the OTHER mother

Houston Cool 5

Another truly marvelous thing about Houston is that we have great Vietnamese restaurants. That might surprise you, but Houston has one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the United States. 

My favorites restaurants are Van Loc and Kim Son, and they serve up authentic dishes. For a funky twist on Vietnamese cooking, Jenny's Noodle House is always fun.

Click here to review the previous Houston Cool posts.

Achy Breaky Vacation

I couldn't come up with a positive spin on our Arkansas vacation.  There were good moments, of course.  There always are.  But we had more than our usually share of woes.

First, Marcia's grandmother passed away.  She was 99 years old. She died in the night with Marcia's dad holding her hand, singing her hymns. But death is final and unknowable.  What is there to say.

Then, everyone got sick.  Pearl graduated from strep throat to whooping cough, although we don't think that diagnosis is probably accurate.  Then Carrie got it.  Then Marcia.  Now me.  Parties were canceled. Plans altered.  We didn't see much of the family members this trip. 

And the beat goes on.

How was your weekend?

My Next Post

Here a new bullet list of what's going on with us.

• Carrie has adjusted quickly to nursery school.  She doesn't cry when she's dropped off.  She seems to have assumed a leadership role of sorts.  For example, she refuses to paint with her fingers.  A brush is a must.  All her classmates have followed suit. 
• She likes to play peekaboo with her blue blankie.  She likes to be turned upside down, but only temporarily.  She tickles herself, tosses back her head, and laughs.
• Carrie likes to climb up the foot of her parents bed and use the remote control to turn on the television.  Carrie is a television addict.  She will watch absolutely anything, even static.
• She enjoys doing things that she knows are forbidden.  Throwing food onto the floor, drinking soapy bathtub water, stealing Mommy or Baba's glasses from their faces--these are the true pleasures of life.

• Pearl can identify most of the letters of the alphabet, and she is learning to write her name. 
• Her love of stories and storytelling continues to grow stronger. She dumps out all of her cars/trains/dinosaurs/farm animals, and uses them to create elaborate tales.
• Her favorite new book this month is The Different Dragon.
• Pearl loves climbing and running and playing in the park.  Today she and her friend Miles were pretending to be brother and sister.  She told me, "We even fell down together!"

• This month Marcia and I have embarked on vegetarianism.  So far, it's going well. Our guidebook is Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman.
• I'm growing herbs in clay pots on our back steps.
• Marcia has been doing video editing with her students.  Here's one example.
• Marcia and I have an anniversary coming up, and we're brainstorming about how we want to celebrate it. 

Your turn.  What's up with you?

Houston Cool 4

Houston hosts the original and biggest (in TX bigger = better) art car parade in the world. I took Pearl and Carrie to see the crazy cars on Saturday afternoon.  Pearl really enjoyed seeing the wacky cars.  Carrie preferred the wonderful people-watching opportunities.  The parade is sponsored each year by The Orange Show.

In the News

Here's a story about our gang that appears in the May issue of OutSmart.

Low-Key Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo is a major holiday here in Houston, but we definitely took the low road this year.  Carrie has a cold and an earache. Really, though, we hadn't made plans anyway.  We did eat a scrumptious breakfast at the Midtown Farmers' Market at Monica Pope's t'afia. Then while Marcia was teaching her classes, Pearl, Carrie, and I played at the Children's Museum. For dinner, I did make something slightly thematic and tex-mex--black beans, avocado, sour cream, corn bread, and broccoli. Viva!

A Poem a Day

Song

The lions are roaring
with temper.

The traffic is running
in terror. 

The dolphins are leaping
in happiness.

The people are rushing
to the shop in the market.

I am resting, trying to
get some sleep.

The fire is burning
with fear.

The cars are driving
with speed.

The mother is resting
to sleep.

A girl who wants
to sing,

The world about
to spin,

The wind blushing
in trees,

With my mother,
With me.

Anh, 3^rd Grade

Celebrate National Poetry Month with A Poem a Day, a project sponsored
by Writers in the Schools (WITS).  Each day of April we select a poem by
one of our students and share it with friends.  If you want to receive the
poem in your inbox, sign up here.  Or if you'd like to read the poems on
the WITS blog, simply bookmark the website. 

