the OTHER mother

Spain Colored Orange Rocked

in the rain Sunday afternoon at Discovery Green, ushering in a deluge. The music stopped and the kids started. They played in the rain with extreme delight, exhibiting a fervor that I suspect is reserved solely for children.

Spain Colored Orange

Kindergarten Begins for Pearl

Here are pictures of Pearl's first moments in kindergarten.

Pearl's classmate Nathan shares a funny book.

(Thanks, Diana, for taking these photos. We forgot our camera.)

Winter in Summer Conundrum

Back at the Ranch

It's the last week before school starts in Houston, and Marcia took Pearl and Carrie horseback riding again today. This time the cowgirls shed no tears. They rode through the forest. The rancher let them feed and groom the horses. You may recall that this was on their list of challenges made earlier this month. Do you think Carrie is proud of herself?

The Other Mother Voted Best Houston Blog!

Houston, we have a winner! All thanks to you, dear readers, The Other Mother has been voted the 2009 Parents' Picks Best Blog in Houston. I'm still in a state of disbelief! Wow, wow, wow!

Dodge Rambler

1. Pearl starts kindergarten in one week! Pearl starts kindergarten in one week! Pearl starts kindergarten in one week! I'm hyperventilating. Is this for real?

1.5. Both girls will be at new schools. Also they will not be at the same school. Lots of change.

2. The girls took swimming lessons in June and August. They've made a lot of improvement with the help of their cool teacher whose name btw is Cricket.

3. BAD news: Lori Hahn might stop blogging! Make her feel the love!

4. My knee is bothering me.

5. Next month Marcia and I are going on a getaway.  Yes, a weekend away. Just us! If you have suggestions for a wondrous destination, let us know. Both of our passports have expired, so it can't be in a foreign country.

Count Along with Carrie

Carrie, ready and waiting for the beeper to beep, saying that her lunch was ready, is counting.  At the end of the 29 second video, it's a dog who distracts her from her agonizing wait. A dog named Daisy. And when lunch arrived, she insisted I take "that black thing" off the burger. Yes, friends, she ate it without the meat. Carrie was in true form today. Wish you were there!

A Lizard a Day

Pearl's latest pet-endeavor involves the lizards in our garden. She catches one every morning, keeps it as her pet all day long. It stays in a plastic "habitat" she got from Target. She names the pet and then renames it. Often her cousins Sarah and Max are the honorees in these monikers. She lets the lizard watch Dino Squad with her. And then at night, she lets it go free.

The Girl Who Thought She'd Love Horses

For the last month of summer vacation, Marcia got an idea. She got the idea from our friend Annie's SprogBlog. Annie tells about her children's amazing hikes and feats in the wilderness. Annie believes that achieving a big challenge over the summer helps a child start the new school year with greater self-confidence. Makes sense, right?

Marcia read to the girls some of the stories about Aidan and El.  Then she asked Pearl and Carrie to come up with a challenge for themselves. Pearl said she wanted to learn some tricks in skateboarding. Carrie said she wanted to try to ride a horse. They both want to improve their swimming. Carrie wants to go camping in the living room. Pearl also wants to "climb to the top of the Grand Canyon." 

Except for the Grand Canyon one, all the suggestions seemed within reason. So as I go to work each weekday, the grrrls are blazing trails all around H-town. Watch out for them!

The Skaters

Pearl, Carrie, and Miles met Coach Johnny at the skate park this morning for their first day of skate camp.  Pearl and Miles were really "into" it, but Carrie spent much of her time with Coach Mommy instead.

A Girl Who Loves Dinosaurs

Here's Pearl hanging out with a neighborhood triceratops. If it weren't for Pearl I might never have seen the beauty of dinosaurs.

A Houston Visit with my Parents

My mom and dad (a.k.a. Gram and Pop, although Carrie calls both sets of grandparents Nana and Papa) spent a few days in Houston this week. My mom was here for her checkup at M.D. Anderson. She got an excellent report!

Mom also was the one who arranged for us to meet Nat and Alex Wolff and see them in concert. My mom rocks!

Mom and Dad got to meet their newest grandson, Cody. He did not eat either of their shoes.

Dad read Pearl one of her Magic Tree House books. She's really into the time-traveling adventures of Jack and Annie. This is her first chapter book series. Carrie showed Dad that she hasn't yet destroyed the ark that he built.

Pearl and Carrie understand that grandparents are the best. And they should know!

