I spoke during nap time or somebody threw sand—or something like that—that is what the consequence is for, I just nod and then say, “And then what happened?”

It usually works out, and then she’ll say, “I felt bad, I apologized…” It made me realize that then I don’t have to go, “Don’t throw sand.” She’s already figured it out.

and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson had heard about the show, came to it and said, this should be a movie. I said, “I’ve written a screenplay, do you wanna read it?” Then Tom called me and said, “We’re gonna buy your movie and you’re gonna play the lead.”

K: You think that’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

N: The best advice was: Don’t blink,

K: That’s great advice, Nia. So is there anything you wanna talk about as far as Larry Crowne?

N: It is about a man who loses his job at

because they grow up so fast. The body image thing, I never ever talk food or weight—I just tell her to eat until her body’s full. I got her a queen-sized bed by the way, because then we could be comfortable lying beside her. We’ll read books and before she falls asleep, she confesses. She unburdens herself and tells me stuff that happened during the day, because she doesn’t wanna take it to dreamland with her. It’s a really special time that I’m hoping we can do for as long as she’ll let me. To me was the best piece of advice: just sit and talk.

K: Well said. Ok, let’s talk about your career. What inspired you to write My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

N: I was an actress trying to get a job, and

my agent said, “The problem is that you’re Greek and there are no Greek parts.” I thought, Ok, if that’s the problem, I’m gonna make it a solution. All the stories I’ve been telling at parties for years—I squished them into a span of one year, hooked it on my real-life wedding to a non-Greek who had gotten baptized, and made the rest up. Just made-up a story about what would happen if the girl was 30, and still living at home and met this guy. I couldn’t get it read because I didn’t have the comfort of having a studio, and I jumped up on stage and did it as a onewoman show. I played all the characters,

K: That is such a fairy tale come true.

N: That was after 4 years of, I couldn’t

get a job on-camera in Los Angeles.

It’s a fairy tale, and it’s such a life lesson for me. Do the work, and a reward will come. If I had tried to write a blockbuster, it wouldn’t have happened. I was just trying to be creatively heard. When I talk to screenwriters—I speak at USC and UCLA, the Writers Guild, and to the Screen Actors Guild—I always talk about not letting anyone define who you are.

And don’t wait for the phone to ring. Call yourselves.

50 and has to reinvent himself. It’s a very relevant idea that Tom Hanks had years ago, before this country was in the financial situation that it is in. I’m so proud of it.

It’s funny but it’s also more dramatic than anything I’ve ever worked on, and I’m so happy to work with my beloved Playtoners again. And then, I also was hired to write a movie about motherhood called Happy Mother’s Day. It’s about four women who run away from home on Mother’s Day. K: Is John Corbett gonna be in them?

N: That’s hilarious! He just called me and

asked that, because I Hate Valentine’s Day was a remarkably low budget indie that we shot in 18 days. They told me that I could direct my own script if I could shoot it in 18 days with John Corbett. I called John up and he said yes without even reading the script. We shot it in 18 days, got it released, and it is in profit, which is unheard of for a movie, to be in profit so quickly. So John called me up, because we are profit participants in it—John and I, and the chief producer. He was like, “Baby!

We’re gonna make money off this thing,” and I was like, “Oh thank God, because it was really hard to shoot.” So [ John] goes, “What are we doing next?”

K: Haha! And he is like your fictional soul mate, isn’t he?

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bc-mag.com Nia’s daughter: Gown

by ENCHANTED ENFANT, enchantedenfant.com .

Shoes by LITTLE MARC JACOBS, marcjacobs.com

“Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks. Tom left a meeting very early in the development of My Big Fat Greek Wedding because it was his day to car pool. I remember him wrapping it up and like, “Okay, so we’re good here? Alright, I gotta go.” And he left because he needed to pick up the kids.”

N: I love him so much! Maybe we’ll just keep on working together because I know I can depend on him. He treats me the same way in front of my husband, as when my husband is not there. That to me is the a mark of a true gentleman. As a writer, I can rewrite [his script] on the spot and he can look at it and go, “Okay, no problem.”

He walks away, memorizes it, ten minutes later, he’s shooting it with me. He is so easygoing and adaptable, and he makes my lines better. That is my kind of actor. It’s just something extraordinary happened to us and we know it. We’re so lucky to have each other. And you know if I had

gone through it alone, if I wasn’t married, if I didn’t have that cast, it would’ve been pretty lonely. But it happened to all of us and it was a super fun ride.

K: Any resolutions for 2011?

N: My daughter is going to start first

grade, and I made a pact with myself that I would let her experience it. In Los Angeles, you can choose the schools you can go to and I know what school I would want—but I don’t know what child she is yet. We morph, we grow, and we change, right? I will stay hands-on that wherever she goes, that it is a beneficial school for

her so that if she changes into a child that the school is no longer right for—you know, progressive versus academic—that I would do the work that I am doing now all over again. Do the school tours, the interviews, the admissions process again for my child.

