Rookie Moms

Supposedly, if you have the requisite equipment, blowing bubbles with a straw into a clear cup of water will produce laughter. I guess the sound and sight is very entertaining to some babies.

When I tried it — both with the colored loopy straws in a fun glass of water and again in a clear glass with a standard bendy straw — Holden nearly cracked his jaw lunging for the glass to drink from it. There was no chuckling, let alone the fits of giggles I was hoping for.

The second time, he grabbed the glass and dumped it on himself and then enjoyed slurping the water from his monkey socks. And we laughed at that.

Little pre-walkers need lots of practice and encouragement. Walk around slowly holding junior’s hands.

If possible, get someone to take a picture from behind with baby and your adult hands supporting him - super cute!

This is what childhood is all about, right? You are reaching a new phase and it means that your diaper bag is about to get a lot more crowded. Have a few toys on hand that baby can grab and stick in mouth safely. Holden likes the Winkel best. It can also be refrigerated.

Free toys that rate highly with our focus group of two:

• plastic containers, borrowed from the deli area of your high-end grocery store
• lids to coffee cups, taken from your favorite cafe
• your keys (Whitney likes these, Heather still fears)
• your cell phone with keys locked
• your hair, necklace, glasses, sweatpants drawstring, or anything else that is attached to you and can be ripped off without actually killing or disfiguring you

It seemed to take a while, but I’m proud to report that Holden now laughs like crazy. In fact, he must have a very witty internal dialog going on, because sometimes I’m really not that funny.

This weekend, he went nuts for:

• kissing face - puckered lips but only kissing the air
• raising and lowering the head and eyebrows
• blowing in his face

I told you, these things are not that funny to me, but as Whitney puts it, “hearing your baby laugh is like being a teenager in love for the first time.” And when the kid is really ROTFL, you are the most amazing person on the planet. So enjoy it before another diaper explosion hits!

I didn’t even have to bust out the fake sneeze!