the OTHER mother

A Poem a Day starts April 1st

Are you ready for National Poetry Month?  Get your poem a day from WITS. They're piping hot.

Unbearable Cuteness

This is an email I received from my father (a.k.a. Pop) yesterday.  Louis is our nephew, our kids' cousin, and is Pearl's age (4).

Yesterday afternoon Louis and I were in our bathroom here at our house.  Louis had me stand on our bathroom scale, and he leaned carefully over the dial so that he could see it.  He announced very solemnly, "Four o'clock."

Let's Kvetch!

yeah it's been one of those weeks had a migraine that lasted and lasted and bounced a check and the kids made above-average messes and made high-decibel demands and forgot to say please thank you etc marcia seems to be catching something snarky and we're having a party in the morning: your turn

Hers and Hers

iphone uploaded to flickr by Madalin Matica

We took the plunge, and the water is fine.

Question of the Day: Extravagance

Just Doodles 1
Originally uploaded by {oRiLiLy}

Have you made an extravagant purchase lately? Please tell all.

An Epic a Day...

Can you tell that Pearl didn't want her story interrupted by my silly photographic mission?

Stories are Pearl's thing, and she loves them more than anything, except perhaps milk.  Or M & Ms. 

I wrote down the titles of two of her masterpieces from yesterday; one was "The No-Way Tree" and the other was "The Picturey Day."

Wish you were here.

Last Week in the Big Easy

Last week I got to attend a nonprofit technology conference in New Orleans. The sessions were excellent and got my "inner geek" all revved up.  During the breaks, I roamed around the French Quarter taking pictures like a tourist.

Like a tourist? Yes, I used to live in New Orleans in the 80s.  My mom used to live there before I was born.  The third photo is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop (now a bar), where she and my Dad had their first date.  I figured you'd want to know.

Happy Easter

The Two Sisters

Just waking up....

Write Your Own Caption

Ye Olde Six Word Memoir

My crazy pal Hahn has sent another wild, sly meme my way: summarize your entire life in six words. Well, perhaps this is cheating but I refer you back to the six word memoir we (trend setters that we are) did back in December 2006 as part of our holiday newsletter.  It went (and I quote):

Dear World—almost is close enough.

That was when we were feeling overwhelmed.  Of course, we still feel that way so why revise it?

For those of you who wish to play this game, the rules are below. But I would like to specifically tag the following very lucky people:

1. Harlyn of Are You My Mothers?
2. Chuck at Dripping Pitch and Made of Wood
3. Liza of Liza Was Here
4. Cowgirl from Knuckle Down
5. Cake at Whistling Leaf Blower

The Six Word Memoir rules are:

1. Write your own six word memoir.
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like.
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post.
4. Tag five more blogs with links.
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

[photo by ruby dust via flickr]

Backwards Glance

Each photo is linked to a post.  Except today's.  Want to waltz down memory lane?

Check out the archives:

4 years ago,

3 years ago,

2 years ago,

and 1 year ago.

The last picture was taken today.

 

 

 

Pen Pals

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Pearl's best friend was moving away.  Today we heard from him (with his mom's help, of course) for the first time.

Hello Pearl,

I love you, I miss you. I have a lightsaber already.

how is the school going? what are you playing in the playground?

I am still in the hotel. I am having fun with my mom. I am playing tennis.
dfrt (I am done)

It was night time when we got in the airplane, everybody had to sleep for a little big and when we got there it was morning time. That's all.

Hugs,
Alex

Pearl wanted to write back immediately.  Marcia dictated exactly what she said.

Alex,
I miss you so much. I'm playing lots of stuff with Liliana on the playground. We have played hyenas today.  And Alex, I have missed you so much that I haven't wanted to go to school for a long time. We still go to the same school. Carrie is going to go to my school next year. We haven't gone to the zoo. I already had my birthday. I'm sorry that I didn't invite you. I'm having fun with my two mommies and my sister. We've been telling stories for a really long time and filling up my 100-page book. Alex, I love you soooo much that I don't want to play with Liliana sometimes.  We wrote some things that I want to do when I'm mad, like have a fight with hyenas or get really intolerable or stomp around or do exercise or come up with ideas.  Goodbye, Alex.
From Pearl, I love you.