K: That’s fantastic, Nia. A shoutout to BC for the readers?

N: I would like to say, hi BC, thank you

so much for bringing this magazine that shows us that when we become moms, it doesn’t mean that we have to shuffle around in our sweats and slippers. bc

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SHUTTLE IMAGINATION kIDSCRAFT PLAYHOUSE Environmentally-friendly space shuttle playhouse made of 100% recycled cardboard with a sturdy drawing surface, $49.95, kidscraftusa.com

best choices Because there’s too many options on the market, BC promises to scour and curate a fine selection of items with all types of budget in mind

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SIBU REVITALIZE & RENEW Sea buckthorn liquid dietary supplement that improves skin tone and texture, supports hair and nail growth $29.95, store.sibubeauty.com

luv MY WOOBIE SYDNEY BLANKET Chocolate brown and pink plush skull and bones chenille front infant blanket with a patented silk brocade pacifier pocket $74, luvmywoobie.com SNAZZY BABY MY BABY’S OWN DELUXE TRAVEL CHAIR IN RED Soft portable high seat restraint system that keeps baby secure $34.99, snazzybaby.us KISS MY FACE kids OBSESSIVELY NATURAL KIDS TOOTHPASTE Flouride-free toothpaste for kids, with Aloe Vera that heals and soothes, Hydrated Silica, and Stevia Rebaudiana, a natural, sugar-free sweetener $5.95, kissmyface.com WALLACE AND GROMIT CRACKING ALARM CLOCK Most eccentric marble-powered wake-up call set off by wind chimes, cymbals and cockerel $41.25, wowstuff.co.uk STREAMLINE ANIMAL BOOKENDS ALLIGATOR Handcrafted, ornate pieces made with natural cotton, iron fittings and animalfriendly faux leather $43.95, fatbraintoys.com MOGO MODERN CHARMS IN PET PALS DESIGN Colorful magnet charms with dog, cat, and fish design $12, getmogo.com

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WEIL BABY 9 OZ. DRINKING CUP IN blue/dark green Award-winning BPA/EA-free drinking cup made of Tritan™ with proprietary AirWave™ venting system and silicone drinking spouts $9.99, weilbaby.com MY DENTIST’S CHOICE TOOTH TISSUES Neutral-flavored, flouride-, paraben and sugar-free wipes for children’s teeth and gums, made with Aloe vera $6.99 for 30 pcs, toothtissues.com L902 DECT 6.0 DIGITAL CORDLESS PHONE AND HEADSET WITH ANSWERING SYSTEM First phone with a built in DECT headset, which features a longer range than bluetooth, and hands-free operation ideal for busy parents motorola.com NO SLIPPY HAIR CLIPPY ASSORTED CLIPPETTES Durable hair clips fully lined in grosgrain, featuring a special non-slip grip for gentle yet secure hold Price varies, hairclippy.com STORKSAK BETH PRINTED SEA STRIPE BLUE DIAPER BAG Features two thermo-insulated bottle pockets, multi-inner pockets, padded changing mat, and detachable inner sak $185, storksak.com SKIPHOP ZOO LUNCHIES IN BEE DESIGN Soft bags with insulated, wipe-clean interior, inside mesh pocket, and roomy main compartment $14, skiphop.com BARBIE FASHION FAIRYTALE BARBIE GLITTERIZER Re-enact the magic of the film “A Fashion Fairytale” with this Barbie doll dressed in a party outfit $49.99, mattel.com MANDY AND PANDY PLAY SPORTS Illustrated book and audio CD that teaches vocabulary for different popular sports in Chinese $12.95, mandyandpandy.com BEGINNING BY MACLAREN TRANQUILITY PATCHOULI AND ROSE candle Natural soy and palm wax candle with essential oils that help promote a feeling of certainty and deep calm $25, shop.maclarenbaby.com ELEGANT BABY PLAY PARTY SQUIRTIES Set of adorable bath squirt toys in five different baby characters $15, elegantbaby.com

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HEART & STONE CUSTOM JEWELRY WOMEN’S RIVET RING Stack of three 1/8” high rings with customized imprints and sterling silver rivets or 18K rivets Starting at $95, heartandstonejewelry.com NOODLE & BOO GLOWOLOGY THE BALM Clinically-tested and hypoallergenic hand and foot cream made of organic shea butter $24, noodleandboo.com BELLI BABY BUNDLE OF JOY GIFT SET Includes Calm Me Hair & Body Wash, Nourish Me Enriched Lotion, Pamper Me talc-Free Powder and Protect me Diaper Rash Cream $14.99, belliskincare.com Elegant Baby Cable Teddy Bear A reinvented classic pink stuffed bear with soft cable knit exterior is durable for lots of hugging with curious babies $22, elegantbaby.com BUILD-A-BEAR PRINCESS LEIA Stuffed teddy wearing officially licensed Star Wars character costume with a white dress, silver belt, white boots and signature hair style wig $31, buildabear.com

