Rookie Moms

Like they say on TV, membership has it’s privileges. Both of the Bay Area children’s museums that I have been to are part of this consortium of Children’s Museums that have reciprocal memberships. This means that if you get a one-year membership at Habitot in Berkeley, for example, you can go to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito for free anytime. Also, if you travel to a place with a Children’s Museum, you are totally in.

The point, however, is not the membership. The point is that these are destinations with rooms for crawlers. Usually they have mats on the floor or different textures and large scale shapes that crawlers and young walkers can put their grubby hands on, in and through. The Discovery Museum Tot Room, for example, has at least four waterbed-type areas for babies.

If you live near one of these places, and buy a membership, consider it a mommy meet market. Go there when you and baby are feeling lonely, let down your hair, and have a juice box or two.

Sometimes young babies make annoyingly weird faces when you’re trying to take a picture to prove to the world how cute they really are.

In the first couple months, I found that Julian was actually a very good model while he slept. He didn’t cry or cross his eyes or make a rooting face. He was peaceful and pleasant and I’m glad I captured it on film. I ended up using a sleeping photo for our holiday card.

How to do it:

• Locate a well lit corner of your house
• Place unswaddled baby on solid colored piece of fabric, such as sheet, blanket or pillow case
• Stand above baby looking down to shoot picture
• For best results, do not use zoom or flash– move camera or lighting instead

I have a soft spot for this contest entry from Damselfly because I played Mary at the church Christmas pageant for several years (although always with a doll… and always as a distracted teenager) and I think it’s pretty darn fun to ride donkeys too (that’s a story for another day)!

The holiday season is here, along with a great opportunity for your family to be part of a re-enactment. For example, many churches celebrate Christmas with re-enactments of the manger scene, complete with a Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph). If your bambino is small enough, your family might be just what a local church is looking for in a baby Jesus.

When a friend’s friend was looking for a young baby to be Jesus in a recent portrayal of the first Christmas (yes, it was a few months early), she asked my family because our son was around one month old. The re-enactment crew dressed us up in ancient-looking clothes — and as Mary, I got to ride a live donkey! All eyes were on our baby as people came and looked ahead to the holiday season. The photos will be fun to share with our son when he’s older.

She suggests that for the rest of the year, we should be on the lookout for local groups that participate in war re-enactments or other historical event that have local significance.

Don’t forget to take lots of photos — that’s the cardinal rule whenever costumes are involved. Thanks Damselfly!

Take a photo of your baby looking at himself in the mirror. You will not want to use a flash, so open all the blinds to fill the room with natural light.

Stand behind him and try to get both the real baby and the mirror image baby in the frame of your photo.