by Heather
The only thing missing from this idea is the description of how I’m blissfully catching a few minutes on the laptop or drinking a cocoa while this is all going on.
I love the toddler and preschooler games where I can sit in one place and still participate like if I’m the toll collector while the boys go around and around the living room with push cars. Or when Holden jumps off the yellow chair into pillows and my job is o catch the mid-air leap on camera. Or better yet, if my arched legs are the tunnel or my exhausted body is the “mountain”.
Check out this adorable way to keep the little ones active while you cheer them on: hopscotch indoors! You just need some tape. Thanks ohdeedoh!
by Heather
I snagged this inspiration from Cathy at Not Eating Out in New York and my husband Alec who responded to my demand of “dinner must be on the table by 6:00″ with impromptu turkey quesadillas and root vegetables. It’s time to mix it up and make do with what’s on hand and call it dinner.
She offers tips for eating in when you’d rather just eat out (or grab carry-out): 5 tips for not eating out.
I have great intentions of easing up on the eating out. I know that if I can pack my own lunch each day at work, I’ll have more money left to spend on my relentless hot chocolate habit (that’s win-win, right?). I sometimes remember to schedule my freezer full of leftovers, but I’m downright terrible at using my pantry of odds and ends like the “savings account” it is.
Do you and your baby live walking distance to grocery stores?
- If so, you can make a walk to the market your daily outing. Go at 3:00 each day.
- If not, load your baby into the car every couple days and stock up.
See tips on grocery shopping with cart and meal planning. 
Need more inspiration? Check out Cathy’s reason of the month. This site also has some fun dinner party at home ideas, which I love.
Let us know the best or worst meal you’ve concocted once you’ve declared it dinner time and belted the baby into his highchair before deciding what to cook! Or am I the only one who turns to scrambled eggs at least one night a week?
by Heather
A fun suggestion from our friend and fellow rookie mom, Rosa, is to pack yourself up and head into the city for a museum outing. Assume you go to a cocktail party sometime soon. When someone asks what you do, instead of mumbling about maternity leave or bursting into tears when you think about how you can’t drink much because you have to nurse every 3 hours and wake up at 6 am, change the subject and say “Have you seen the Rothko show?”
Many museums waive admission fees on the first Tuesday of the month. Make that your big day.
Rosa reports that SFMoMa was a successful outing. “Both babies were intrigued by the colorful modernist paintings and sculptures,” she brags. “Mommies get to chat and enjoy the art too.”
For our Bay Area mommas, she suggests that you arrive late morning to San Francisco and use the Nordstrom mother’s lounge as home base. There is a great changing/nursing area for comfort and privacy. You can lunch in the mall’s basement food court, Sony Metreon or if the weather permits, eat outside in Yerba Buena Gardens.
Becky in Boston said that her baby Nick was a trooper at the Museum of Fine Arts. “He was patient. After lunch he nursed and went to sleep in the stroller, I pushed him around and looked at art, when he awoke, we looked at art together - I was amazed at what a great day we had together.”
I took Holden to the BAM/PFA here in Berkeley with some other mommy friends and he enjoyed it a lot (which means no screaming fits — yay!). We ate a nice lunch at the little cafe and negotiated tables, strollers, nursing, and crowds. Parking was kind of a pain. Seriously folks, what do you do when someone parks too close to your car and you have a bucket car seat baby with you?!
by Heather
As I stare down the gun barrel of being alone with one toddler and one newborn while my beloved husband returns to work, I simply don’t know how we’re going to eat dinner anymore. But I think I have it covered for at least one night a week.
I’m going to declare next Monday (and all Mondays forever into the future) Crock Pot Night.
On Sunday, when we’re having our regularly scheduled family time and Holden is napping, we will choose a meal from Not Your Mothers Slow Cooker Cookbook and chop our vegetables. On Monday morning, I will throw everything into the crock pot at some moment of leisure (or during several stolen fragments of moments) and let the food just stew until dinner time. Voila!
If all goes well, Monday’s dinner will be hot and edible and the rest of the week we will have delicious leftovers for lunches. Also in this fantasy, Holden will happily eat what we eat and stop spilling his big-boy cup on purpose.