SWAROVSKI MATHILDE GREY BAG CHARM Adorable bunny with crystal mesh necklace, fur pompom tail, and Swarovski medallion $115, swarovski.com

MACLAREN NURSERY POLAR BEAR ROCKING HORSE Rufus the Polar Bear was created by designer David Netto, and is part of the Maclaren Nursery line. Features a gorgeous oak saddle and handles with white lacquer detailing $295, amazon.com

ZILLIO MINI MOUNTAIN An educational game that helps improve math skills in a fun, interesting way $69.95, zilliogames.com HABA BIOFINO FISH Interactive fabric fish with play food feature, Velcro belly closure and removable bones $16.37, maukilo.com DR. FRESH INFECTIGUARD WITH MOISTURIZER AND CLIP ON RING 1.8 oz.

Aloe and Vitamin E enriched hand sanitizer that kills 99.9% of germs $1.99, infectiguard.alice.com HABA DANCING EGGS Pack of 11 bouncy eggs, 1 wooden egg, and two die that will bring loads of laughter to your family $19.95, oompa.com or amazon.com THE WORLD OF ERIC CARLE THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR WOOD BOOK Four pages measuring 3.5” that will never rip from this delicious book made of wood. Each page features the colorful items discovered by one very hungry caterpillar—from watermelons to apples $14.90, amazon.com

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BEATRIX NEW YORk PAPAR WHEELIE BAG Stylish, PVC-, lead- and phthalate-free school bags made of heavy-duty nylon.

Measures 13 x 16 x 6.5” $94, beatrixny.com TWO FLOWERS ONE BEAR BEAR JACkET IN CAMEL Even if it’s not winter, this cuddly soft jacket with coconut buttons and adorable bear ears on the hoodie is cute enough for all weather-wear and costume play $56, twoflowersonebear.com THE WORLD OF ERIC CARLE CATERPILLAR BLANkIE TEETHER WITH RATTLE Multiple textures, soft and safe for baby $12.95, carlemuseum.org ROCkABYE BABY! MORE LULLABY RENDITIONS OF THE BEATLES Beautiful instrumental lullabies of timeless rock songs by the legendary band, The Beatles $16.98, rockabyebabymusic.com kUSHIES TAFFETA WATERPROOF BIB FOR INFANT IN DISTRESSED CIRCLES BLUE Lightweight and easy to clean, with catch-all pocket for stray food $4.49, kushiesonline.com THIS IS NOT HOW I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE: REMODELING MOTHERHOOD TO GET THE LIvES WE WANT TODAY A comforting and funny read by Kristin Maschka that spotlights the complex issues on motherhood, family dynamics, and the hidden assumptions that society, the media, and women themselves hold about it $11.25, amazon.com

DYSON DC25 ANIMAL The Rolls Royce of vacuums. Lightweight and powerful (and bagless!), best for homes with pets. Comes with Ball™ technology and Quickdraw Telescope Reach™ $549.99, dyson.com

NATIONAL HISTORY MUSEUM POCkET MICROSCOPE View objects in incredible detail and clarity with 20x-40x zoom magnification and touch button ultra bright LED illuminator $11.55, wowstuff.co.uk vAMPLETS LILY ROSE SHADOWLYN WITH DISAPPEARING BOTTLE OF BLOOD Baby vampire stuffed toy wearing a lilac and white striped nappy $16.95 (doll), $5.95 (bottle), vamplets.com SILIkIDS SILIBIB IN GREEN/BLUE Silicone bib that is hypo-allergenic and dishwasher safe, making it easier to clean baby’s mess $12.95, silikids.com

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MACLAREN LIMITED EDITION LULU GUINNESS BUTTERFLIES STROLLER This Objects of Design Quest frame stroller features pretty butterfly print fabric with black accents created by Lulu Guinness. Her Majesty the queen awarded Lulu an OBE in 2006 for her contribution to British fashion. $300, maclarenbaby.com

MACLAREN LIMITED EDITION CATH kIDSTON RED SPOT STROLLER Clever, witty British designer Cath Kidson interprets the Quest Buggy, taking inspiration from the traditional English country house style. $300, maclarenbaby.com