Dock Dogs!

Today you can see the Houston finals at Discovery Green.

The Gipsy Kings Play Songs of Love

Fun Running the 1K for Kids

This year both Pearl and Carrie wanted to run in our neighborhood 1K race. Pearl faced the event with great fear last year, but this year she seemed more at ease. 

Carrie was thrilled to get to run this year. She has admired Pearl's ribbon all year long.  She wears it like a necklace some days and believes that because of this medal, Pearl is a hero.  That's what Carrie wants to be when she grows up, a super hero! So she has had this race on her radar for quite some time.

Carrie felt confident she would win in the 14 and under age bracket.  Marcia waited for her at the halfway point turnaround. Carrie was walking by then and cried when she spotted Mama. Marcia asked her, "What's the matter, Carrie?" Carrie shook her head sadly, saying, "My super powers failed me."

Despite this setback, Carrie crossed the finish line in due time, and received a ribbon. It was exactly like Pearl's!

Iconographic

The Art of Cars in Houston

We Heart Saturdays

A Beautiful Afternoon at Discovery Green

I took the kids to Discovery Green this afternoon. It was my first outing in quite a while so I must be recuperating from my malady. It's about time. I'm so ready.

Go Texan for the Rodeo Season

In some places there are seasons like autumn, winter, or spring. In lack of those, Houston has come up with its own. The last three weeks of March mean the blooming of the azaleas and the rodeo.  Since it's tricky to dress up as an azalea, pretty much every school in Houston celebrates the rodeo instead.

Green Day 1 at Discovery Green

Discovery Green, our favorite Houston park, rebooted its programming Sunday. Naturally we were there, loving it, grooving to tunes by Spain Colored Orange.

Yes, that's Pearl with a green bird on her head.

Carrie observes a game of chess. Note the classic Montessori pose, hands clasped behind her back.

Carrie climbs on a priceless sculpture by Jean Dubuffet.

Pearl was hugging everyone.

The Many Ways to Catch a Fish

The whole gang had the day off. After lunch outdoors at Cedar Creek, Pearl decided to catch tadpoles in a plastic cup. Patience led to success. She caught two and Carrie, one. Marcia agreed they could come home with us, thinking we'd release them--as frogs--into the garden. Matter of days, right? It was too late when we realized that they are not tadpoles but small fish, bringing the pet count in Grrrlville from two to five. My head is spinning.

What About Love: Some/thing New

We have a new pup named Cody. He was a sweet little Jekyll of a boy until exactly 3 weeks after his arrival. On day 22 he transformed himself into 100% pure Hyde-bound hell-on-paws animal chaos. Grrrlville was pretty chaotic before we adopted this fellow.  What were we thinking?

Cody has a lot of Marley in him. He aspires to bipedalism.  He loves fun and food, and his definition of both of this items is extremely broad. He's scared of Moriah and water.  Pearl and Carrie adore him.  When visitors arrive as our door, Carrie warns, in the loudest voice she can muster: HE'S NOT TRAINED.  She's right about that.

Cody loves the chill winter days. He runs awkwardly, in an unpredictable lope, gulping down gallons of wind and chasing the brittle leaves. He is my boy.

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Note: This post is part of a blog carnival celebrating Freedom to Marry Week 2009. Feel free to write your own post on your blog or facebook page.  Then leave the link to your "something new" post, and I will share it with the group. Check out the other posts on this topic:

About.com Lesbian Life by Kathy Belge

Adventures in Babymaking

Susan Naomi Bernstein on Facebook

The Birmingham-Luther Family Blog

Bloogs Blowing By

Books, Yarn, Ink

A Child Chosen

Crunchy Granola

Don't Lick the Ferrets

The Fine Art of Me

Grumpy Granny

Hahn at Home

I Should Really Be Working

I'm a Mommy Too!

Julia's Dream

Kimizone

Lesbian Dad

Life: Apply Liberally

Life is Messy

The Longest Road - Yet Untraveled

May the Beauty

Mother Issues

SoCal Mom by Donna Schwartz Mills

Shrike & Whozat

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Spacey Stacy

Steady Happy

Stidmama

Stoney Moss

Tales of a Female Husband

The Thousand Insect Nation

Tina-cious.com

Today's the Day

Two Chicks Nest

Up Popped a Fox

Whistling Leaf Blower

Woolverine

Pearl and Carrie at Discovery Green

An Afternoon at the Skate Park

We celebrated our friend's birthday at the skate park Saturday afternoon. It was our first visit there, and Pearl is very interested in skating now. Do you know of a good book or video about girls/kids and skateboarding?

