For more than ten years—and from thousands of miles away—I've admired tech innovator Guy Kawasaki. He's someone with big ideas who actually gets stuff done. Lots of stuff. I'd love to have created one-twentyseventh of what he's created and helped others create.

But, uh, no.

So it's a great feeling to be part of one of his newest launches, the mommy blogs page of the beta of Alltop.com. That's a screen shot of the page above—see how clean and simple it is? The idea is to give readers all the sites related to a given topic, from politics to sports to parenting. Here's how Kawasaki puts it:

I am the CEO of a company called Nononina. We recently released a website that is a collection of 'single-page aggregations' organized by topics such as Fashion, Celebrities, Sports, Gaming, Macintosh, Science, Green, and Autos.

Just go to the mommy blogs area, right here, to find current feeds from Quick Serve Kids and lots of other incredibly interesting and talented writers—Dooce, White Trash Moms, Not Calm (dot com), and lots of others well worth your visit.

Bookmark, rinse, repeat. And tell your friends.

Posted by QSMama at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh my gosh, this is brilliant.

Now can it come to my city?

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It's amazing how many kid-development milestones just kind of happen on their own. Just when you're despairing, thinking you'll be changing diapers (or throwing away unsalvageable underwear) forever, they start using the toilet. Just when you think they'll be packing tubes of Little Bear toddler toothpaste for college, they learn to spit.

And just when you think your child won't ever lighten your day with some bathroom humor, you get a song like this: "I went some at school, and some at the Y, yeah,/ Poopy poopy, poopy, poopitypoopitypoopity POOP!" (copyright 2008, Baby A, just in case you were thinking of pirating that one).

Aaaaaaaanyway, seems it goes the same way with expanding their palates, too. Here's one writer, over at the lovely Babble site, who's taking that whole process in stride.

And that's cool. All things in time, right?

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When your family road-tripped, was McDonald's your mealtime stop? And when you were a kid, was that not the most awesome thing about the trip? Somehow it made those hours of confinement, during which your little brother could not keep his BRATTY HANDS on HIS HALF of the BACK SEAT, bearable. I mean, really, what about the imaginary line down the middle of the bench seat did he not understand?

The only thing better than the set of arches on the horizon was the time we pulled over at a rest stop on the South Carolina-Georgia border and ate a surreal picnic of hard-boiled Easter Eggs. (Fortunately, this was an actual Easter trip.) What, break, peel, and eat these works of art? At a picnic table? Here?My parents must have been truly desperate for a stop.

Heather Armstrong of Dooce remembers McDonald's and road-trip details as their family sets off on an impromptu road trip to California. She's funny enough to make your latte shoot out of your nose--as you might already know--but the best part of this post for me was realizing other couples actually do fight. Badly. And get over it fast.

If McDonald's wasn't your family's regular road-trip stop, what was?

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Y'all, we've been sick. Really miserable. It's getting better, a little better each day, but...yuck. I'm sure we've killed no less than six trees in tissue usage over the past few weeks. Baby A had 104-degree fevers last week, and didn't eat for days. Is it any wonder my mind wasn't much on guiding her through some fast-food world? We were just getting through the days. And the nights. Oh, my, the nights. No. Sleep.

So there are tumbleweeds blowing right through this poor blog, but here's an entry, at least for today. I recently happened upon the KidsCuisine site, a fellow BlogHer Network member, and I really like what I'm reading there. Go on over and check it out.

See the vegetable alphabet idea? I think we might give that a try, starting soon. It's a great idea for me as a cook, too—how do I make creamed chard? What could I do with daikon root? And is there a veggie that starts with Q?

Now I'm off to Target to buy, like, twelve more boxes of tissues.

Posted by QSMama at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

PapaScott linked to my post from earlier today on quick-serves and corporate responsibility.

PapaScott is actually Scott Hanson, an American who has lived in Germany since 1990. He and his wife—who will become a McDonald's franchisee this summer!—have a seven-year-old son.

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My Easter picture of Baby A (scroll down a little) was very sweetly linked at Strollerderby last week.

Not reading Strollerderby yet? You oughta be.

