the OTHER mother

Bento Boxes

Marcia bought laptop lunch kits for the girls.  They're adorable, and I like the bento concept, although I must confess I had a total Ricky Ricardo moment when I found out how much they cost. Ay yai yai!

Mother's Day: What Do You Really Want?

That's the question of the day.  For Mother's Day, what do you really want.  Realism is optional.  But be honest.

[photo by NieckQ via flickr]

Swoosh

A scene from Pearl's school picnic.  She had a great time on the water slides.  Okay, I will revise that one. She was scared of them at first, but after one swoosh, she was completely unstoppable.  By the time we left the event, she was asking, "Where did everyone else go?"

Can you see the water droplets on my lens?  That Canon G6 camera may never be the same. 

How to Be a Poem

Last week Marcia and I led a poetry activity with Pearl's preschool class in celebration of National Poetry Month. 

We were a little hesitant about this venture because neither of us has experience in teaching this age group. Also the fact that the kids range in age from 3-7 years old made us a little anxious.

Our trepidations turned out to be unwarranted, however. The children had great fun coming up with their own line for the collaborative writing project we chose for them. 

We divided the class into two groups to do the writing (dictating, really) on long rolls of paper. Then each group presented what they had written to the other. We'd defined a poem as a gift made out of words, so this fit into the plan nicely. They laughed and cheered for every line.

When we were done, we combined the two banners filled with words, and the class poem was born:

Olivia is a butterfly flying to a leaf to lay her eggs.
Charlotte is a unicorn flying and playing with her friend.
Liliana is a horse eating hay on the farm.
Alex is an ant biting a kid.
Gillian is a dragonfly flying in the sky close to the roses.
Angela is a blue butterfly laying eggs on a rubber tree.
Zachary is a lion eating a zebra in the forest.
Lucia is a baby zebra playing with her mom and then sleeping.
Pearl is a cheetah running to a cave with hyenas.
Brandon is an elephant eating hay in Africa.
Charlie is a T-Rex laying eggs in the grass.
Jean Luc is a shark eating a fish in a secret hiding place.
Ana Sofia is a horse with a baby eating hay on the farm.
Thomas is a cat sleeping in a house.
Ryan is a silk worm hanging like a spider.
Jacob is a big horsey at the farm eating apples with raisins.
Sydney is a koala eating apples and bananas in a eucalyptus tree.
Ethan is a cheetah thundering after an antelope in the wild.
Anna is a happy baby unicorn stuck in a tree.
Jan is a monarch butterfly laying eggs on a man’s head!

After we finished, I rushed off to work.  Marcia decided to hang around because Pearl didn't want to miss recess, her "favorite subject."  Marcia said that as the kids played, they remained their animals, galloping and racing about.  As the excitement grew, some of the kids began declaring to the children in the other class: I am a poem, I am a poem, I am a poem!

A View from the Weekend

It's been one of our busiest weekends ever.  There's just a lot going on.  I lost track of the number of parties and events we attended.

Even so, there were the quieter moments (pictured here) to just be ourselves. As always, we've been having a ton of fun with Nana!

Deep Purple

I've mentioned regularly Carrie's enthusiasm for art.  Painting is her favorite medium, thus far. 

Last night (hindsight being 20/20) apparently I slacked off considerably in my supervisory role.  She painted her ears, inside and out. 

Need I tell you which color she chose?

Top Parenting Blogs Ranked at ParentPower

Here's something new: the ParentPower Index. Forget about the Fortune 500.  This little gizmo ranks the top  200 parent blogs in cyberspace based on several different measures, such as number of subscribers, technorati rank, etc.  Right now The Other Mother is at #40.

The Making of "Puppies to the Rescue 1"

Pearl came to me Sunday morning saying she wanted to make a DVD. She needed help.  Okay, I said. How can I help? I want to trace a circle onto this paper.  Would you cut it out for me with scissors?

So I cut out a circle of white paper, and Pearl drew puppies and sunsets with colored pencils. 

Now I need some glass, she announced after the picture was complete. Oh, and the DVD will be called  Puppies to the Rescue 1.

Glass?  Yes, Pearl said, a circle of glass so I can make the DVD.

