by Whitney
When the baby is in a good mood (or better, sleeping!), scope out the “safe places” at your local shopping destinations where you can feed and change your baby. This will allow you to get out of the house every day and know that you don’t have to race against the clock to get back home. I like the children’s area of any bookstore. Find a quiet corner and a tiny chair, and pull out your boob or bottle.
Whitney-and-Heather-approved safe places in the Bay Area:
- Nordstrom Women’s Lounge in SF, Walnut Creek and Palo Alto have places especially for feeding and changing. Plus lots of nice old ladies who can watch your stuff or even your baby while you use the bathroom.
- 4th street: This Little Piggy has a chair where you can nurse (for the true newbie; you may not believe us now, but in another month, you’ll be out on the street where there are tons of public nursers. Once you’re comfy, you can join the party) The ladies in Benefit will probably let you use one of the waxing beds as a changing table. They may wear a ton of makeup, but they are actually mostly moms themselves.
- Bay Street: My friend Sunny says she spent a large part of her maternity leave at California Pizza Kitchen. It is not crowded during the week and you can get a big booth where all your stuff can fit. Bay Street also has Barnes & Noble with a cafe area and a kids section.
- Upper Shattuck: Waddle and Swaddle, a baby store, has an entire room for moms to nurse, drink water or tea (complimentary) and change their babies. You can stay as long as you like. The woman who runs it is a doula and can answer lots of questions for you. Elephant Pharmacy has chairs in the reading area.
By the end of month two, you’ll probably have your own favorite places. Come back and tell us what they are.
illustration by Amy Saidens
by Heather
I guess this is just advanced peek-a-boo, but we’re filling afternoons with it in my house! It goes like this:
Either I crawl on the other side of the couch from Milo calling out, “where’s Mommy?” and wait for him to find me, or he toddles away and I call out “where’s Milo?” and whoever’s hiding gets found.
He LOVES this. And I have delusions of this activity being helpful when we’re out and about because he’ll stop in his tracks whenever I’m calling out, “Where’s [insert your name here]?”… but maybe instead, he’ll hide beneath the clothing racks or bookcases where I’ll never find him. Stay tuned.
by Whitney
When I saw this on girl with fabric’s website, I immediately asked to borrow the idea. Turns out she saw a variation of it on Ohdeedoh, but either way, I think there are countless creative ways to riff on this idea.
You might set it up as a nursery decoration - the alphabet in it’s entirety - as fabric girl has done.
Or, make it an ongoing project to work on with your preschooler - whenever you’re out and about or on a special vacation, finding a letter to add to your letter collection would be a little thrill. Any reason to take Julian to thrift stores is exciting for me, and we have a bunch of awesome salvage stores around here that sell old signs. Surely a good place for us to start.
If you want to just do the whole thing upfront, you’ll probably have to buy and decorate some letters yourself. Fabric girl used mod-podge and papers. I might try fabric. Other ideas?
by Heather
Ahh, yes the laundry. It plagues me to the point where last night Alec was out with friends and all I wanted to do was to curl up with a movie and a beer and fold laundry after the boys were in bed.
So, what’s the activity? Where’s the fun that makes mommy happy and keeps the kid busy? Well, if you can get your preschooler to load up your washing machine (even if it’s one sock at a time), and then load up the dryer, you will not only have a free hand to drink your coffee, but you are also helping their Proprioceptive Development!
Loading and unloading the washer and dryer is #27 of 99 sensory activities on MommyPoppins.com. This list was created by Occupational Therapist Casey Halper to help kids with sensory integration issues, but I find that it’s an excellent list to review when you’re in need of ideas to tucker out a revved-up child.
Sensory activities fall into different categories. Perhaps the most useful one for self-regulation is Proprioceptive Input. That’s a fancy word for “heavy work” that engages your joints. These activities make you feel grounded and can be calming for a high-running child or invigorating for a low-running kid.
Refer to this list and see what other heavy lifting you can get out of your three year old!
A couple weeks ago, I learned that Wedding Anniversary #4 is the “appliance anniversary” so I’m also pleased and slightly embarrassed to report that we got a new dryer and I Love It! Holden likes that he can watch things spin around and I like that the laundry basket now fits under the swinging door.
Many of the activities on the list of 99 were excerpted from Raising a Sensory Smart Child.