And they're barely four.

[photo by bishop72 via flickr]

Let's Check in with Carrie

There's been a lot of blogging about Pearl lately.  Now that she's healthy again, let's check in with Carrie.

Carrie is truly 2.  She has the force of a whirling dervish and the judgment of an acorn.  She finds great humor in irony, for example, dumping a basket of dinosaurs onto the floor while gleefully singing, "Clean up! Clean up! Everybody everywhere!"  It's impossible to keep a straight face through many of her antics.When she doesn't get HER WAY, she's likely to make a scene.  It is difficult to predict what HER WAY will be from one day to the next.

Carrie is very affectionate, both in her actions and in her words.  At dinner tonight, she went around the table, pointing to each of us, announcing: I LOVE YOU!  But her love is not universal. She is very mistrustful of strangers.

Her favorite foods are pancakes, milk, granola, yogurt, grapes, and tangerines.  Her favorite videos are Little Einsteins and Calliou. She loves balloons.  Her favorite books are far too numerous to name.  She often points out her favorite character in a picture and announces, as though it's an epiphany: That's ME!

Pearl's Birthday

This is the birthday ritual that they do at Pearl's preschool. It was very touching.  I've posted a slough of photos from the birthday celebration.  Click here to see them all.

Pearl Turns Four!

Can you believe it?  I guess that with that question, I'm mostly talking to myself.  I can hardly believe it.

Today is Pearl's 4th birthday.  So far (8:45 a.m.) she's having a wonderful day. 

Nana and Papa made a major detour en route between Florida and Virginia and are here to celebrate with us. Yes!

Eden is in the Eye of the Beholder

Sometimes Pearl hears things. Marcia and I have been planning for the summer.  We have conversations, and we think she's not paying attention.  For example, we've been thinking about keeping the girls home this summer.  Pearl is thrilled with this idea. We've also talked about removing the downstairs television and using that space for something more creative.  We didn't think she knew about this part of the plan, when she brought home the drawing below from preschool yesterday.

This is our home from an aerial point of view. The large rectangle is our house, and the small one on the right is Jay Jay's house. (Jay Jay is the dog we gave to another family over 2 years ago.) The house is filled with televisions.  They have antennae and smiles on their faces. Even Jay Jay and Riah have their own TVs.  The squiggles on the left are stairs.  Notice there are even 2 suns in the sky.  Paradise!

One, Two, Three, Four

 
Milestones on my radar screen today:

1) The Other Mother was chosen as one of the Top 50 Adoption Blogs by A Child Chosen.
 

2) As usual, I have missed the blogiversary of The Other Mother.  Here's a link to the very first post in early March 2004.

Happy 4th birthday, little blog.

(photo one, two, three, four uploaded to flickr by Oℓivia)

Toy Stories

One night after the kids went to bed I went around taking pictures of the configurations of toys that I saw all around.  I found this amusing.  Here are a few of the sights that I saw.

Let's Caucus

We all went to the caucus tonight...along with over 500 of our neighbors.  It's something new to see Texans getting excited about national politics.

We 'R' Voting

Texas is voting today.  In Grrrlville the votes are split, but that's what democracy is all about, right?  And because of some obscure law or policy, we are supposed to return to our polls tonight to "caucus" at 7:15 p.m. which is also the official bedtime at our ranch.  Not sure how Marcia and I will figure this one out, but I'll keep you posted.  So far we've approached our differences with sincere good humor.

Who do you think will win, Obama or Clinton?

Thanks for your kind comments and emails about our ailing Jojo.  She went to the doctor twice yesterday, first thing in the morning and again last night, when she was given two shots of who-knows-what, one in each thigh. Today she is much more like our happy little girl than she has been in a long while. 

We 'R' Struggling

We've had a tough weekend.  Friday Carrie was improving from pneumonia, despite the fact that she never took a drop of the antibiotic, but she woke up Saturday morning with a stomach virus.  She's lethargic and not at all herself.  It has been a slow, sad weekend.  We did very little of what we had planned.  Carrie's situation is somewhat scary.  I keep checking to see if she's breathing.  We're worried about dehydration.  Back to the doctor tomorrow morning.

(photo by dopiaza via flickr)