I guess that because DVDs are shiny, she assumed they were made of glass. Also she seemed to assume that if she attached this picture and title onto a DVD, she could insert them into the DVD player and see the entire story unfold on the television.

Let's see, I said. We can make a DVD, but there might be a few steps more to it than it might seem. 

So I took dictation for her in her 100 page book,explaining that to make the DVD we would need a story first.  Pearl told me two stories, "Puppies to the Rescue 1" and "The Elephants Will Be Kings."  She rattled them off so fast that I only jotted down a third of the words.  I read them back to her, but she was--in her mind--on to the next step.

Marcia is the family filmmaker, and she helped Pearl videotape and edit the story that afternoon. The story that Pearl narrates in the video is different from the one she told me.  In neither version of "Puppies to the Rescue" do the puppies rescue anyone.  Perhaps we must wait for Puppies 2? 

As I mentioned in the previous post, she was disappointed in the results.  But she has responded well to all the encouragement from the family.  Carrie has watched the clip dozens of times. If a sequel does surface, you will be the first to know.

"They chewed on horrible shoes!"

Toddler Existentialism

Have you noticed? Four year olds can really surprise you.

Last night we were walking through the parking lot to our car after a fun dinner with friends at the neighborhood taqueria.  Pearl turned around and said, "Baba, G-d is dead, right?"

In the classic tag-team parenting style, I copped out and said I wasn't sure. Ask Mommy.

Carrie Makes the Cut

Carrie has been admitted to the Montessori preschool that Pearl attends.  The acceptance letter was waiting for us when we got home from our trip.  We read it aloud to the girls, but in all the excitement of being back home, we weren't even sure if they understood.  I must confess to you that even though there is no admission criteria beyond first-come first-served, no test or interview, nothing, I still felt extremely proud of Carrie.  I can remember feeling the same way when Pearl's letter arrived two years ago. We have explained to Carrie, however, that there is one catch: she must be out of diapers before she can join Pearl at this school. 

Usually I take Pearl to school in the morning, but the following day Marcia and Carrie took her instead. Inside the classroom, Carrie "helped" Pearl hang her backpack on the appropriate hook.  Then Pearl walked Carrie to each of the teachers and told them the big news.  Then Carrie watched some of the other kids at work, asking them the most intellectual question she knows: Wha Cha Do-in?  As Pearl showed Marcia her work, Carrie sat down at the art table and colored a picture with a black crayon.  Then she stood up and announced to Marcia in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear:

I HAVE TO GO TO THE POTTY!

Yes, she's still wearing those diapers, my friends, but the motivation is very there.  We'll keep you posted.

Arkansas Photo Album

A whole bunch of photos are posted in a new album.  We have lots of cousin pictures. 

Guess who wants a puppy?

Seder Tales

As I mentioned last week, we went to Arkansas to celebrate Passover with my family.  By some miracle comparable to the parting of the Red Sea, the parent generation overruled the grandparents, and we all went to the community Seder at the synagogue. 

Between us and my brother, we have 6 energetic, excited toddlers, ranging in age from 2.5 to 4.  Even though we had 8 adults, it was not what most would call a "manageable" situation. 

Gram bought Pearl a new dress for the occasion.  Although she complained about it at first, later that night at bedtime she said that wearing the dress was her favorite part of the day.

She did not care for the religious ceremony too much, concluding "that guy must be too wise for me."  The "guy" she refers to is the rabbi.

Carrie, the youngest of the children, tried to find ways that she could participate. In this photo, she is trying to enact the plague of the wild beasts with some of the older children.  Luckily for us, she did not invest in this role to her full potential, because it is a part for which she has had considerable practice at home and even a certain amount of expertise.

My favorite moment of the Seder (and no, we certainly didn't make it to the end) was another of Carrie's antics.  In the middle of one of the rabbi's extended prayers in Hebrew, Carrie raised both arms straight above her head, much like the football referee does to indicate a touchdown, and she yelled at the top of her lungs: CHOCOLATE!

Next year in Jerusalem.

What Would Moriah Do?

Greetings from Arkansas

We're here for Passover.  Here's a photo of Garvin Gardens taken by my father.