by Whitney
The first year, four-month old Julian slept through the whole thing, but when he got his first taste of Easter, Julian never looked back. Since he is not actually Christian, his experience of Easter was limited to the hunting of plastic and hard-boiled eggs. And hunt he did.
It was so much fun, that I realized we should be doing this in the backyard whenever boredom strikes. The more the merrier, so this might be something to suggest when your relatives are visiting. A little fresh air is good for everyone.
So the activity of the day is to conduct an age-appropriate treasure hunt for pre-verbal toddlers.
Materials needed:
- three or four of the same object, such as golf balls, tennis balls, or plastic eggs (we use lemons).
- small gift bag
How to do it:
- Place objects in a grassy area in plain view.
- Hold a small gift bag on behalf of your little scavenger.
- Announce the hunt: “Let’s go find some golf balls!”
- Model the desired behavior: “I found a ball - now I’ll put it in the bag!”
- Help child “find” another object and place it in the bag.
- When child is not watching, take “found” object and toss it from the bag back onto the grass for more finding fun.
- Practice this exercise periodically so that when Easter rolls around next year, your toddler will be kicking butt and taking names.
by Heather
Think retainers are just for fancy folks like the legal counsel of large corporations? Well, I think if you have a wobbler or toddler at home that they’re for YOU.
Find a caring person you can trust and schedule a regular date-night. I know one family that pays their evening sitter a set amount each month and then plans enough dates to burn through the hours. That’s what I’m talking about!
Truth be told, I think the cost of a babysitter feels pretty freaking expensive when you think of what it used to cost to go see a movie and grab dinner. Or just to have a picnic and hike alone with your mate. And that’s not even factoring in a fancy dinner.
And it stings a little extra to write a check or fork over the $$ if I let myself think she may have spent the whole evening watching American Idol on TiVo while my two little angels slept peacefully… but that’s the wrong way to think about it.
The right way to think about it is to consider date-night and associated childcare a regular and essential part of each month. Budget for it like you do any other essential expense. And just hope it will save you on therapy later.
by Whitney
We know there are those people whose infants start sleeping eleven or twelve hours a night around four months old. These so-called “babies” take three daily naps at 8, 12 and 4.30. And then there are the rest of us.
At one point my moms group’s weekly discussion was so dominated by sleep that we were starting to get sick of each other, even though we needed each other so very badly, because no one else would be willing to listen to us talk with such hysteria about our child’s sleep habits.
Because it was a sensitive issue, I emailed the group ahead of time suggesting that at our next gathering, we would censor the subject unless it was a serious mental health situation that someone needed to address. I proposed a list of alternative topics that would help rejuvenate us and make us laugh during our meeting. We did this twice and it was tons of fun.
Our format was to go around in a circle and each answer the proposed alternative-to-how-is-your-baby-sleeping question Here are some conversation starters for you:
- What brought you to live here?
- Where did you go to college and what did you study?
- What were you going to name the baby if it was the opposite gender?
- Tell us about the relationship you had before you were with your partner.
These may sound basic, but when you’ve spent all of your bonding time discussing strollers and nipples, you may have left out some basic facts. Try it and let us know how it goes.
by Heather
AKA Attend a private puppet show.
Because of a little known program called InfantSEE (a public health initiative spear-headed by former President Carter), Holden’s eyes were checked for major vision problems by a nice person playing with hand puppets and shining lights in his face.
If you ask him, I think he liked it only ok, but I’m telling you that there are at least three good reasons to find a Dr. in your area and go do it:
- It’s totally free
- It’s an outing for you and baby complete with a light show, puppets, and a professional entertaining her exclusively
- And, most important, it will give you peace of mind that her eyes are developing as they should or it will set you on the path to correcting any major vision problems early!
The free program applies to babies from six months to a year in age.
So, now I guess I need to confess that I did this for Holden but didn’t get around to it for Milo… Scarlett, there’s still time for you!
