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Most Powerful Lesbian Moms in America
[I've updated this post based on reader comments. Thanks to all, and keep the ideas coming. It's good to see so many lesbian moms who have achieved such success—though I'll quickly add that this is a personal choice. It's just as acceptable to choose to stay home with one's children, or forgo career advancement for [...]
April Fool’s Debriefing
No, Mary Cheney is not going to appear on the next season of The L Word. You should, however, be aware of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide, as Blogging Baby reports. In fact, a new study shows that everything is harmful to children—except, perhaps, Vanilla Chai Spice Similac. Babble’s Strollerderby has more.
Impress Your Kids: New Dinosaur Discovered
Win “cool mom” points with your dino-loving kids by telling them about the discovery of a new horned dinosaur, Albertaceratops nesmoi. The half-ton, plant-eating beast lived nearly 78 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period in what is now southernmost Alberta, Canada. Dr. Michael J. Ryan of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History found [...]
Valuing Our Families Conference
Passing along some information about the upcoming Valuing Our Families 2007 Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Valuing Our Families 2007 Conference Award Celebration and Town Hall Meeting Saturday and Sunday, March 24-25, 2007 Saturday events at Sunshine Cathedral, Fort Lauderdale, FL Sunday events at Easterlin Park and First Congregational Church, Fort Lauderdale Conference for Families, [...]
The Capitol Steps: Putting the MOCK in Democracy
My partner, parents, and I are sitting here howling with laughter as we listen to an online stream of the Capitol Steps New Year’s Eve 2006 concert, Politics Takes a Holiday. The Steps do brilliant political satire. They began as a group of U. S. Senate staffers, but have expanded to include professional musicians as [...]
New Mombian Children’s Wear
You’re a lesbian, a mom, and a blogger . . . and your children already have all the “I Love My Mommies” and “My Mommies Love Me” t-shirts you can handle. Spruce up their wardrobes with Mombian’s new “One of My Moms Is Blogging This” children’s wear. Our children’s T’s, sweatshirts, bibs, and infant creepers tell the world [...]
Lesbian Social-Network War Heats Up
Two days after L Word producer Ilene Chaiken announced the creation of OurChart.com, a new social network for lesbians, Olivia Cruises & Resorts announces “the all new online destination for lesbians . . . the new Olivia.com, where you’ll meet other lesbians online, make connections with friends, share stories, and network with other like-minded lesbian [...]
Ilene Chaiken Launches Social Network for Lesbians and Friends
Ilene Chaiken, executive producer of The L Word, will be launching a new social network “for lesbians and their friends” this January, in conjunction with the fourth season of the show. A sort of My Space for lesbians, OurChart.com will feature original as well as user-generated content, along with exclusive material from The L Word. [...]
Homemade Indoor “Sandbox” Kits
My three-year-old son couldn’t tear himself away from a miniature sandbox set he saw at a local toy store the other day. The set, called My Little Sandbox, is a box about ten inches square, filled with fine sand and a variety of themed toys. The one on display was a little farm, with animals, [...]
“Gingerbread Houses”: Martha Strikes First
I was all set to write about making “gingerbread” houses from graham crackers, an easy, clever project my son did in art class this weekend. Turns out Martha Stewart beat me to it. (Thanks to Blogging Baby for the sighting.) I’m including, nevertheless, a photo of the house my son decorated, to prove that one [...]
LEGOs and Lesbians
LEGO Bricks were one of the favorite toys of my childhood. I can’t wait until my son is old enough for the gear-filled LEGO Technic sets. I therefore enjoyed reading Business Week’s recent article on The Making of a LEGO Brick (thanks, Slashdot), which details the precise production process (“only 18 out of 1 million [...]
History and Geography of the Island of Sodor
As both the mother of a train-obsessed child and a refugee from grad school in history, I was delighted to find a Wikipedia article on the history and geography of the Island of Sodor, home of Thomas the Tank Engine. It’s not quite world-building on the Tolkien scale, but it’s a step in that direction, [...]
