the OTHER mother

The Dreaming Place

Pearl explains: I am a kitty cat perched in my favorite dreaming place.

Green Salad for Breakfast?

Pearl says Yes!

Wild Thing, Venice

No Photos Please

California or Bust

We arrived in L.A. at lunch time. The trip was uneventful. Our apt. in Santa Monica is, in Carrie's words, "cute and cozy." I took a long nap this afternoon. It's a good vacation already.

A Vote a Day

For Local Blog
in Houston Thanks to you you you, The Other Mother is currently in first place in the Best Blog category at Go City Kids Houston. If you have a sec, you can vote once a day. Voting ends on July 15th. We're traveling tomorrow. Next post will be from California!

Pearl's First Writing Camp

Carrie's First Writing Camp

Some art and writing from Carrie (age 3):

 

Apologies for my sloppy scanning!

Please Vote

The Other Mother has been nominated best blog on Parents Connect Houston. If you have a sec, and feel the love, step over here and cast your vote, please.

Dock Dogs!

Today you can see the Houston finals at Discovery Green.

Carrie Sings the Aligator Song

Time = 40 seconds

"The Magic Lantern"

Pearl and Carrie and friends wrote and performed a play called "The Magic Lantern" at Writing Camp this summer. Carrie played a cheetah, and Pearl was a puppy.This is Pearl waiting to make her first entrance.

Carrie made a costume too, but she was not quite willing to wear it.

The story was hilarious. There was no doubt about it--the kids definitely wrote it themselves.

Parent, What Rocks Your iPhone?

With over 50,000 iPhone apps available, it's hard to guess which ones to try.  This week the PCMag.com editors named the 10 iPhone apps for Parents. Here is their list (quoted):

• Shazam: This app is able to identify whatever song is playing in the background wherever you are; use it to snag a sound bite from that new Top 40 hit your child loves, and get the details on whether it is in line with your family's listening standards.
• White Noise: Babies scream, toddlers pout, and parents can often lose their minds, White Noise is perfect for taking things down a notch.
• Kindle: One of the most exciting apps for the iPhone, Kindle lets you easily bring along most any book or magazine for you and your kids to enjoy on the go. Create your own family book club or read while stuck in a doctor's office, a book of your choice or read to your child.
• GoodFoodNearYou: When you’re on the road with the kids, avoid the fast-food joint and replace it with the convenience of this app to help you find health-conscious dining choices. Input your location and it will return scads of sides, sandwiches, and suppers from every dining destination in the vicinity.
• AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner: If the question is "What are we having for dinner?" this free AllRecipes.com-powered app will let you choose recipes based on main ingredients, what you have on hand, and how much time you can spare for food prep. Or let it randomly selected meal plan for you.
• Sit Or Squat: When a parent hears "I really gotta go!" finding the nearest bathroom has to happen fast. Using your current location it gives you the nearest options, stats on cleanliness, changing tables and handicap-accessible facilities—mark your favorite toilets for quick returns.
• AirMe: You no longer need to wait until you get home to start sharing photos from birthdays, sporting events or school plays. Use AirMe to upload instantly to Photobucket, TinyPic, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or Picasa without the hassle of file transfer or e-mail, and without the cost of an external gadget.  
• myLite Flashlight: Never lose a pacifier in a dark movie theater again with this app that uses the screen to emit white light. This free app has a straightforward series of settings to control light color and brightness.
• Remember The Milk: This popular and effective list-making and task-management Web site, has a complementary mobile app free to the site's paying members to help keep things sorted when you're shuttling between work, home, and your family's numerous appointments and activities.
• iTalk Recorder: This limited free download allows you to record and store numerous sound files for later use. Files upload easily to you.

This list is by the editors of PC Magazine. iPhone users, what do you think?

Question of the Day: What Would Make School Cool?

Today on Big Window, I posted some pictures on innovation school architecture.  So today's question is about school. If you could design a school, how would you set it up? Who would be the teachers? How would the children learn?

Roasting Marshmallows

I've mentioned how in Houston we love our A.C.  Instead of camping out this past weekend we "camped in."  Roasting the hot dogs (a.k.a. tofu pups) went quite well. However, after the marshmallow caught on fire, nobody was in the mood for scary stories any more!