Rookie Moms

This has got to be one of the fastest projects I’ve ever done. And this time, I made it for myself. Well, for my new baby; however, since babies don’t know what they’re wearing, it’s truly for me.

In short, the instructions go like this: cut a front and back of a hat from the bottom portion of a t-shirt and sew them together.

For those who need more details than that, here’s the tutorial.

1. Select an appropriate shirt. (This one is going to be too tight for me for longer than I care to think about.)

2. Fold shirt in half length-wise to save cutting time. If your scissors are poor, you might not be able to do this. Outline half of a bunny-rabbit head shape along the fold. The bottom hem will become the hem of your hat. You want the hem to be about 7″ wide, so 3.5″ from the fold ought to do it.

3. Cut along the line you’ve drawn and see what you’ve got. This is the front and back of your hat.

4. Pin the right sides together and sew. Perfect symmetry is not critical because you will be tying the rabbit ears into a knot.

5. After sewing, turn right side out and you are done! For a super-cute gift, make a matching pair of pants out of the sleeves of the same shirt. (Tutorial coming another day :-)) And, of course, a little zig-zag stitch along the bottom would be a nice touch.

If you make this, please post to flickr with a tag for rookiemoms! We want to see!

Tomorrow night (April 30, 2008) from 5-10 pm is “$0.31 Scoop Night” at Baskin Robbins, and sadly I am way overthinking whether or not our readers will be interested in this. Why? Because I am immersed in anti-sugar parenting trends, and my friends who do treat their toddlers to ice cream go to fancy pants stores where organic milk is coupled with seasonal fruit and all natural ingredients to produce gourmet ice cream. I’m not kidding.

So when I’m offered dirt-cheap ice cream and an outing that will surely make my 3 year-old three and a half year old (whose half-birthday is today, so clearly we should be celebrating all week) jump for joy, and I feel guilty instead of delighted, I have to remind myself “don’t be an idiot”. Moms and preschoolers deserve ice cream.

And if your baby is too young for ice cream, like seven weeks old, or not even born yet, then you really have no excuse to not hit the local B&R. Place baby in sling and go inside and spend $0.31.

Taking the baby in the pool is both scary and funny.

If you are alone, think carefully through the logistics of how you are going to change your clothes, change baby, get in the pool, get out of the pool, get on dry stuff and get back in the car. You are not as smart as you used to be and you will probably mess up part of this process and end up walking out to your car in just a bra and towel holding your baby in one arm and a diaper between your teeth. Let me just help you out: Take your stroller with you into the dressing room. That way you have someplace to put the baby, towels, wet bathingsuits and diaper bag while you get dry yourself.

In El Cerrito, there is a beautiful saline community pool and we take the babies in to splash around during family swim. At Berkeley High, there’s a warm pool reserved for seniors and babies. Friday afternoon there’s a drop in class for $4.50. Check the PDFs linked from this page for details.

Here’s a list of all the San Francisco public pools… only $3.

This is also a fun activity for a very pregnant friend.

The last baby shower I went to, I bought up all the medicine cabinet necessities from our “dream baby registry” and put them in a multi-purpose laundry basket. Useful: yes. Adorable: not really.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never seen a diaper cake in real life. After reading about how to make this cool boozy diaper cake on alphamom, I’m sad I’ve missed out on this ritual and I hope I get a chance to build one soon.

If you’re looking for a clever shower gift that will totally impress people and be hecka useful, I suggest this (and the Rookie Mom’s Handbook of course!).

Ingredients:

• Bottle of champagne (or 6 bottles of Guinness)
• Serving platter or heavy cardboard
• Size one diapers, it’s the filling of your cake
• A whole bag of elastic bands
• White tissue paper
• Fancy decorative ribbon

For the instructions, you must read the whole photographed tutorial on Alphamom, I can’t do it justice!