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The couple wed today outside City Hall in New Haven with their three-month-old daughter, Willow, and several friends. No word on whether they served lingonberry juice at the reception.

(Helen and I did a vlog back in May about why we love the Swedish furniture giant, and giving hints for IKEA-shopping parents. We’re not the only ones who feel this way; the gals at Lesbian Gamers think it’s oh-so-dykey too.)

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If the Veoh video above does not work for you, try it at Dailymotion.

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

(If the Veoh video above doesn’t work for you, try it at Dailymotion.)

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

We then give you a parent’s-eye view of one of our favorite stores, IKEA. It’s not just good for parents in search of cheap furniture, we argue, but can be a whole day’s worth of activities for children as well. We also offer some suggestions to new parents looking for baby gear and anyone whose home hosts both small children and large pieces of furniture. We next recommend some additional tools to improve your furniture-assembling prowess and ensure that your bookshelves are straight, even if you aren’t.

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If the Veoh video above isn’t working (sometimes their server can be flaky), you can try it at Daily Motion.

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

Today, I wanted to assure you that we’re not the only ones who share this weird obsession. The folks at NASA who run the Hubble Space Telescope have in fact provided instructions for making your very own PVC model of the famous orbiting spyglass. It requires a few pipes of various sizes, some end caps, and a few craft supplies, and looks like a great rainy-day project to do with your older kids. It requires some drilling and sawing, and thus an adult presence, but there are also various bits to glue and tape that would be suitable for younger folks. Have fun!

Considering Parenthood?

This may be the biggest decision of your life. Considering Parenthood is designed to help individuals, couples and co-parents to make the decision about whether they really want to parent or, if they have already decided to parent, what they can expect and what adjustments will have to be made. Participants discuss topics such as how we bring children into our lives, time, money, family, support systems, legal protections, the issues children with gay and lesbian parents face in our society and how to maintain healthy adult relationship while parenting.

The group size is limited to eight. The cost is $200 for the entire 6 weeks, or $35 a week. To register or for more information, contact Cheryl Deaner at 415-876-7006 or Cheryl@cheryldeaner.com.

Date: Saturdays, October 6 through November 9, 10:00-11:30am
Location: 842 Elizabeth St., San Francisco

Cheryl Deaner is a Marriage and Family Therapist, a parent, a founder of Our Family Coalition and the Alternative Family Project. Cheryl has facilitated Considering Parenthood classes and groups for the Lesbian Health Research Center, Lyon Martin Women’s Health Services, Parents Place and in her therapy practice.

Floorplanner is a Web-based application for room layout and design. You can click and drag furniture, plants, rugs, walls, and other objects to plan the home of your dreams or just a nursery for your new arrival. My four-year-old, however, took a shine to it. Budding Bob Vila that he is, he even chose to play with it last night in lieu of his usual evening DVD. The rooms ended up looking like a collaboration of Escher and Picasso, but he was very proud of his design. I figure it’s more educational and less annoyingly squeaky than a Bob the Builder video.

You can register for a free account (or pay for a Pro version that lets Realtors and other professionals save multiple projects), but if you don’t want to bother with either, the “Try-It” demo works fine for kids. (Demo projects can’t be saved, though.)

(Thanks to Lifehacker for suggesting it for us grownups.)

Oh. My. Gosh. You would NOT believe how popular the instrument is! The kids are loving it. . . .

Thanks again for the fantastic idea. Sophie even used the chop saw by herself on one of the wood cuts. Talk about being proud of herself. . . .

I thought the kids would enjoy it, but had no idea that they’d love it as much as they do. The school will probably be permanently mounting it to a wall.

Erin was also the first interviewee in my Family Voices series. Thanks again, Erin, for sharing part of your life with us.

Materials:

• About 2′ of 1 1/4″ PVC pipe (Shorten for a small child or lengthen for a taller one.)
• A dozen screws—this is the tricky part:
  #6 1″ round (pan) head wood screws with threads all the way up to the head (Round, not flat, head is necessary to avoid sharp edges. Full threading is needed because it is the top threads that will grip the pipe.) These can be hard to find. You may need to ask the staff at your hardware store.
• Two 1 1/4″ PVC endcaps
• Dried black beans

Tools needed:

• Drill
• Screwdriver
• Saw (if pipe isn’t already cut)
• Rubber mallet (optional; regular hammer will also do)

Instructions:

• Take the pipe and drill small holes (about 1/32″) in a row every 4 1/2″ or so.
• Turn the pipe a quarter turn and drill holes about halfway between the first set of holes. This way, you will be able to place a second row of screws at 90 degrees to the first row. (For the rainstick to have the best sound, no bean should travel the length of the pipe without hitting one (or preferably more) of the screws. Two rows, one perpendicular to the other, should maximize the probability that the bean will hit something on the way down.)
• Drill four 1/8″ holes in one of the endcaps. (See photo.) This makes for a much better sound.
• Tap one of the endcaps on. You may need a rubber mallet—or gently use a regular hammer, with a towel over the endcap.
• Toss in a handful or two of the dried black beans, and put on the second endcap.
• Experiment and add or subtract beans as desired.

Make a few in different sizes—one for each member of your family. Decorate them with stickers or (if you have older kids) permanent markers. Suitable for home use, school-play sound effects, or Pride parades. Have fun!