From the monthly archives:

June 2008

Activity #572: Do the chicken dance

by Whitney

Sometimes a baby just must be worn. I have a distinct memory of marching up and down my stairs with Julian in my arms, just to get him to stop crying and relax. If I had been smarter, or hadn’t just blown all my brain cells giving birth, I might have just worn him and saved my arms the trouble. And, now as a sophomore mom, if Scarlett wasn’t already trained to nap in her crib so well (yes, I am the best parent ever), I’d probably be stair climbing right now instead of typing at the computer.

I recently met Darcy, a woman who had the same experience as a new mom. She, being a dancer, had a solution that was less monotonous than a staircase. She danced. She soothed her baby to sleep while getting her own heart rate up and toning muscles. Call it overachieving, or call it crafty, but I have to give her a (virtual) high five for figuring out how to get something for herself out of a marathon soothing session.

If you are like me, you are not going to do this yourself. You might need someone to boss you around, er, I mean guide you. And Darcy put her work out on a video, so now you have it. It’s called Chicks-n-Chickens Lullaby Exercises and the DVD shows a room full of baby-wearing women getting a workout.

No time for the gym? Restless baby? Here you go.

What do you think? Would you try it? Does your baby demand to be worn?

Activity #571: Parade about town with pride

by Whitney

You city mamas probably already know that it’s Pride Weekend season. That is Gay Pride for those who are not familiar with this most fabulous event. The family-friendly folks who march with their kids in San Francisco have invited us (anyone who wants) to join them, and I’m thinking it sounds like a good idea for my little dude. He knows what a parade is, and I’m thinking when I inform him that he can actually BE IN THE PARADE, he might go crazy with excitement. And more, he can wear a funny hat and ride his tricycle if he wants. And, more, it’s all about being proud of who you are, and my son is all about that. Proud that he pooped in the potty, proud of his sister for eating watermelon. He shares generous doses of pride with us all the time, so this seems like a good event for him.

I posted some of the details on East Bay SavvySource for my local peeps, but it’s Pride weekend in a few other cities, I think.

(photo of our friends Norrie and Angela courtesy of Mama Isobel)

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Activity #569: End the playdate before it begins

by Whitney

An editor from Parents magazine called me recently and asked “What’s the perfect playdate?” Since I have focused so much on the ideologies of this site (and it’s companion book), I wanted to immediately respond, “One where the moms are having fun.” But no, she was interested in more of what Parents magazine readers want to (tell themselves they like to) read, so the follow up questions were more about what the children should be doing. What time is ideal? What should the host do if the guest child acts out? Tattle when her mom arrives? Discipline her?

For me, and probably for most readers of this site, these questions are a little hard to field. We are still playdate rookies, really. We haven’t had much experience with the drop off playdate.

Since Heather has recently complimented me on my ability to set boundaries, I thought I’d share a related tip with you. If you are hosting someone, whether it’s a whole family for dinner, or a mom/kid duo for play, be clear when you make the plans about what time you need them to leave. It is completely reasonable to want your guests to depart so that you can make dinner, get to the gym, return phone calls, or get to SLEEP if you have a baby who DOESN’T!

Today in fact, I need to be using Scarlett’s naptime to work, so I told our playdate that I knew she couldn’t get to our house before 11 am, but I really had to put Scarlett down at 1 pm so I could work for 2 hours before picking up Julian. If I don’t do this, my playdate is on her own schedule, and if her kid doesn’t need to nap until 2.30, she might lollygag at my house, leaving me with only one hour free before I go on full mommy duty with both kids, inadvertently stressing me out. So, take a lesson from me. When you invite someone over for a playdate (even if it’s just a pretend playdate for the mommies to talk while the babies sit in their infant seats) say, “We can’t wait to see you. I can hang out until 3 pm and then I need to do other things.”

Oh, and a bonus tip for preschool playdate havers - meet at the park so that no one has to host, feed everyone, clean up, etc.

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Activity #566: Save the drama for your camera

by Whitney

I never thought I’d be great at boy stuff, you know the sports and trucks and stuff, but I’m doing pretty good as a boy mom. I can get into pretty much anything Julian is interested in and have more fun with it than I ever imagined. So far.

Recently there’s been a lot of talk from him about good guys and bad guys. Not sure he really knows what he means by this, but he says he’s gonna put the bad guys in jail. So maybe he’s headed for a career in law enforcement.

I took him outside today and asked him to show me a good guy and a bad guy so I could take a picture of each one. He also posed for me as “excited”, “sleeping”, “mad” and “fwustewated”. It was super fun and he loved looking at the pictures and repeating which emotion he was acting out.

I’m sure there’s something educational about doing this as well, but mostly it just gave us a few minutes to bond and laugh.