HABA WOODEN FRUITS Baby’s first shopping bag with wooden apples, pears, strawberries and plums with net shopping bag $17.95, barnesandnoble.com SCIENCE MUSEUM GIANT RETRO SPACE HOPPER Bigger hopper with original face and horns for better bounce. Also includes fast inflating foot pump $24.75, wowstuff.co.uk kOkOPAX SAMANTHA DIAPER TOTE WITH PAX DESIGN Chic diaper bag made of 100% cotton canvas with a custom designed water-resistant lining, durable webbing and bold chocolate leather accents $99.99, kokopax.com PALMER’S BOTTOM BUTTER Combines pure cocoa butter, vitamins A, D and Vitamin B5 in a rich formula that keeps wetness away from baby’s delicate skin $6.38 for 125g/4.4 oz., palmers.com MOTOROLA MBP30 DIGITAL vIDEO BABY MONITOR Features crystal clear sound, 2.4” LCD color screen, infrared night vision, and high sensitivity microphone $108.99, amazon.com AARDMAN WALLACE & GROMIT WATER ROCkET Outdoor fun for adults through experimenting with different amounts of water, pressure levels and angles of launch $32.58, aardstore.com BUILD-A-BEAR C-3P0 Champ bear wearing officially licensed Star Wars character costume with detailed gold suit, soft mask, boots and gloves $34, buildabear.com GRO BABY ALL NATURAL BABY WIPES Fragrance-, dye-, and chlorine-free wipes made of Ingeo fibers thenaturalbabyco.com kISS MY FACE kIDS BERRY SMART WHALE SOAP DUO PACk Whale-shaped natural soap derived from moisturizing oil from Palm kernels $7.95, kissmyface.com SCIENCE MUSEUM HYDROPHOBIC SAND Nontoxic, multicolored sand that never gets wet even under water $8.25, wowstuff.co.uk

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With a cult following and Grammy under his belt, this black Eyed Peas member counts fatherhood and getting out of jail as some of his alltime feats W O R D S B Y k A r i z FA V i S P H O T O S F R O M FA l l i n ’ u P

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Jaime Gomez’s 2007 mugshot takes but a few seconds to find on an online search—too easy that even a 5-year old armed with the proper dexterity and spelling can Google it.

Sometimes a wake-up call comes in your sleep—for others, it is punctuated by a night in prison. Known to the world as Taboo, his autobiography, Fallin’ Up, takes us through this (not so scary) Latino’s journey of being born in an area of poverty and violence, how a spunky grandmother helped mold him, being a misfit in his communities growing up, raising his son at 17 while moonlighting in clubs as a performer, struggling with drug addiction and alcoholism, rising above his personal demons—to the husband and father he is today.

BC: Do you consider yourself a religious man?

Taboo: No, I consider myself a spiritual

man. I’ve been blessed with so many different things, and I really owe it to my grandmother for instilling the spirituality and instilling the positive outlook in life, and just going after my dreams. I think that it’s the spiritual aspect, but it’s also my grandmother shining down on me from heaven.

BC: After growing up for some time in East Los Angeles, did you ever feel like you were never gonna get out, or you knew something big was waiting in the wings?

T: The thing about it is that I lived in

East L.A. for five years with my mom in a project at Dogtown, and I moved to Rosemead, which is the San Gabriel Valley, at the age of 10. So I was kind of bouncing back and forth from my grandmother’s house—which is in South Central—to living in San Gabriel, Rosemead, so I always knew that we were always gonna be moving, and that move was the essential thing that kind of kept me on my toes, because I was going

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from African-American neighborhoods to predominantly Mexican-Asian communities, so it was a very diverse make up of what I was exposed to at a young age.

BC: You wrote about feeling fear for the first time when your mom was almost attacked by a chola—“some jealous nut making a drama out of nothing.” These scary experiences, did they make you extra protective of the women in your life?

T: Definitely. That moment in my life

changed the way that I was to be, because my mom always told me, “You don’t wanna do what these guys are doing.

You don’t want to act like this lady acted towards me. You wanna be better than that.” So even though I was product of East L.A., I always looked for something better in my life, and I think that tuning into music, and to outgrow that whole stereotypical, “Oh you’re from East L.A., you gotta be a certain way.” There was a way out, and this feeling that I felt was just a moment as a kid, and I feared my mom more than I feared anything. I feared my mom being disappointed in me, being hurt by me.

BC: How did you manage moving from one community to another, and always

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finding difficulty fitting-in because of cultural differences?

T: I was really inspired by the hip-hop

community and culture at a young age. I was exposed to that at, I feel, around 8 or 9 years old. Then I moved to Rosemead, which wasn’t really the most hip-hop community friendly. I was kinda looked at as a sellout, a wannabe, an outcast—all because I loved hip hop, and I’ve worn African medallions. I was trying to find myself as a performer and as an individual, and the people I gravitated to were different races—African-American, Filipino. I was made fun of by a lot of kids at my school because of that. I got a lot of flack growing up.

BC: That’s sad to hear. Your grandmother was a big inspiration for you to make your dreams come true. What is the best memory you have of her?

T: The biggest memory I remember is my

grandmother’s strength. I’ll give you an example. My grandmother had a cane that she would walk with. She had a really bad leg, but when the music would come on, she would dance without a cane. And I would really think, what happened to her leg? Why is her leg not hurting while she was dancing? She ain’t weak, but for some reason she found the strength to dance— and that inspired me that no matter what

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ailment I feel, no matter what, I’m gonna keep on going.

