Rookie Moms

In honor of TV Turnoff Week, I invite you to, well, turn off your dang TV. Step away from the remote control. After a hard day of dealing with a newborn, the easiest thing is to sit there and zone out in front of TV. Believe me, I know. Alec and I would just flop there, watch some light happy fare in short 22 minute increments and plod off to bed.

Twice, we instituted a no-TV-week policy, and it was fabulous! What did we do? We talked, played games, cooked, got our finances in order, rested when we were tired, and miraculously accomplished 70% of our to-do lists. It was good.

And because of TiVo, we didn’t really miss our favorite shows and spent the next week catching up. We’re not perfect or anything. If you want ideas of what to do with baby, search this site by age or activity-type.

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Last year, when I joined TV turnoff week, I was working part-time so that’s a good part of the day to not be tempted by the telly. Now that I have a newborn again, it’s so tempting to sit and watch Sex and the City reruns while nursing. Another temptation is to turn on the Wonder Pets as an easy distraction for Holden while nursing said newborn.

So far today, I’ve kept busy by working on my list of 101 things, starting Miss Poppy’s Guide to Raising Perfectly Happy Children, finishing The Tortilla Curtain, and drawing trains with Holden.

Wish me luck! I’m off to play Carcassonne and try to avoid Heroes.

Assuming that my current pregnancy is our final child, we recently went through our stored baby boy clothes, pulling out the ones that can be worn by our baby-girl-to-be, donating the majority, and saving five or six items that I can’t bear to part with. Predictably, those extra special clothes are still on top of my spare dresser because I’m not really sure where they go.

Now I see this great idea from WonderTime magazine’s blog (via Apartment Therapy). Cut a small sample of the fabric and keep the swatch in a memory book, ideally next to a photo of the baby wearing the item.

I’m torn. it would look really cute, but then we can’t enjoy the size and shape of the clothes when he’s an adult. Or, his wife can’t. (Secret fantasy: one day a baby grandson could wear these clothes– not that I have put one single thing on my son that my husband wore as a baby, and we have a similar hand-me-down-a-generation bag to choose from. It just seems that 1973 didn’t produce very soft fabrics.) I’ll let you know what I decide.

The cool chicks at Cool Mom Picks have put together a Mother’s Day gift guide. But I want to know what you guys wish for. It can be material (I want a necklace like the one pictured from smallthingsdesigns.com) or non-material (I want a massage at a spa, too. Oh, and banana pancakes in bed. And for my living room to be magically painted stone grey.)

Heather wants to only do the fun mothering things with no diapers or dishes. And to have a necklace with both boys names and/or baby faces. And to eat brunch at Bette’s with no waiting.

What do you want?

Earth Day is April 22 so I got to thinking of all the earth-friendly and baby-friendly activities… here’s a round-up:

• Stop driving and run or walk your errands
• Hit the farmer’s market and make some organic baby food (speaking of organic food, here’s a poorly constructed website about that very topic: www.organicearthday.org)
• Take a hike or just a sensory tour of the neighborhood
• Save energy by wrapping up with baby to stay warm
• Hydrate yourself and Breast feed (that’s what I’ll be doing!)

Any other bright ideas? Please share ‘em with us!!