by Whitney
We had a board book that I didn’t like too much. The illustrations were too wishy washy and there were too many words. We also had a board book that I loved, by Todd Parr, called This is My Hair. Bold illustrations and simple text. Plus funny. I decided I wanted the first book to be more like the second book. Plus I needed a Father’s Day gift for my husband.
So, I painted over the cover of the book, put stickers on it and pasted all sorts of stuff on the inside. The main theme was “This is my dad”. I made a cartoon-like image of my husband’s head and copied enough of them for each page of the book. Then I pasted it over various environments that I cut out of magazines. I hand wrote the captions. I did not worry about letting the original contents of the book show through. It was obviously hand-made.
I think it looks really messy and amaturish, but visitors to our house seemed to be very impressed. So, I share this idea with you so that you can impress your own visitors. Feel free to copy my ideas exactly.
Apparently there is a whole art form called altered books, where people collage on the pages of regular books. They make some amazing stuff. My version is less than amazing, but it is a board book that my son and husband read together - and it’s made by me.
by Heather
Put away the maternity pants and take yourself out to Old Navy to get some interim jeans to make you feel normal. Go with a girlfriend you trust. Don’t look at the size, just find something flattering and comfortable.
DO NOT THINK ABOUT OR TALK ABOUT THE WEIGHT YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE IN THE FUTURE. Buy jeans to wear this week. When the day comes, you can put these in storage for the next time around, give them to a friend who is a few months behind you, or wear them when you paint that mural you’ve been talking about.
Related rant: Is that #3 in there?!
by Heather
We’re not so big into TV at our houses but as our babies turn into toddlers, you will find our sets tuned into the odd Wonder Pets, Signing Time, or Sesame Street at various times throughout the day.
So as we struggle with new babies and clever little toddlers and our creativity is starting to flounder a little bit, our pal, Karen, sent us this awesome list of how to entertain your two-year-old with no TV from No Impact Man. Here is a little excerpt:
We stomp the laundry in the bathtub together. “I’m splashing with my feet,” Isabella says.
We wash the dishes together. “You need my help, Daddy?”
We roughhouse on the bed together.
We ride aimlessly around on the No Impact Mobile (our tricycle with a back seat for Isabella), seeing what we can see and singing This Old Man if it’s sunny and The Old Man is Snoring if it’s raining.
We bang things really loud.
If Michelle isn’t there, we tell her things all the same and wonder if she can hear us in her mind.
We practice seeing who can scream the loudest.
I love this list because the activities are free/cheap; they do without not only TV but also other annoying toys; they get the parent to have fun like a kid; and they’re just so Daddish.
More ideas on how No Impact Man entertains Isabella without TV
by Whitney
Last year, Lynnette from Rebellin.net gave us the idea to start a collection of photos using baby as a prop to demonstrate all the What Not To Dos. I remembered this suggestion this morning as I laughed at the fact that my second child is asleep in her Pack and Play, swaddled tightly, but surrounded by loose extra blankets, burp cloths and a stuffed animal or two. We never would have allowed such lax safety measures with our first baby. Lynette explains:
One of the keys of surviving as a rookie mom is to have a sense of humor about the whole motherhood experience. My husband and I often relax after dinner with a glass of wine, and find that our daughter is mesmerized by wine glasses. My husband, a wanna-be wino, likes to swirl the wine above her head, talking to her about the color, and then offer her the glass to smell the “nose” of the wine. She has recently started reaching for the wine glass with glee, and we just had to document it because it looks so darn funny. (Don’t worry, she hasn’t had a taste of wine yet!)
If you have any photos that fit this category, add “rookiemoms” to the tags on Flickr so we can all enjoy. I’m thinking of putting Julian behind the wheel of the car…
