by Heather
When my husband had to be gone for six whole nights on business, I panicked and called in my smartest mom friends for advice. They said lots of reasonable stuff about lowering my expectations, keeping it simple, and making plans to keep from going stir crazy. This tip came from my friend Molly — a mom of two, and thus an expert:
Think about one thing you might do if it were just you on your own, or perhaps if you were going to play host to a dear friend who you rarely see and wanted to impress. Visit a museum with an important art show? Take a drive to a beautiful place and go for a hike to see the magnificent view? Go to a cafe and chat with the strangers at the tables nearby just to feel the buzz of the city?
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by Heather
Or “get smarter”
I found this list of 100 words Every High School Graduate Should Know and I felt a little stoopid. Apparently, it is quite normal to not know all the words (despite the title of the list) but rather something to aspire to.
I’m printing out the list and trying to learn a couple here and there. My computer has a dictionary, after all, and I spend enough time here.
The editors of the American Heritage® dictionaries have compiled a list of 100 words they recommend every high school graduate should know.
“The words we suggest,” says senior editor Steven Kleinedler, “are not meant to be exhaustive but are a benchmark against which graduates and their parents can measure themselves. If you are able to use these words correctly, you are likely to have a superior command of the language.”
In an effort to set your kid on the right path, RookieMoms is featuring these SATees, tiny t-shirts with sophisticated vocab words, and giving one away to a lucky subscriber on June 15.
As modeled by the lovely little Finn and as seen on Cool Mom Picks.
The fine print: we send out newsletters to our subscribers about once a month when we remember. It’s no big whoop. And we don’t sell your names to anyone; we wouldn’t know how.
by Whitney
Look at my son. He is such a baby supermodel! Look at him!
Although I am usually opposed to studio photography, there is something about it that’s easy to look at. I guess that’s why our parents took us to Kmart for portraits all those years.
Your assignment: Take advantage of the free 8×10 portrait offered by the Picture People company on their website. Their style of photography is a step up from the Kmart photos we grew up with. Cheesy or adorable - there is a fine line. And when it comes to your own baby, I’m guessing you’ll side with “adorable”. These Picture People stores are found in malls (high class, I know) and you’ll have to use their store locator to find out if this is a feasible spur of the moment outing.
My professional advice (and yes, I am actually qualified to give this) is to have your baby wear something timeless such as a solid colored onesie and jeans or overalls. The more skin you show, the better. Bare feet and bare arms make baby photography even more irresistable. Jeans + Bare Feet = One Cute Picture. And don’t forget to take a couple of pictures with you in it, even if you think you have bad hair, are fat or unworthy. You are her mother, and you are beautiful. She will definitely want the photos later in life, when she’s done hating you.
Make a deal with yourself that you will not buy more of the pictures than the free one. You might be embarassed to leave the place with only your single enormous free picture, but that’s the only way we can keep this activity in the free/cheap category.
by Heather
My friend Linda turned me on to this idea and I really don’t know how I didn’t think of this myself… I came oh-so-close to it. This was me:
- Why does Holden cry when I need my keys for driving?
- How come the plastic keys just aren’t doing it?
- Gee, where can I get a set of really good fake keys?
- I need to throw away some of these keys that I don’t know what they open
And then like magic today, I learned that baby Amalia also loves keys and she is just as happy with her “fake set” of real keys from the hardware store (duh!). Since she is especially fond of the car keys, her folks got her some uncut (thus safer) car-style keys to round out the set. Genius.
Whitney has other good fakie fake ideas not involving a trip to the hardware store.