This poem "Song" by Anh, age 9, is a sneak preview.  If you like this one,
there are more wonders to come.  Feel free to post this on your blog. 
And a very happy poetry month to you.

Houston Cool 3

Here's the Houston skyline, as seen from the middle of a sculpture by Dubuffet, looking up.  I like it.

First Wedding

Pearl and Carrie attended their first wedding last night.  Technically we went only to the
reception, but that's close enough, right?  Our friends Nellie and Kevin celebrated their marriage with a wonderful Irish/Mexican St. Patty's Day fiesta.  We had a whole lot of fun.

Pearl was happy that there were so many kids there.  At dinner she sparred with a boy named Dandy (Danny) who claimed that Carrie was HIS baby.  Dandy's big brother Matthew tried to mediate but to no avail.  In a rare moment of sibling loyalty, Pearl made it very clear that this was NOT the case. She announced at least a dozen times, IT IS MY BABY!

After dinner the DJ got the music started, and Pearl and Carrie were the first ones grooving.  Somebody's got to get a party started. 

Dandy turned out to be a better man than Pearl expected.  His name was all over her dance card.  I guess she forgave Dandy for his kidnapping overtures, because she even invited him to meet us at the park to play the next day.

Here & There

I posted some pictures from our Florida trip today; see the album in the sidebar to the right.

Do you have any big plans for the weekend? 

We don't, but we just returned from a vacation so I'm not disappointed.  The rodeo riders are on there way to Houston.  Maybe I'll take the girls to see some horses tomorrow. 

Houston Cool 2

Houston is home to a number of architectural/art spaces designed by James Turrell. The red and violet photos are  taken in the tunnel that connects the two buildings that house the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH). The small blue photo shows the ceiling of the Live Oaks Quaker Meeting House.  Turrell designed the retractable roof so that worshipers have two options; "Sky Space" is the open  air version, and "Night Piece" is that light sculpture designed by the artist.  You can see short video clips about each of these spaces on the PBS website.

Here's a poem by a WITS kid about the tunnel:

On the Other Side

I walked into a tunnel of blue

light and on the other side I

saw a world where mothers

hold babies, where muscle

men fall down, where ships

fly, where men take care of

men, where there is a castle,

where cats cry out loud, where

women have wings, where

birds sing, where there is a

heaven.

Ali, age 10

Houston Cool 1

Houston gets a bad rap, much of the time.  It often deserves this harsh treatment.  However, after you live here for a while you find places filled with beauty and wonder.  Eventually you stop seeing the ugly things the way you did at first.  Time passes.  You realize, hey I've been here fifteen years!

So I decided I might show you a few of the places that I consider cool.  These photos were taken at The Menil Collection, an amazing art museum a block from my office. I borrowed the pictures from flickr.  Photographers are
credited in the label of each picture.

 

 

It Happens Fast

Today Pearl told Marcia, "All the kids have a mommy and a daddy except me."  We knew this would happen, but we didn't think it would happen this soon.  She's 2 1/2 years old!  Marcia explained that some families have two moms or two dads or a grandfather, and so on. And left it at that.

Then I got home.  Early, because it's flooding here.  Marcia whispered what had happened.  We sat down for a snack, and the Sunday newspaper was lying at the end of the table, unread.  There was a big front page story on same-sex parents, and the picture happened to be one of the lesbian families who was in our adoption group in San Antonio in August. I showed Pearl the picture and asked if she remembered the two mommies and their baby boy.  She nodded seriously, yes.  Then Marcia pointed out other details from the photo, such as their cat and their dog.  That's all we've *done* so far.

Please guide us on this one.

And take a look at Cynthia Garza's story on gay and lesbian parents in the Houston Chronicle.

Imagine

Send Free E-Cards from WITS

You may remember that I work for an education nonprofit called Writers in the Schools (WITS).  I wanted to tell you about The Meeting House, one of our new projects. The Meeting House has two embodiments--a physical structure and a virtual one.  Both of them are structures created from art and writing by Houston children. 

You can send free e-cards featuring writing and art by kids via the website. Any art image can be sent by clicking the button on the bottom right corner. 

The Rain

Photo by Glenn Holt, Weather Underground.