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Janice Newell Bissex and Liz Weiss, the women behind Meal Makeover Moms (pictured right), have launched a new blog.

Give it a visit! The duo are full of good ideas.

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Today the National Restaurant Association launches the new Healthy Dining web site, which is aimed at helping Americans make healthier restaurant choices. If you watch daytime TV or read a newspaper, you're sure to hear about it because there's a big PR campaign kicking off.

All in all, this is good news. In fact, it's sorta what Quick Serve Kids is doing, in a very niche way. But I want to state something that the body behind Healthy Dining isn't making too clear: Healthy Dining is a paid directory. Restaurants pay a fee to be listed and receive a list of benefits in return, including online links and printable coupons, window decals, and a certificate to hang on the wall. It's sort of like having the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for your restaurant's healthy efforts. (What? You didn't know the GH seal is a paid thing?)

So while the idea is good, be aware that this is a self-selected group.

Now that we've got that out in the open, let's look at what the Healthy Dining finder does.

Americans eat out on average four or five times a week. Through this site, the National Restaurant Association says it's trying to help make those meals healthier. Partially funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the site includes nearly 30,000 popular restaurant locations nationwide, and can be a resource for people looking to make more informed food choices when dining at their favorite restaurants.

It's also a place to demonstrate the proactive efforts of the restaurant industry, says the National Restaurant Association. Some current participating restaurants include P.F. Chang's, Buca di Beppo, Au Bon Pain, and Burger King.

Want more info? You can also sign up for free enewsletters from Healthy Dining here.

Does this new site sound helpful for your family? Comment and let me know.

Posted by QSMama at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Looking for real travel/stuff to do advice from real parents? New site Parentography features travel, restaurant, and cultural reviews written by actual parents.

I sorted by restaurants and found this.

Like all reader-driven content sites, this one will prove its worth over time. Check it out and see what you think...and consider becoming a parentographer yourself using the link on this page.

And if travel is on the calendar for your family, don't miss the well designed and tip-rich site Kids Can Travel.

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How many times have you laughed (wryly, of course) about your toddler or preschooler's narrow range of dinner preferences? Chicken nuggets. Pizza. Tofu cubes. Repeat, ad nauseaum.

For the enterprising moms behind Planet Mom T-Shirts, such curiosities of life as a mom inspired a line of apparel embroidered with sayings that will make any parent (or grandparent) laugh. Check out the "Chicken Nuggets or Pizza?" at the right. Other great lines include "Whine? No. Wine? Yes," "Nanny Deprived," "Because I Said So," and one that might as well be custom-made for me: "Seeking Tall, Dark, Rich Cup of Coffee." Amen.

I love the tongue-in-cheekiness. I love the fact they're embroidered, not screenprinted. And I love that these tees are specially fitted for women's bodies. Boxy tees suck.

So long as we're guiding our Quicksies through the fast-food world, we might as well wear the right uniform. I plan to add a couple of Planet Mom's pieces to my wardrobe.

Posted by QSMama at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We got hacked! Hooray!

Quick Serve Kids was a featured Parent Hack today. If you haven't started hacking your kids yet, add this collaborative parenting advice site to your bookmarks or RSS feed now.

And the always cool Noodad linked to one of QSK's recent posts, too, from the dad's point of view. The post, and Noodad in general, are feedworthy, too.

As I get more familiar with the blogging world, I’ve come across so many great resources. A few days ago I found Urban Mamas, which serves the Portland area but has advice and discussion that's interesting for moms (parents?) everywhere. I found this post about taking kids to chain restaurants right-on. Same for the commentary.

HQ'd closer to QSK's home—but aimed at parents nationwide—is Clever Parents. This site is stuffed with advice on home life, style, parenting tools, work/home balance, and lots more.

I'm gonna start talking links every week. There's a lot to share—and whose blogrolls and bookmarks don't need a little freshening up now and then?

And—are you sitting down?—another Podcast should be posted tomorrow morning. No Tanqueray and tonics this time...just three-plus minutes of talk about trans fats and what the quick-serve industry is doing to lower them.

Posted by QSMama at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)