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  • Girl Wins Hannah Montana Tickets With Fake Essay

    I have had countless conversations about Hannah Montana over the past couple of weeks, which is stunning, considering I don't think I had uttered the rather catchy (and fake) name more than once or twice total before that.  In any case, all of the discussions involved one or more of these three elements: first-graders (first-graders!); $450 concert tickets (for a fake singer!); mothers living through their daughters (in this day and age!).

    Until today, the sickest anecdote came from my aunt-in-law, a second-grade teacher, who told me about a first-grader at her school. The girl's mom shelled out nearly $2,000 for four concert tickets, plus transportation and dinner for the mother-daughter pairs in a limo that was taking them on the four-hour round-trip. Did they open the wet bar too? Stand through the sunroof and lift up their Hanna Montana concert tees?

    That story got trumped, though, when I came across this:

     

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  • Sesame Street and Electric Company on iTunes

    easy readerSesame Workshop announced that they will be sharing some Sesame Street music and Electric Company episodes for free through iTunes. "You can sing along anywhere to your favorite Sesame Street songs such as: 'C is for Cookie,' 'Sesame Street Theme Song,' 'I Love Trash,' 'People in the Neighborhood,' 'Rubber Duckie,' 'Doin' the Pigeon.'" Aw yeah! "I Love Trash" is one of my all-time favs, as is "Doin' the Pigeon." You just don't get any better than Bert in saddle shoes and a dashing little hat, breaking it down all funky.

    I also recommend you check out the Electric Company episodes. I watched a bunch of clips recently, and I was stunned by how smart and funny the show was. The star-studded cast is pretty impressive. Since I was a little young to follow cast members' careers back when I was a regular watcher, I had no idea so many great entertainers were on the show (Rita Moreno, Morgan Freeman, and Bill Cosby, to name a few.) Now I finally understand why the sight of Mel Brooks makes me want to suck my thumb. I can think of very few current kids shows (aside from maybe Peep) that have mastered the fine balance of goofy and intelligent the way EC did. Remember "Letterman"? "Easy Reader"? Though I do wonder if kids today will be able to follow the 70's lingo.

    Here's hoping the excellent Sesame Ernie-Aaron Neville duet, "I Don't Want to Visit the Moon" will be available soon. I also loooove the Elmo and Robert DeNiro method acting sketch. What's your favorite Sesame or Electric Company moment?


  • iPhone Jones: The 5 Reasons Every Parent Needs One

    Steve Jobs gave the world a sneak-peak of the new and much-anticipated iPhone today during the keynote address of this year's MacWorld conference in San Francisco. Mixed reviews aside, I want. I don't even care what it does. It's thin and it's shiny and it must be mine.

    An iPhone would make my life as a parent so much easier. You don't believe me? Here are five reasons why (as my toddler would say) I neeeeed it.

        1. It has a 320 x 480 touch screen, built-in wi-fi, Bluetooth compatibility, and a full-touch keyboard. Now while I am waiting to pick up my daughter in school or sitting in the car with a toddler passed out in her carseat, I can (steal wireless and) check email or post to my blog without going blind. Also, when I go to the park, I'll have something to do cuz ain't nothing more boring than having to watch my kids go down the curly slide for the thousandth time look like all the dads.
        2. It has a 2 megapixel camera and the high end model boasts 8GBs of storage. That's plenty of space to store my grainy pictures of soccer dads losing their shit, nannies behaving badly, or cheerleaders acting like strippers...and photos of my kids, of course.
        3. There's no crap specialized mobile phone OS; this baby runs on Mac OS X. Have you tried browsing with the phone you have now? I'm all for anything that removes stress and frustration from my life. And (bonus!) an exclusive partnership with Cingular means I can trade in my shitty Razr (hopefully?) and keep my number.
        4. iTunes integration. Music anytime, anywhere without having to carry an extra gadget. The iPhone will even display album artwork of songs being played. Kids acting up in a restaurant? Chill out to Laurie Berkner or listen to an audio book.
        5. It's a video iPod, too, and you know what that means: "Dick in a Box" anytime, anywhere.* 

        * Okay, that last one might not make my parenting life easier, but I wouldn't mind being in the middle of a tasty JT-Andy Samberg sandwich...even if they are chanelling Color Me Badd. Hey, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.



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