I’m guessing that most of you already knew that Mother’s Day was this weekend. And technically, of course I knew too. It’s just that I only actually realized that Mother’s Day is the day after tomorrow about one minute ago.

You can guess how much preparation we’ve done. Although to be fair to us, we have been cleaning. Especially the room and bathroom that my actual mother will be sleeping in/sharing with Noah beginning tonight.

I guess the thing for me is that I’m just not that much of a “random holiday” person. I love my mom and would be just as excited if she were visiting last weekend, or next weekend. And I love this insane parenthood roller-coaster more and more as Noah’s personality continues to emerge. I’m pretty sure that Sunday will not be a peak experience on that front, though.

One thing I do want to acknowledge, in honor of Mother’s Day, is how glad I am to have companionship on this crazy ride.

I don’t know how single moms do it. Without my wonderful wife Jill, Noah and I would be in much worse shape. The idea of him becoming a big brother without having his This Mommy is inconceivable to me.

Thank you, This Mommy. I love you.

While she is the most critical person with whom I’m sharing this wild ride, we are not alone, and I don’t think we could do it, or at least not well, without a lot of other wonderful companions.

How cool is it that my nephew, Maxim, is almost exactly half-way between Noah’s age and Esmerelda’s? I think that especially as our kids get older, having them so close in age will also bring me and my sister Anna closer together.

Other real-life Mom friends, like Erin, Madelaine, and Liz, have been wonderful sanity-savers and reality-checkers, in spite of the hundreds of miles between us.

Local Mom friends, like Emily & Katherine, Lesley & D, my co-workers, and the women of my LLL group, have also been great sources of support and fun.

Last, but certainly not least, I have to thank my friends in the Mommy-blogosphere. I’m afraid of linking, because I’m sure I’m going to forget important people. PLEASE don’t take it personally if I don’t like to you. Eeeee! Noah is awake and running around. No more time to link. You know this world is much larger than just the 4 I’ve linked to already.
Some people I’ve met in real life. Some I have close friendships with based almost or exclusively on reading and commenting on one another’s blogs and other online media. And some…the relationship is probably more like that we have to favorite newspaper columnists. They know “we” are out there reading them, but they no more know that I’m that reader than they would know if I were in line behind them at the grocery store.

Living as far away from family and long-term friends as we do, those mommy-bloggers sometimes provide the human contact, sympathy, empathy, or laughs I need to stay on the right side of the edge of insanity.

Also, this seems like a great time to announce that I’m joining a new group of many of those moms I’ve only read until now! The amazing group, Silicon Valley Moms, is about to launch DeepSouthMoms.com. Look for an official announcement here in the next few weeks!!!

Last year, I didn’t enter Looky, Daddy’s Haiku contest, but the finalists made me laugh hard enough to snarf coffee.

This year, I got inspired to join the party — and my entry was selected by an actual published poet, Claudia Carlson, bribed by Looky, Daddy to be the judge, as one of the 10 finalists.

So, wouldja go vote for me?

Here’s my 2 stanza haiku:

Approaching Two
Do you want some cheese?
No! Some apple juice instead?
No! No! No! No! No!

Cheese? Cheese? Cheese? Door? Cheese?
Can you say please? Peez. Tanku.
Mommy! Mommy! Kiss!

And when you’re done, go vote in the 2007 Weblog Awards! Voting ends around 5 pm today (east coast time), if I remember correctly.

Looky, Daddy, is a finalist in the Parenting category. He’s got some stiff competition.

In fact, I love many of the blogs he’s up against, but ever since Looky, Daddy published his hilarious essay on why he he is afraid of his three preschool daughters growing up to be lesbians, he’s had my loyalty. (Yes, you read that right. Trust me. And trust LesbianDad.)

Other blogs I love that are up for awards include Mombian in the LGBT category, Stirrup Queen in the medical category, BlogHer in the community category, Bitch PhD in the Top 250 category, and Konagod in the category I won last year, The Best of the Rest. Vote for them, too! (Those are links to the voting — links to the blogs are below.)

