• Created on 3/1/10 by AdinaL

Ever had one of those dreams where you suddenly realize you just had a baby? Didn’t even know you were pregnant, maybe gave birth in the bathroom, like those stories of uneducated high school girls who went to the loo with a tummy ache and then Shazam! New baby!)? That’s kind of the feeling around here since Friday night, when Twombly, the feral kitten who came in the back door in June, gave birth to five kittens in the quiet dusty dark beneath Reeve’s bed. We hadn’t realized she was pregnant til last week. (Hadn’t even realized she was female til... read more

• Created on 8/24/10 by Momsteader

Typography on the radio! I just heard this on the program To the Best of our Knowledge: an interview with Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones,* creators of the font known as Gotham. Whether you know the name or not, you’ve seen the font. It was commissioned by GQ in 2000 (they were looking for a new signature font—one that was authoritative, modern and manly, of course) and selected by Barack Obama for his campaign materials in the last election. It’s a bold, clean, geometric font, inspired by NYC signage created back when graphic designers were... read more

• Created on 9/27/10 by JessicaWilliams

Hi Wonderful Women, Thank you for contributing your statements. We are the village. I wrote your names down and put them in a bowl and picked SARA. Sara says: I am sorry I wasn’t home last night to play with you, have dinner, and help you go to sleep. I forgive myself for putting grad school off so long that it interferes with our time now. I let go of the pressure to be a perfect mom, I am doing the best I can. Sara, please email me at LoveParentingLA@gmail.com with your address so I can mail your CD. Love, Jessica About Jessica WilliamsJessica Williams created... read more

• Created on 11/17/09 by AdinaL

One of the things that has come clear to me in my job is this: Just about anybody can take a good photo these days. Thanks to digital cameras, photography —once the mysterious realm of those few who understood the secrets of light and ground glass, distance and timing and chemistry —has been made available, cheap and easy, to the masses. So, now, anyone who clicks away often enough is bound to end up with the occasional nice shot or two. That said, there is still a huge difference between people who can take good photos and photographers who... read more

• Created on 9/6/10 by mamazee

If you want to keep a six-year-old boy busy for a long time have him sort through old crayons, pick out all the broken ones, peel off the paper, and then put them in piles by color. After he’s done that (which, if your state of crayons are in the disarray of ours, may be the work of hours or even days), put the sorted piles into a muffin tin lined with two paper liners. The naked crayons lying in the tin will look like this: The proud six-year-old child, still in pajamas (since this is the work of more than one day) will want to pose with... read more

• Created on 12/7/09 by Momsteader

Polarn O. Pyret is a Swedish clothing company for kids that’s just launched in the States. Their stuff is SO CUTE. Their Holiday Collection and other items on the site (except for their Classic Stripes and sale items) are 35% off through December 15th. Just enther the promo code HOLLYPOP at checkout. Subscribe to the Mothering.com Blogs Feed This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both... read more

• Created on 10/31/09 by AdinaL

About 15 minutes before the Halloween parade, we still didn’t have our costumes ready. Since my due date (more on how that’s a misnomer in a later post) was BEFORE Halloween, I wasn’t expecting to even be in the parade this year, let alone in a costume. James had the idea that we should paint my belly into a big yellow Pac Man and put dots all over black clothes but 1) we didn’t have any yellow face paint and 2) we were out of time. So I went in my friend Anjie’s escaped convict costume instead. “I don’t like it,” my 10-year-old daughter Hesperus... read more

• Created on 3/15/10 by Momsteader

We were just plotzing over prefolds at Mothering HQ. I received a 4-pack of organic cotton “Giggle Better Basics” prefolds–an Under the Nile exclusive. Dooood. I used to cloth-diaper my boy (and now he’s almost 6) and the prefolds were…fine..you know…the broken-in white t-shirts of my diaper selection. They were great everyday staples. And I also had other favorites that had the cutest print, or the sweetest design, or were incredibly reliable. But these prefolds are like the ultra-high-thread count Egyptian cotton sheets one would encounter in a super-fancy... read more

• Created on 4/7/10 by mamazee

Several readers wrote to me privately about the banana trick I described last week and a few commented on the post saying they needed a video demonstration. Ask and ye shall receive! Here is 10-year-old Hesperus demonstrating the amazing banana opening trick. I am narrating and holding the camera (James’s iPhone) in one hand and Leone, who was squirming wildly, in the other. (The key is to make the slit in the banana without your kids seeing so they think you’re just opening it by magic.) Happy watching (the video is 33 seconds... read more

• Created on 11/1/11 by Cynthia Mosher

Exciting news! Much loved publishing company, Barefoot Books, has just released their all new World Atlas and is doing a HUGE giveaway to celebrate. I recently had a chance to explore this wonderful new addition to the Barefoot library with my seven-year-old. and we both adore it. Barefoot has skillfully combined a diverse array of information about our world with captivating images, fun flip-up “Did You Know” tabs, and an easy-to-navigate layout into the best world atlas for kids I have seen yet. Now until Nov 23rd Barefoot Books will be... read more