Helen and I bring you the first signs of what could be growing ultra-right opposition to Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a new children’s book featuring gay guinea pigs. (Regular blog readers will know about this from my earlier post; since this video is crossposted at After Ellen, though, there’s sometimes a little overlap in order to inform viewers there.)

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.

Some residents of the Greek island of Lesbos are suing the LGBT-rights group “Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece” in an effort to reclaim the name “lesbian.” The BBC reports “The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, claims that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violates the human rights of the islanders, and disgraces them around the world.” He says it causes “daily problems” to the islanders’ social lives.

What’s next? Happy people suing to reclaim the word “gay”? Besides, haven’t copies of The L Word or Ellen made their way to Greece by now, at least via Internet video? Lesbians are beautiful, rich people with gorgeous homes and active social lives. Sometimes they tell jokes and dance. Where’s the disgrace in that?

My four-year-old is big into card games. I’m delighting in the fact that he’s now old enough to play games with a standard deck, which expands our possibilities for travel entertainment. I was able to teach him Go Fish and Crazy Eights, but had, however, forgotten how to play War. My tastes in games have run to the more complex over the years, and the simple ones have fallen by the wayside.

I was happy, therefore, to find Wikipedia coming to the rescue. Its page of Card Games has links to rules for dozens of games, categorized by style (trick-taking games, rummy style games, etc.) I can’t vouch for how “official” any of the rules are (Wikipedia needing a heavy dose of salt at times), but they should get you through a few hours of a rainy day with your kids. (I’ve renamed “War” to the slightly less violent “Capture” when I play with my son, though.)

What are your favorite card games from childhood (or even now)? Those of you with older kids: how old were they when they started beating you for real?

Today marks the 12th annual Day of Silence, an event where students from middle school to college are asked “to take some form of a vow of silence to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment—in effect, the silencing—experienced by LGBT students and their allies.” This year’s event is in memory of Lawrence King, the California eighth-grader shot to death by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression.

The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network coordinates the event, and they report that students from a record 6,800 middle and high schools registered as of yesterday. Last year, a day before the event, they had slightly more than 4,000. King’s death was a tragedy, but if it has helped raise awareness so fewer people suffer his fate in the future, then at least some good will come of it.

HRC also informs us that:

Representatives Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Lois Capps (D-CA), along with 28 co-sponsors, introduced H. Con. Res. 328 (.pdf), a resolution in support of the 2008 National Day of Silence. And yesterday, April 23, Representatives Baldwin and Sam Farr (D-CA) spoke on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about the importance of the National Day of Silence and the need to confront anti-GLBT harassment in schools.

Support at that level is important, but not more so than students and others willing to raise awareness within their local communities. Sara Whitman at Suburban Lesbian writes about her son’s choice to participate (and her followup). Students in Breckenridge, Colorado and Los Angeles, among other places, are organizing local events. (Thanks, National Gay News.) I even know of non-student employees at one major corporation who are asking their colleagues to join them for 15 minutes of silence and/or a private observance of the event.

There are those, too, who are protesting the observance. Promotion of homosexuality and all that. You’ve heard it before, so I’m not going to dwell on it here. Google “day of silence” and you’ll find the news, if you want.

Are your children participating in the Day of Silence, or do you know others in your community who are?

Helen and I discuss why people always want to know what children of two moms call their parents, why even Cynthia Nixon can’t escape the question, and why we shouldn’t get so hung up on the issue. We also have fun with two classic board games and tell you why our son isn’t a genius just because he plays them (though we’re not ruling it out).

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Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

It’s Earth Day. My son’s preschool had a series of related activities and discussions all last week, and he’s had the Earth on his mind.

After going through several pieces of toilet paper during a pit stop the other day, he held up the final one and asked “Mommy, if it’s clean, can I leave it on the counter for the next person?”

I explained about germs, but was impressed by his commitment to reducing consumption.

Please share some of the things you do to protect the environment and save energy. How do you teach your children to do so? Where do you compromise for convenience?

This week, Helen and I remind viewers of the long-lost parenting storyline on Jackie Warner’s Work Out. We also commemorate tax week with a rant on our own filings, and on a more positive note, discuss various approaches to children’s allowances and why we don’t have any answers.

Plus: What were those weird pipes in our living room that you may have glimpsed in last week’s vlog? (Long-time readers may recognize them as the Musical Pipes we made last year, and which reader Erin reproduced with great success.)

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Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

Helen and I urge viewers to submit names of LGBT moms for the “America’s Favorite Mom” contest, and share an easy kids’ activity that could keep you from spending $25 in a toy store. Helen then gets on her soapbox telling politicians a few “things your mama should have taught you.” Plus pirates, matzo meal, and another sneak appearance by our cat. (See if you can spot him this time.)

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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.)

I’m still sitting here in my sweater near Boston, but I’m sure summer will be here before I know it. Here are a couple of events that look ahead to warmer times:

• The MEGA Family Project in Georgia is holding its annual MEGA Family Vacation July 25 to 27, at Tybee Island. You can register until July 21—but you get a bigger discount if you sign up before April 1. Further details are at the MEGA Web site.
• Farther north, the Family Equality Council has opened registration for Family Week in Provincetown, which will run July 26 to August 2.
• Moving west, Rainbow Families Great Lakes will be holding their First Annual Spring Getaway Family Camping Weekend, May 9 to 11, at Camp Talahi in Howell, MI. They will also host their own summer Family Week, July 12 through July 18 in Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan.

[Updated with Family Week Saugatuck information.]

Helen and I blind you with science this week as we demonstrate a bunch of experiments and explorations for kids. Watch us use marshmallows, blue gooey stuff, really long words to describe peanut butter, and gummi bears like you’ve never seen them before (including one variation just for adults). We also point out the very lesbianish cartoon mom in a popular book of kids’ science projects. Whether you’re a parent or a cool aunt or godparent, you’ll want a few of these in your repertoire. Plus: An honor for Lesléa Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies, and a sneak appearance by our cat.

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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.)