This photo was taken in Houston yesterday, but I want to assure you that the only place I'm seeing this is on the Internet.  These flood scenes are real, of course; It's just that Houston is a huge city, and our neighborhood, so far at least, has weathered the storms well. The forecast predicts another five days of this, so the deluge continues.  I'll keep you posted.  Thanks for your calls, your emails, and your concern. 

Accordian Kings

We met Mel and Milo at the Miller Outdoor Theatre last night to hear the Accordian Kings.  The line up featured:

C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band
Joel Guzman & Aztex featuring Sarah Fox
Cedryl Ballou & the Zydeco Trendsetters
Brian Marshall & His Tex-Slavic Playboys

Bedtimes being what they are, we didn't get to hear all of them.

Pearl had fun dancing in the grass.  She and Milo discussed their favorite trains from the Thomas stories. They ran up and down and up and down and up and down the only hill in Houston.  There was a pond, but they didn't swim in it.  It was a perfect event for toddlers--and for the rest of us as well.

No Snow in Houston

It's weirdly warm here in Houston, Texas.  I'm talking: shorts and a tee shirt weather.  This is not a complaint.  I prefer warm weather to cold.  But still, it seems strange to run the air conditioner in January.

I returned to work yesterday and Pearl's first day back at preschool was today.  Both of these transitions have gone well.  I must confess I was very happy to be back at the office.  The sense of routine and order is comforting. 

We're hoping that Carrie will adjust to something more cyclical in her days and nights soon.  She is six weeks old. This past week, we've had good nights and bad nights.  That's very encouraging.  Because after a string of those bad (sleepless) nights, a parent can get a little bit blue, you know? 

Urban Adventures

Here in the big city, we do not have the country, but sometimes the country comes to us.  This weekend we visited the reconstituted pumpkin patch at a local church.  We took some pictures and picked out a few pumpkins.  For some reason, Pearl was particularly interested in the stems.

Properties

It's Tuesday, and I haven't really re-established my sense of time or rhythm since the evacuation.  We all came home with colds, but that has been more of an annoyance than anything else.  Last week I had a lot of clean up work to do in the yard of our old house from the storm.  By the time we got to the closing on Friday, the house and yard looked great.  I felt very proud of our little bungalow, and it is sold.  We are owners of only one home once again.  The game Monopoly did nothing to prepare me for two-home ownership, and it's a relief to have found a wonderful family to buy it from us.  I must say I felt deeply saddened as I cleaned up the old homestead that last time.  Certainly it is the site of the happiest years of my life.

Pearl had her 18 month check-up yesterday, and Dr. Alex gave her a good report.  She is in the 97+% for height and according to the predictors, will one day be 5 feet, 9 inches tall.  Our little girl?  Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

Hurricane Watch

Rita is heading our way.  And on my birthday, no less!  We're trying to figure out what to do.  Thousands are already evacuating the city. Houston may be a ghost town by tomorrow.  Cross your fingers for us.

The Dirty Dozen: 12 Details from Yet Another Weekend

1. It seems as though we may be moving to a new house in a week.  I feel reserved, in a sort of I'll-believe-it-when-i-see-it sort of way.  With a pound of superstition weighing us down, we haven't changed addresses yet.
2. It seems as though we have sold our house twice, but the buyers have subsequently disappeared.  In other words, this time next week we will have one extra abode.  House-sitting in Houston, anyone?
3. Pearl loves to help change the light bulbs.
4. Sunday our walk around the block took a whole hour.  Ah, the glory of details!
5. The new baby will arrive in 12 weeks, 6 days.  Last time we followed the pregnancy by the week.  This time we discover the convenience of the term trimester.
6. Our two favorite names for the new girl at this moment are Molly and Sadie.
7. We own a whole lot more stuff that I imagined.
8. The crepe myrtles look so cheerful this time of year.  I love them.
9. My brother and his wife are expecting a second set of twins in the coming month.  Sobering, yes?
10. Nothing I cooked came out right.
11. Pearl took her dinosaur everywhere we went.  I still can not identify a single type of dinosaur.
12. Marcia didn't have to be pregnant during the Houston summer last time around.  Her unflappable judgment: it rocks NOT.
13. (Baker's dozen bonus) Houston in one word: mosquitoes.