BC: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?

T: Sacrifice of being away from my kids

and my wife, I think that’s the hardest thing, being away from family and friends. There’s a lot of time when you’re in your hotel room and you’re lonely and missing your family and there are things that are happening. Your kid takes their first steps, your son goes to take his driver’s test...

BC: I’m sure many can relate to that.

Speaking of parenthood, what was it like being a young father, and having to work hard to achieve success in the music industry?

T: It was scary. I was still a teen myself, so

although I was 17, I was mentally 14. I wasn’t ready to be a dad. But it happened, and I’m glad it did, because it shaped me to become the person that I am today.

It was a struggle because all I wanted to do was party at that age but I had to get a job. I worked during the day, and then at night, I would perform with the Black Eyed Peas. So that was leading kind of like a dual life—I would take care of my son 9 to 5, and at the end of the day, I still want to pursue my dream. That was kind

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“SACRiFiCE OF BEiNG AWAY FROM MY KiDS AND MY WiFE, i tHiNK tHAt’S tHE HARDESt tHiNG, BEiNG AWAY FROM FAMiLY AND FRiENDS.”

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that disappointment ever again.

BC: Which is also why you are an inspiration to many. Describe your relationship now with your son, Josh, and how different you are as a dad to almost three boys now. Congratulations!

T: Thank you so much! I’m so happy. My wife

BC: Is it different now that you’ll have another baby? Has your parenting style changed?

T: I’m more hands-on. I’m getting into changing

BC: And you have all these big women influences around you, so it’s pretty funny.

T: It’s funny, right? So ironic. Anyway, the

much for the family that when I’m at home, I like to assist her and be her support system and help out as much as possible. What happens is that when I get home, I take off the Black Eyed Pea cape and become dad.

goes, “You know you’re a boy-maker.”

relationship between me and Josh, we sort of grew up together, you know? For a long time, I felt like he was the ultimate friend, which is kinda weird because I was so young and I couldn’t comprehend what being a dad was until my epiphany, which happened on March 27, 2007—that was the day when my whole brainwave just shifted. Like the way that I thought about being a parent, the way that I felt about being a husband, the way that I felt about being a career-driven man. That was the day that I thought about who I really was as an individual because everything was stripped away, and I got a glimpse of what my future could be if I didn’t change my life. And so the relationship between me and Josh has become a lot closer now, we understand each other. He respects me. He lost respect for me when I got arrested in March 27, 2007. He was hurt, he was disappointed. My wife was the same, and I never wanna put my family nor my kids through

ABOUt tHE AUtHOR

the diapers...

BC: The poopy diapers, or just number one?

T: It doesn’t matter, I’m there. My wife does so

Taboo’s mugshot taken March 27, 2007 for suspicion of drug possession and dui

BC: What are the funniest and most special moments you share with your kids?

T: One of the biggest moments was rocking out

at the halftime show at the Super Bowl recently.

BC: That was amazing.

T: Getting off the stage and going to the box,

the suite—seeing my son playing with his Woody and Buzz Lightyear, seeing my wife so happy, and just filled with joy and giving my son, Josh, a high-five. Having my family at the Super Bowl was undeniably one of the greatest moments of my life. That was a big payoff.

BC: What funny stuff do the boys do that crack you up?

T: It’s funny how my son, Jalen, says circles—

“Sickles, sickles.” Josh, he’s more reserved, he’s

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“i need as much people to be part of this journey that I’m in, because I like it when people get to see another side of me, really get to connect with me.” Follow him at @tabbep on Twitter.

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BC: If you could pass on a single trait or virtue to your children, what would it be?

T: Perseverance is good, the will and the drive to succeed, no

matter what road block is in front of you. I was able to overcome that and that’s why I wrote this book, to show people that, okay if you’re going down the wrong path and things aren’t really working out for you, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a little flame inside of you that will just keep your motor going. That’s what I want to pass on to my children.

BC: How do you manage being a performer, a father, and a husband at the same time? These are all big jobs.

T: I have the greatest, greatest partner on the planet, my wife,

who understands and supports me every step of the way. We have our communication level, we have our time when we need to be husband and wife, and have our dates. We have to make time for each other, because it just can’t be all about the kids. We have to balance the love, intimacy, and romance that we started before there were any kids. As for being a performer, I kind of turn it off when it’s time to turn it off. When I’m on, okay, I’m on. But when the kids and my wife are around, I don’t wanna be the guy on stage. I wanna be husband, father, and that’s the great part of it. I try to involve my family as much as possible. I brought my family on tour for about two weeks in Canada, which was great because I had my own family tour bus.

BC: That must have been an awesome experience. You stressed

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the importance of having a life partner who supports you. After all you’ve been through together, how do you now pamper your wife?

