January 2006

This is a fun idea for faraway grandparents… send a personalized thank you card with baby wearing or using the actual gift.

My mom gave Holden a fantastic jogging stroller sent directly to his house in Berkeley so she never got to see him locked, loaded, and loving it. We took lots of pictures and, to further show our gratitude, Holden wrote her a personal note.

CardStore.com allows you to create custom postcards or folding cards and even mails them for you so it won’t just sit around your house waiting to get mailed until it’s embarrassingly too late to send!

This technique has the added bonus that if you write the note from baby’s perspective…

Dear Gramma,
This stroller rocks. My daddy loves it. And mommy loves for us to leave for a while.
Love, Baby

So, it doesn’t have to be quite as eloquent. Please don’t tell on me.

Can she do anything particularly interesting that your adult body can’t do?

Photograph your baby sucking her toes or sitting in the sink for a bath.

I guess there are a few versions of this (a quick Google search confirmed for me), but the way I play with Holden is great for babies from 5 months to 8 months old:

1. Baby lays on his back
2. Smiling mommy sings and does silly motions on baby’s body
   • The wheels on the bus go round and round (bicycle his legs)
   • The seats on the bus go bump, bump, bump (lift and lower legs so his bottom thumps the floor — Holden’s favorite)
   • The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish (make baby’s legs into swishing wipers — Holden’s second favorite)
   • The lights on the bus go blink, blink, blink (blink fingers with hands opening and closing on baby’s chest — hilarious)
   • The driver on the bus says “get on back” (stretch baby’s arms above head like “soo big” — Holden’s least favorite)
   • The babies on the bus go “giggle, giggle, giggle” (tickle baby)
3. Rinse and repeat as needed.