• Mombian
• Stirrup Queen
• BlogHer
• Bitch Ph.D.
• Konagod
  

UPDATED WITH BABY PICTURES (scroll to end)
I had such a fabulous weekend that figuring out where to start talking about it is almost impossible. With that, I’d better just go in chronological order.

On Saturday morning, I flew up to New York and arrived in time to have lunch with Aunt Anna and Uncle Jason before they went to the hospital for Anna’s labor to be induced! We had wonderful NY pizza and then parted ways with a promise that they’d call me as soon as there was any news.

From there, I made my way to Central Park where I met Shelli and Lizzy, and of course, Malka and Henry (and Lizzy’s husband The Mistah).

Shelli and Lizzy are even nicer and more charming in real life than in the blogosphere, and there was a near toxic level of cute going on between Malka and Henry. Especially after Henry burned off some of his “I’ve been in the car too long” energy by running laps around our park area, flirted with da ladies, and tried to chat up a group of middle aged men. Malka took on her fear of grass like a champ, and gave me hope that the clingy stage might end.

Next, I hauled off to meet Brandi, Alister, and Heather (and their charming daughter Lily) for fabulous Indian food. Lily fell asleep at the table while the grown-ups ate and laughed ourselves silly. When Alister and Heather headed home to New Jersey, Brandi and I had a drink and then crashed in anticipation of our class Sunday morning.

(Oh yeah, and in my delayed realization that I had to cross Central Park to meet them for dinner, I managed to hike “all over” the park and come out 3 blocks south of the exact spot where I started. Doh!)

Sunday morning started out colorfully — at least 3 of the Puerto Rican Day Parade marching bands stayed in our hotel, and busily warmed up while we tried to get the bell hop to store Brandi’s bag.

Then there was The Class.

Catherine Orenstein’s class, Opinion Writing (How to Write to Change the World), was fun, intellectually stimulating, and inspiring. There were about 25 of us, ranging in age from 20 to 60s (?), including students, health care professionals, lawyers, academics, business women, clergy, writers and activists, including Cooper and Emily!

I was especially excited to meet them since Cooper and I had a great email exchange last week, about the initiative they just launched with BlogHer — to organize around a single global issue and make a substantial difference, and to identify the top 4 issues of concern to women bloggers in the 2008 presidential election. They are getting fabulous participation!
The three things I most enjoyed about the class itself were:

1. Exercises to identify our areas of expertise, and find ways to articulate them in a short, persuasive way.
2. Clear decriptions of the core elements of an op-ed piece and how to pitch it “cold.”
3. The other women in the class. Amusingly, one is working on an initiative with my old boss!

I have a few op-ed ideas percolating already — and I would encourage any of you who can to take this class the next time Woodhull offers it. Don’t use the excuse that you live too far away — we had a participant who flew in from Sydney, Australia!

Last but certainly not least, I left during the lunch break and flew up to the hospital to meet my new nephew Max when he was a couple of hours old.

Max is adorable and perfect, and it was wonderful to get to meet and hold such a new little person. I’m glad I was able to help welcome him into the world.

I need a clever title for a book chapter.

A few months back, I proposed to write a chapter in a book on Mommy Blogging.

My chapter is going to be on how/why I decided to launch the Lesbian Family blog, and then to recruit lots of other wonderful writers to make it both really serve the community and be sustainable.
And now the editors want a title for my chapter, and they need it yesterday.

Any ideas???

The lovely people at the Woodhull Institute added a 1-day version of Katie Orenstein’s Opinion Writing class on Sunday June 10, and I am taking it.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this, although I think I tried when I first mentioned it.

Here’s the deal: The class is $300 per person if you are member of the general public, or $225 if you are a Member of the Woodhull Institute, which you can join for $100. So for an extra $25, you can support an organization dedicated to “ethical leadership training and professional development for women.” And which brings these kinds of classes, as well as leadership development programs, to women around the US.

So do what I did. Join, and then register for the class. That $100 should be tax deductible since the Woodhull Institute is a non-profit organization.

My friend Brandi is taking the class too.

I know some of you lovely and brilliant women are in NYC. Can you come play with us too? (Incidentally, if the course is too expensive for you, check out what they say about providing scholarships!)