T: I pamper her as much as possible. Last Valentines’ Day, we took

a little trip to Vegas, and got the penthouse treatment. I made sure she had her spa day. I bring her flowers without her asking, some cupcakes or chocolates, because she has a sweet tooth, or something that she doesn’t really expect. Her birthday is coming up, so I gotta go into Chanel or one of the hot spots to get one of those bags she’s been wanting. I try to be as romantic as possible, and not too materialistic because we don’t want the relationship to turn into something monetary. You want love, romance and intimacy.

BC: That’s very nice to hear. Aside from the intangibles such as health, happiness, love, is there anything else you wish for?

T: Yeah, I wish I could do more philanthropy work. Give back

a little bit more to our community, and do some things in the Philippines and in Mexico. My wife, she’s from the Philippines, she was born there, her roots are there, my best friend Apl D Ap comes from there, so I’m really connected to the Philippines.

People think, “Oh Taboo, that’s the Filipino from the Black Eyed Peas!”

BC: Exactly!

T: What do you mean, I’m the Latino! They’re like, no, you’re

Asian!

BC: You do look Asian, more than Apl, I would say.

T: Yeah, everybody thinks that I’m the scary Asian guy with long

hair, but I’m really the nice, funny, very down to earth person.

And that’s what people are gonna get when they read this book and when people see me as an individual. Wait a minute, he’s not as scary as he seems with the Black Eyed Peas. He’s a different

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bc-mag.com bc-mag.com person now. That whole mask of being the scary, ninja-type warrior guy, that was something to protect myself from people seeing that I was really miserable with myself. I think having that look and that stern face, I presented that as kinda like my shield to block off anybody seeing that I had a drug or drinking problem. And I hated that I did that. Now I look to celebrate life.

BC: Are you scared of backsliding into that lifestyle?

T: People say, “Never say never.” I’m saying never.

BC: Thank God. T: I don’t ever, ever, ever, ever, ever wanna be that person again. I

always look to Bobby Grant, who is our stage manager. He had this video of me, one of the last times that I was really intoxicated back in 2006. And when he showed me that video of myself, I’m thinking, “Wow, what a jerk!” What an asshole I was. What a dumbass. What an ignorant buffoon that person is. I never wanna be that again. Everybody loves and appreciates the guy that I’ve become.

BC: It’s amazing that you’re an author now.

T: (Talks with a British accent) I’m an author, I’ve written a

memoir!

BC: You truly are, in fact. (matches the British accent) T: I love to tell stories. I think telling my own story is kind of

putting myself forward, and some of the crazy things that I’ve done, not taking myself too seriously. When people take a little sense of inspiration and hope and say, “Damn, I don’t wanna be like that guy, I wanna be my own person,” then I’m doing my job.

That’s what I wrote the book for, is to give them a little sense of the vulnerable side and the things, the mistakes that I’ve made and hopefully people would get a sense of hope and inspiration.

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BC: Anything you want to say to all dads out there?

T: As a father, I just wanna be very supportive of my children. I

don’t wanna ever come in between their dreams. If they wanna be an astronaut, or if Jalen wants to be conducting an orchestra, or next day he wants to be the next UFC champion, I gotta support everything that my kids wanna do. Education is first and foremost, but whatever they want to be in life, that’s the most important thing. bc

“iF YOU’RE GOiNG DOWN tHE WRONG PAtH AND tHiNGS AREN’t REALLY WORKiNG OUt FOR YOU, tHERE’S ALWAYS A LiGHt At tHE END OF tHE tUNNEL.” SPRING 2011 bc-maG.com

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bc-mag.com seinfeldelicious B Y k A r i z FA V i S A n D V A l E r i E D E l C A S t i l l O

How many of us can raise three children, actively form a non-profit organization dedicated to providing clothing and equipment to New York families in need (Baby Buggy), and have the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow over for dinner? Well, this New York Times best-selling author and half to comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, can do it all. Jessica Seinfeld began dabbling in the kitchen at 10 years old, perusing cookbooks and her mother’s cooking notes. This trophy mom and wife knows all the right ingredients to nutritious and delicious meals, and family togetherness.

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H e a Lt H y e a t i n g

Lemon Chicken INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon chopped garlic 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon olive oil, separated 3 cups low-fat, reduced-sodium chicken broth 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 2 teaspoons water 2 teaspoons cornstarch

Hands down, this is my favorite chicken dish in the world. It is juicy and rick-tasting, yet light and lemony. What a combination!

PREP

TOTAL

YIELD

15 mins.

25 mins.

serves 6

NUTRITIONAL FACTS

Calories: 333, Carbohydrate: 18 g, Protein: 45 g, Total Fat: 8.5 g, Saturated fat: 1.5 g, sodium: 565 mg, fiber: 3 g

DIRECTIONS 1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, sauté the chopped garlic in 1 teaspoon of the olive oil until it begins to turn golden brown, Add the chicken broth, turn the heat to high, and reduce by half, about 8 minutes. Add the lemon juice.

