August 2008

Years ago, I went to a silly “roll your own” sushi and head-shaving party hosted by some people I barely knew. I dragged my sister, Meggan, along to keep me company and we enjoyed the general mayhem of the theme.

Rolling your own sushi is quite easy if you have all the ingredients. So, that’s the big trick, assemble the right stuff before you drag your preschooler along to play with you.

1. nori (seaweed) wrapping “paper” (available at grocery stores with an ethnic foods aisle)
2. room temp white sticky rice (less than a cup) — plain is good because the nori is salty
3. filling like strips of cucumber or avocado, and cream cheese if your kid likes that

I am blessed to have leftover rice in the fridge most of the time. If you have a rice cooker — I do not — set it and forget it and then go shave each other’s heads (I’m kidding!) while you wait. Or make it the old fashioned way. In any case, make sure it has time to cool well.

Once you’ve assembled the ingredients, let your kiddo scoop out one or two spoonfuls of rice onto the nori sheets and lay out any desired filling before rolling a genuine hand roll.

For more detailed instructions and inspiration on kid sushi, check out Being Savvy: Honolulu. Thanks Julie!

Heather and I went to the BlogHer ‘08 conference this year and I must say that my single biggest takeaway was that Twitter is the next big thing. That very day, I became an addict, installing Twitterberry on my phone and looking at the tiny messages people are posting all day long.

Access it on the web, on your phone, or download a little IM-type program that accepts and displays your tweets. Asha convinced me that Twitter is like being in a coffee shop where you are overhearing a stream of conversation, except that this conversation is one you have opted-in to. You select who you “follow”, from friends to strangers or even non-people. (I follow my local pizza joint to find out what their flavor of the day is. Brilliant!)

On ParentHacks.com, I read the idea to use Twitter as a baby book, documenting milestones as they happen. So, when Scarlett took her first steps at Barnes & Noble on Monday, I looked around to see whose hands I could hug and celebrate with, and when I saw nobody, I turned to my phone. First, I texted my husband and then Twittered her accomplishment. To a bunch of people I barely know (and a small handful that I do know.)

What would be even more interesting for me is if more of my real life friends were on Twitter so that I could have the experience that Bill Braine described at my lunch table at BlogHer: he posted via Twitter that he was at JFK (maybe another airport, some airport regardless) and immediately learned that he had two other friends at that airport. How fun!

These thoughts and more resulted in this list in my head of why I want to introduce more new moms to Twitter.

Five reasons to Twitter for new moms

1. Stay cool. Don’t get stuck in a previous generation! Continue to adopt new technologies or you’ll be as lost as your parents are.
2. Spontaneous meet ups. Get your whole mom’s group on Twitter and keep each other posted on what park you’re headed for, or where you want to get coffee.
3. Documentation. Note some baby milestones and you’ll have an electronic journal of the early days. See Asha’s article for more details.
4. Expression. Have a place to spout off all the little thoughts that pop into your head.
5. Companionship. Even if you are home with a baby all day, you can “hear” the chatter of others and experience their activities, too.

Need someone to follow? Start with us: http://www.twitter.com/rookiemoms

An enthusiastic reader of this site and our book, Sam, who lives North of the border and blogs at temporarilyme.com, is hosting a weekly challenge on her site.

She has acknowledged that being a new mom of two is just as intimidating as being a rookie when it comes to getting out of the house.

She’s helped me look at The Rookie Mom’s Handbook with fresh eyes, actually. I always explain to people that you never get to do your rookie year over again. When you have your second child, you don’t have the long, empty days that need filling. You are busy dealing with the logistics of the first child and there is far less down time. However, now I totally get that we are all rookies with two. It’s our first time getting out of the house with two kids. Taking two kids to the grocery store. Getting two kids to a playdate at the park. And most challenging of all, staying home with two kids alllllll day long.

Sam wants to do more with her two kids, so she’s signed herself up to do three activities from The Rookie Mom’s Handbook each week and invites readers to join her.

She has picked three specific things to do this week, wants you to pick one to do, photograph yourself doing it, and then post your links on her site. There’s a badge to go with “the program” too.

Go visit her, pick an activity for this week, and report back pronto.