i got a smartphone (android) a few months ago after the bird casually tossed my trusty dumbphone of three years into a nearby glass of water. i loved my dumbphone. it was just my speed. but i finally gave in to my husband’s smartphone evangelism after i enrolled in the reframe productivity system(which champions the smartphone/electronic calendar business). andy proudly presented me with this:

it was kind of like giving a pogo stick to a dog.

it took me about three weeks to figure out how to consistently answer the phone when people called. i’ve mastered this feat now. the current problem is that my crazy hair brushes against the screen while i’m talking. it hangs up on people, dials china, and downloads apps all by itself.

are you sure you want to read any further? my HAIR is leading me into the nether universe of apps, people.

i feel like a kid again. specifically, the kid whose next door neighbor got an atari for christmas — the kid who observed the big boys playing for hours before finally sneaking a turn at pac-man.

since i started this blog, many of you have written to me about how your smartphones (and all of their various  apps) are actually making parenting easier. so, it is with great naivete and technological ambition that i report this list of helpful apps for parents, compiled from various emails, blog comments, facebook posts, and internet research.

 smartphone apps for parents:

for occupying the kiddos:

 recommended by parents of two-year-olds:

– toddler lock (android)

– angry birds (iphone) & angry birds lite beta (android)

– the hatch (iphone) & hatch (android)

– first words (iphone) & first words (android)

– i hear ewe (iphone) & animal sounds (android)

recommended by parents of three-year-olds:

– wordgirl word hunt (iphone)

– cake doodle (iphone) & birthday cake (android)

– monster trucks nitro (iphone) & monster truck rally (android)

– memory (iphone) & snoopy memory game (android)

recommended by parents of children ages three through six:

– facegoo (iphone) & liquid face lite (for android)

– teachme kindergarten (iphone) & kindergarten master (android)

recommended by parents of kids ages five through eight:

– themed puzzles such as this princess puzzle (android)

– sheep abduction (iphone) & abduction! (android)

 

to salvage the remnant of your brain while your little darlings are in their little smartphone trances:

– npr news (iphone) & npr news app (android)

 

health:

– baby activity logger (iphone) & baby esp (android): record your baby’s eating, sleeping, and diapering patterns and share data with your partner.

 

shopping:

– wootwatch‘s “kids” tab (iphone) & today’s woot ‘s “kids’ tab (android): check out the latest kid-related bargains.

 

productivity:

– grocery gadget (iphone) & mobisle notes (android): create and share electronic grocery lists with your partner. arranges items by store location, and cross them off as you go.

 

leisure:

– b & n ereader (iphone) & laputa book reader (android): wide selections of free download-able books.

 

and if you haven’t had enough already, check out babble.com’s top 50 iphone apps for moms and helium.com’s top ten android apps for busy moms.

first name: Carol

age: 33

current city: Hermosa Beach, CA  (near Los Angeles)

living situation: I live with my husband and our two boys, ages four and two. We recently added a fish, who only became a member of our family because it was a favor at a birthday party.

occupation: Wedding & Portrait Photographer 

how do you structure your time and space? I currently have an office in our house. I work about 30 hours a week and have a nanny who comes four days a week for the first half of the day. This allows me to have free afternoons with my boys and cook dinner. 

I squeeze in grocery shopping when needed and try to do fewer, bigger trips every other week than many small trips every week. I keep an ongoing list of what’s needed to keep me organized and keep the grocery store time streamlined.

My mother-in-law also comes one day a week to help us. She will take the boys all day and stay either overnight or until bedtime, to ensure that my husband and I have a date night to catch up. I cherish these date nights and uninterrupted conversations! 

I spend many weekend days away shooting weddings or families on location. I feel blessed that my husband enjoys taking care of the boys when I work during the weekend. 

When I get busier in the fall and add fifteen and more hours to my work week, I scrape the help together the best that I can.

using the metaphor of seasons to describe the phases of women’s lives, 

-what are the particular challenges and highlights of your current season? I think I have the best of both worlds right now, working at home and being available to my children during the day while they are still young.  It gets tight, space-wise, with my gear and post-production and office work, but I still prefer being close and listening to what’s going on downstairs.   

It can be very frustrating when my family needs me during my work time, since I try to keep the times divided. Sometimes I just have to go to the office and shut the door and ignore the polite little knocks or crying for “mama,” and sometimes I just “arrive” at the office a little later than usual.  It takes will power & patience to work from home, but I wouldn’t trade it. 

-What season(s) preceded this one? Before I had children four years ago, I was a photographer, only I worked many more (uninterrupted) hours while I was building my business. 

-What season(s) might your future hold? Eventually, when my children are in school for more hours, I would like to have a studio I can go to for my work, and for shooting and meeting with clients.  Also, I would love another assistant and an intern!

Favorite family activity: Loading up the stroller and going to the beach.  It’s the most fun AND easiest place to watch our children, and it wears them out!

favorite solo activities: grocery shopping, jogging, yoga (only once or twice a month). wait… answering this question makes me realize I need more time to do more solo activities.

sources of inspiration: 

• Finding new favorite music- I love Pandora & XM
• Reading my favorite blogs, websites & magazines 
• Gardening with my children
• Fabric shopping ( I don’t really sew but I enjoy looking at the colors and patterns)
• Online photo forum with other photographers

best MakeShift TOOL (i just added this category because its so important): The iphone. I have educational games and filtered YouTube clips downloaded for bribery when an important work phone call comes in during my time with the kids. Usually, I try not to take calls when I’m with them, but sometimes, the “shapes and puzzles” game really comes in handy!  It also comes in handy in doctors offices and airplane trips.  (Search the itunes app store for “toddler teasers,” a shapes, numbers and letters quizzing game, and your two year old will quickly learn to recognize a hexagon!)

best MakeShift moment: One Sunday evening, after a long weekend of celebrating our son’s first birthday, the door bell rang. My mom ran in the kitchen and told me that a couple had arrived to meet with me about their wedding. With all the focus on our house guests and birthday festivities, I completely forgot that I had booked a meeting for that night (another hazard of the home office!). We all looked around and saw the same thing: our place was a disaster with newly opened toys, wrapping paper, suitcases and lingering trays of party food. Luckily, we lived right around the corner from a French pastry & coffee shop. I asked the couple to wait one minute while I quickly gathered my sample albums and laptop (which had a slide show of my work), changed out of my play clothes, and ran out the door. As we walked into the coffee shop, I put my hand in my pocket and luckily found a $20 bill to treat the couple to a tasty treat. Whew!  It turned out to be a great meeting, and eight months later, I photographed their wedding. This makeshift “near crash” moment was only possible because of our “village” that holds us together:  grandparents, friends, and extended family. I don’t know what I would do without all of them and their support. 

find carol on the web:

• website: www.carolreach.com
• blog:  www.carolreach.wordpress.com