2. In a small bowl, combine the water and cornstarch. Slowly stir the cornstarch mixture into the boiling chicken broth.

The mixture will thicken quickly. Add he cauliflower puree. Sprinkle in parsley, if desired. Cover to keep warm and set aside.

Must-haves as a mom

Great friends and a great coffee machine.

What it’s like being a mom to 3 children

Our house is a lot fun because it is always full of kids of all ages playing together. Having three kids is also challenging and can be hard to balance—someone usually feels left out because of the 2:3 parent-to-kid ratio. And since my husband travels so much, our household is often a 1:3 ratio! I have lots of moments where I feel stretched in so many directions that I feel like I'm not doing a great job with anything. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Time management and multi-tasking

Stay up late and get up early. When I’m running on empty, I like to remind myself that I’ll have time to sleep later in life when my kids get older.

How to avoid raising picky eaters

½ cup cauliflower puree 1 tablespoon chopped parsley (optional) 2 large egg whites 1 large egg 1 cup whole-wheat flour ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon garlic powder 6 skinless, skinless chicken breast cutlets (about 2 ¼ pounds)

1. Cook for your family and don’t rely on convenience foods. It’s easy for kids to get hooked on the flavors of the high-sodium, sugar, and fat found in packaged foods. By cooking, you will create healthier habits; you won't add nearly as much salt, sugar and fat to your meals as food companies do to processed, convenience

3. Meanwhile, begin heating the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large heavybottomed skillet over medium heat. Whisk the egg whites and egg in a shallow bowl.

Combine the flour, salt, and garlic powder on a large plate. Dredge each chicken cutlet in the seasoned flour and then dip in the egg mixture. Drop the cutlets directly into the heated skillet. Sauté 4 to 5 minutes per side, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through. Add the lemon sauce and cook 2 to 3 minutes more to combine flavors. Serve.

foods.

2. Model healthy eating behaviors to your children by eating a varied and well-balanced diet yourself.

3. Don’t be afraid to put your foot down when it comes to unhealthy foods. You’re in charge. As a parent, it’s important to find creative and nonstressful ways to say no to your children about junk foods or unreasonable portions.

Her family's comfort food

My family loves to snack on natural salt ‘n vinegar potato chips, Graeter’s Ice Cream, and my Sunday-night Chicken Parmesan. However, we always make sure to eat these treats in moderation and with appropriate portions.

On whether Jerry Seinfeld has a say on what's for dinner

Yes. He likes anything that is not fussy or fancy.

He will almost always request something Italian with a tomato sauce.

The secret to her success

I stay up late and get up early to get things done.

I also have incredibly talented and trustworthy people in my life who help me become better at what I do.

ABOUT THE BOOK discover an array of alternatives to processed sugars and flours and learn the many ways you can utilize wholesome ingredients for more nutritious (quick and easy) meals for the family. also includes guidelines on how to make informed decisions in purchasing ingredients, and how to read food labels for nutrition facts.

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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES

Johnny Depp stars as the Captain Jack Sparrow in the fourth installment of the much-loved Pirates saga. In his new adventure, Jack crosses paths with Angelica, a woman from his past who forces him to go aboard the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of the frightening pirate Blackbeard. He then finds himself on an unexpected journey in search of the Fountain of Youth, unsure if Angelica’s a con artist who’s just using him to find it.

fantastic films

+ soulful melodies...cute, funny videos...cool ipad apps...

GEAR UP FOR AN ADVENTURE TO REMEMBER WITH THESE MUCH-AWAITED FLICKS, COMING SOON

kung Fu Panda 2 Prepare for the return of awesomeness as Po the Panda (voice of Jack Black) finds him back together with his friends known as the Furious Five—Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey.

Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warrior, but is threatened by a new villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. It is up to Po and the Furious Five to stop the evil plan. Featuring the all-star voices of Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Seth Rogen, Dustin Hoffman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lucy Liu, Michelle Yeoh, and Jackie Chan, Kung Fu Panda 2 is another thrilling animated film for the whole family to enjoy.

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Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil The second installment of the comic parody of the Red Riding Hood fairy tale follows Red Puckett, as she undergoes training to join the mysterious group called the Sisters of the Hood. With the sudden abduction of Hansel and Gretel in the hands of a wicked witch ( Joan Cusack), Red has to put her training on hold and team up with Wolf and his partner Twitchy, to save the day. With the voices of Hayden Panettiere as Red (formerly voiced by Anne Hathaway), and Patrick Warburton as Wolf, as well as Glenn Close reprising her role as Granny Puckett, Hoodwinked Too! is a mix of 3D-cartoon antics, fairy tale fun, and a good dose of pop culture.