Funks, Dogs, and Ventral-to-Ventral Contact

As many of you know, I’m in a bit of a funk lately.  According to Marcia, this means that our state is in a red zone.  This includes, but is by no means limited to, the following four areas:

1)      the state of my hair

2)      the state of our laundry

3)      the state of the refrigerator

4)      the state of my wallet

It also means that bad luck seems to follow me (and my hair), even when I leave the state we call home.  For example, today at work the rear tire on my Subaru spontaneously exploded.  And then our mechanic said he wouldn’t be able to work on it for a few days because he just broke his finger! 

Anyway, back to the point.  When I am in a funk, I don’t like to read nonfiction books.  I’d rather play Scrabble or eat Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream or crack open a Swedish mystery novel. 

So, when we got our puppy Cody, Marcia took it upon herself to read several doggie books for us.  They ranged from beautiful personal stories by authors we know (Mark Doty’s Dog Years) to old favorites that have been updated (The Monks of New Skete: Divine Canine) to new ones that our trainer recommended (Patricia McConnell’s The Other End of the Leash).

Although Marcia left these books sprawled about in opportune locations such as my bedside table, my desk, and the bathroom magazine rack, she eventually realized that I had not touched them. 

So, Marcia did what anyone with a Partner-in-Funk would do: she grabbed her highlighter and went to town.  Yes, she actually marked in pink and yellow for me every important passage I need to read in The Other End of the Leash to make life with Cody happy and pleasurable.  Then she plopped the book on my lap.

One of the sections that Marcia (and through her, I) found particularly interesting deals with a human’s need for ventral-to-ventral contact.  McConnell argues that humans find tremendous pleasure in relating chest-to-chest.  Like our primate relatives, we also enjoy holding hands, kissing, and snuggling.  The writer explains that this need for touch in us is powerful—it can actually lower our heat rate and blood pressure.

She says that young girls are particularly fond of hugging things to their chests— dolls, dogs, you name it—and so far, we are finding this to be SO true.  Pearl and Carrie constantly fling their arms around Cody’s neck to hug him—tightly, furiously, as if he is their younger brother preparing to head off to boarding school or some foreign war.

The problem, according to McConnell, is that dogs really don’t like to be hugged.  Many don’t even like the way we pet them. She even argues that some dogs don’t obey the “come” command because they don’t want to be patted on the head!

Since reading (the highlighted passages of) this book and studying Cody’s responses to us, I’ve become much more aware of his body language and ours.  I’m learning to temper some of my natural tendencies and think about Cody from a canine’s perspective. 

I’m even learning a little about myself. Cody reminds me to enjoy each breeze, try new foods, and sleep with abandon. Have your dogs (or other pets) taught you anything important?

Sunday Morning in Grrrlville

It's a quiet Sunday morning in Houston. The weather is cold again--46 degrees. Marcia is walking the dog at Memorial. Riah the cat has been sick.  She's 20 years old, and I'm not sure how many lives she has left. The humans in our family are all recovering from sinus infections, coughs, and colds. Pearl is doing a puzzle without the frame. Carrie is playing with a toy dog. She has a toy crate for her pet and even lets this dog (often called Alex) play with her blankie. I've got the dishwasher, the clothes washer, and the dryer going, creating a hum. The children sing repetitive phrases to themselves as they work. Carrie's words: "I'll get small before I'm big. " I'm worrying about the cat, my first pet.

Fun on 19th Street

Top Posts at The Other Mother in 2008

10. She Is - Pearl's Birth Announcement (March 2004) includes a recipe for smothered okra!

9. Birthday Rap - Marcia's Song for Robin's Birthday (September 2008)

8. Question of the Day: Politics and the English Language (October 2008) your thoughts on the BIden/Palin debate

7. Artful Summer (July 2008)

6. Meet the Blogger: Polly Pagenhart of LesbianDad

5. A Costume Question (October 2004)

4. Reader Appreciation Day (April 2008) introducing a meme for bloggers to thank the readers

3. Happy Haircut! 

2. What to Call 2 Moms

1. She Was Really Saying Something (Feb. 2008) introducing a meme to celebrate Freedom to Marry week

We Have Some Fog, Houston

Here's Carrie's question of the day: What does fog taste like?