These days, every time I open the front door to reveal our busy street, Julian asks, “Where fiyah twuck is?”
“I don’t know,” I usually lie.
But the truth is, I know exactly where a fire truck is. In fact I just realized that we have an hour to kill between when he wakes up and when we need to be home to interview a new babysitter, so if I was just a little motivated, I could walk us 13 blocks to the fire station and let him see the darn thing up close and personal. Write that down on your list of “Five Places To Go When Being In The House Has Lost Its Charm.” Single moms, I think this is a worthwhile outing for you, too
More anecdotal evidence that this is a worthwhile activity: Sharon reports that she was visiting a friend with a toddler and they were unable to have a conversation. Her friend asked if she minded taking a drive. They put the kid in the car and drove to a construction site and proceeded to have their adult conversation in peace while the little boy focused on the diggers and backhoes.
Last week, I received a baby announcement for a baby born the week prior. No lie. Even more shocking, that little lady was born 5 WEEKS EARLY, so its not as if she was living in there an extra ten days and Mommy got bored enough to pick out announcements and address envelopes.
If you haven’t gotten around to it already, find a cute picture of the littlest member of your family and send out birth announcements.
From Anne at Sassy Baby Designs, here are a few tips for finding your “inner Anne Geddes” and getting a great announcement-worthy photo:
Go to the craft store and buy a yard or two of black velvet. It is an easy and inexpensive backdrop - no sewing needed.
Make sure the baby (and you) are rested, fed and watered. Everything goes smoothly with a happy baby and mommy. A sleeping baby is more patient than an awake baby and the photos are great.
Dress your baby in neutral colors, but naked babies are always precious.
Turn off the flash and place your baby by a window. Natural light makes for a beautiful photo.
Here are a few different options for showcasing the picture:
To save money, we made our announcements using striped card stock and our printer.
To save time, for baby #2, I’m hoping to order these announcements from Sassy Baby Designs when I can find a minute to do it.
To split the difference, photo sites like Ofoto are somewhere in the middle for both ease and price.
The movie poster-style announcement above is available to order from 5starbaby.com with your baby’s picture and vital stats. Hella cute.
Get a video camera [or use your digital camera] and record what your kids are doing (both happy and sad moments). Watch the clips together. It’s fun to see their expressions seeing themselves on TV.
I totally agree with this. Holden frequently asks me to “make a movie” because he loves to watch himself doing whatever. He still saves his cutest observations, songs, and dances for when the camera is not rolling.
A few variations on this toddler activity that have been successful in our house:
Sleep study. Figure out what’s going on when you leave the room. When Holden was about four months old and he would end up at far corners of the crib and we had no idea how he got there, we decided to set up a time-lapse video camera. Alec and I recorded eight hours of footage that plays back in eight minutes. Funny stuff (only to parents, I’m sure).
Just about to hit the milestone. We all want to have the cameras rolling for the first roll, crawl, step, or word but unless the camera is always running, that’s highly unlikely. Toddler Holden likes to cheer on the video of baby Holden almost crawling. The suspense gets him every time.
Baby friends. One of the few videos that we every pieced together involved Holden and his other little baby friends swinging and kicking like babies do. Give it a soundtrack and share it with the world via YouTube or Jalapenyo.
Later you can entertain your partner with the day’s events or keep your toddler busy watching and re-watching their own antics. Does this count as TV watching? I don’t think so.
This idea was plucked from the list of 70 Toddler activities and games on ParentWonder.com (they also have a bunch that are already on our site as well as some good ideas for older kids).
I’m delighted to report that a healthy baby, Scarlett Lake, has joined the Rookie family as of this morning. Yep, a girl. A tiny little girl. I haven’t met her yet, but I heard she has a full head of dark hair.
Ryan called us at 7 am to report that they weren’t going to join us for breakfast because they would be having a baby instead.
I took this picture on Monday while everyone was enjoying some downtime — cuz you know how fun that ninth month of pregnancy is; from left: Holden, Whitney, (Scarlett,) Julian, Milo.
If you want to send her a message, use whitney @ rookiemoms.com. If you want to send her something in the mail, send me a message at heather @ rookiemoms.com and I will provide her address.
But the truth is, I know exactly where a fire truck is. In fact I just realized that we have an hour to kill between when he wakes up and when we need to be home to interview a new babysitter, so if I was just a little motivated, I could walk us 13 blocks to the fire station and let him see the darn thing up close and personal. Write that down on your list of “Five Places To Go When Being In The House Has Lost Its Charm.” Single moms, I think this is a worthwhile outing for you, too 
Born on the Fourth of July. 