Despicable Me You may have missed one of 2010’s best family flicks: Gru is a wannabe top villain armed with a perfect plan to steal the moon, with the hopes of impressing his hard-to-please mother while he’s at it. When he discovers that there’s more to life than just blowing things into smithereens, he must decide between caring for three lovable orphaned little girls—Margo, Edith, and Agnes—or destroying the world. On Blu-ray Hi-def and DVD. Win Despicable Me movies and merchandise.

Just ‘like’ BC on facebook.com/ bcmag.US to join our promos

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unWinD

FiNE tUNES during those dreary days, turn your feelings into a more positive direction with these feel-good tunes “21st Century Girl” by Willow Smith Willow Smith follows-up her ground-breaking hit, “Whip My Hair,” with another energetic pop track. The 10-year old continues to sing about edgy themes like having no restrictions and living it up.

“Who Says” by Selena Gomez Teen star Selena Gomez (who’s reportedly pop star Justin Bieber’s flame) is back with a brand new single. The song showcases simple, straightforward lyrics that send a shout-out to all to believe in yourself— even if some may think otherwise—in a catchy, radio-friendly melody.

“Born This Way” by Lady Gaga Stefani Germanotta, more known as Lady Gaga, dishes out another instant-dance anthem. Singing of loving one’s self whatever your circumstances are, she displays her signature flamboyant character.

Parents, be advised that the song’s video is not suitable for younger kids.

“This Is Love” by The Script An honest song about love found in so many places, Irish alternative rock band, The Script, offers this beautiful track that reminds us that we may crash and burn sometimes, but love is worth the pain.

“Rolling in the Deep” by Adele From English singer-songwriter Adele’s second album, 21, comes this lead single. The catchy song gained critical (and now, mass) acclaim for the singer’s powerful dark-blues vocals and haunting lyrics.

“Aftermath” by Adam Lambert American Idol first runner-up, Adam Lambert, veers away from his usual upbeat and electro-pop rock songs with this latest single. Listen to this track when you’re feeling down, and remember, “you’ll be alright in the aftermath.”

YOUtUBE MUSt-SEES Check out these heart-warming father-child videos that will make you laugh and go ‘aww.’

Baby Laughing Hysterically at Ripping Paper Take a cue from this dad who made the best out of a bad situation, as he ripped a job rejection letter to make his 8-month old baby, Micah, laugh.

Daddy- Daughter Duet Check out musician and dad Jorge Narvaez perform a touching cover of the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros song “Home.”

The proud single father, who is working his way through college, shares that this is just his way of spending time with his kids.

APP FREEBiES Got a backseat full of kids with you? Keep them busy with these fun downloads.

Color Car Mania Keep your kids interested during long car rides with this latest app. The goal is to find cars of certain colors; specific types of colors are worth different points. When a player spots a car of a certain color, they call out its color. Players can also have fun choosing their character images.

Animal Coloring for Kids Lite Boost your child’s creativity by letting them fill in cute animal illustrations with color, using their own fingers! Ideal for ages 3 to 10, it features simple and easy-to-use interface, 18 color palettes, eraser functions, and saving variations. You can even set your kid’s finished work as a wallpaper.

Paper Toss: World Tour HD Tagged as “the best casual game,” Paper Toss is now available on the iPad, with 10 exotic levels, higher resolution graphics, outstanding flick controls, and more animated paper. So grab your metal trash bin, and enjoy this simple and addictive game with your kids.

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Here is a behind-the-scenes look at one of our fashion editorials in Asia for BC’s international edition. This is what you get when children are left to themselves—chaos and all-around fun.

W O R D S A N D S T Y l I N G B Y k A r i z FAV i S P H OTO G R A P H B Y M A r t i n FAV i S S T Y l I N G A S S I S TA N T S b E n j O b i l lO n E S A n D VA l E r i E D E l C A S t i l lO P H OTO A S S I S TA N T M A r k C A bA l A n G S U B M I T YO U R B C M O M E N T P H OTO S TO G E T T H E M P U B l I S H E D AT I N F O @ B C - M A G . C O M . V OT E F O R Y O U R FAV O R I T E S AT b C - M A G . C O M

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BY ANITA G.

WOW BABY! Introducing a new ULTRA SAFE approach to HEALTHY & NATURAL feeding that is truly EASY TO USE Weil Baby™ delivers superior products developed with Dr. Andrew Weil—world-renowned leader and pioneer in integrative medicine—for the first years of health and wellbeing.

Trusted and tested, Weil Baby bottles, nipples and feeding products are based on Dr. Weil’s thirty years of clinical practice and healthy lifestyle recommendations.

Visit us at weilbaby.com.

• weilbaby.com www.anitag.com 800-717-0789

Andrew Weil, M.D., donates all of his after-tax profits from royalties from sales of Weil Baby™ products directly to the Weil Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting integrative medicine through training, education and research. For more information, visit: www.weilfoundation.org. and www.weilbaby.com or call (877) 596-4455.

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