Olivia on Saturday Night Live
Last weekend’s Saturday Night Live show featured a skit about Olivia Cruises. It’s crude and obvious, revolving around the ship captain’s prurient thoughts regarding lesbians. Still, the women get the final word, and Olivia itself is promoting the skit via its e-mail list. I figure that being made fun of on SNL connotes a certain [...]
Happy Thanksgiving
A very happy Thanksgiving to those of you celebrating it today. For my readers outside the U. S., I hope you’re amused by the spectacle of the American part of the blogosphere slowing to a crawl for a day while we gorge ourselves silly. (I posted this in advance so I can keep my day [...]
Mombian Shop Relaunch
Just in time for the holidays, I’m relaunching an updated Mombian Shop, chock full of books, music, videos, toys, baby gear, and lots of things for house and home. You’ll find items geared towards children of same-sex parents and items celebrating lesbian culture, but also more general categories of products. We’re a diverse lot, really, [...]
Game Recommendation: Hisss
Continuing my occasional series on games for kids: Hisss, a simple color-matching game, has become a recent favorite. Players draw two-color tiles and place them on the table to build snakes. Whoever completes a snake head to tail gets to collect the tiles, and whoever collects the most, wins. The game is marked “four and [...]
Hacking Board Games for Preschoolers
Although my son has an apparently infinite capacity for playing Candy Land (interspersed only by rounds of Cariboo), I have a limit. I don’t, however, have a limitless budget for buying new games. My solution has been to create variations of older kid/adult board games we already have around the house. Here are a few [...]
Reciprocal Membership at Children’s Museums
I’m visiting Boston with partner and son on a house-hunting trip. We took a break today, however, to go to the Boston Children’s Museum—and got in free, thanks to a Reciprocal Membership I’d bought at our local Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum. The Reciprocal Membership Program, sponsored by the Association of Children’s Museums, gives free admission to [...]
Travel Guide: San Francisco Bay Area
As promised, here’s a thread for our next travel guide installment. This week’s location of choice is the San Francisco Bay Area. (Boston was last week, and I’ve been writing about New Jersey for two days, so it’s time to switch coasts.) If you live in the Bay Area or have visited, please leave comments [...]
Arrrh, It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day
It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day. If you don’t know anything about this fast-growing observance (which started as a joke between friends), the Talk Like a Pirate Day Web site has a brief history and examples of pirate phrases, including the useful Top 29 Things to Say at the Office During Pirate Day. (“Fax [...]
Board Games for Kids
I’m reporting to you live from the site of the Candy Land World Championships, where our resident Grandmaster is napping before he takes on his next challenger. My son finally gained the patience to play a board game a few weeks ago. My partner and I are avid (though not obsessive) gamers, and already our [...]
Press-Bot for Coffee or Tea on the Go
One for the gadget file: If you love camping, but your sweetie can’t survive a morning without her French roast (or if you’re the java fiend), try the Press-Bot Coffee Press. It’s designed to fit a wide-mouth Nalgene water bottle, seals completely, and includes an integrated pour spout. Works for loose tea, too. Yes, fall [...]
Same-Sex Marriage and Heavenly Bodies
I was going to write a short post about the definition of “planet” recently proposed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). I thought some moms would find it useful when helping their children with science homework. Geoffrey Pullam’s post at Language Log on “Gay Marriage and Counting the Planets” made me realize I was thinking [...]
Steamtown
One in an occasional series of travel essays for families with kids: When most Americans think of our National Park Service (NPS), we have visions of forests and mountains, rivers and seashores. Not 1.2 million pounds of iron and steel churning out 6200 horsepower, capable of hauling 120 freight cars over mountains at 40 miles [...]
Giant Panda Receives Giant Fruitsicle
Tai Shan, the U. S. National Zoo’s giant panda cub, celebrates his first birthday today. What do you give a 56-pound cub for his birthday? Tai Shan got a giant fruitsicle, a new soccer ball, and several other toys. If you have animal-loving kids, make sure they check out the live Panda Cam to see [...]
