Crafty

With over 100 million iPods sold as of this month, I figure most of you have one. If you have a Nano or a regular iPod (not a Shuffle) you can put pictures of your baby on your iPod and eliminate the need to carry photos. Trust me, on your iPod, photos look 80 billion times better than on your phone.

So here’s the tutorial. If you already know this, just move along, geek. I just thought I’d share because it seems to me that a large percentage of baby-owners are also digital picture-takers and iPod-listeners, and that sadly, very few pictures actually make it off of the camera.

Prerequisite: You need to be organizing your pictures in some logical way on your computer. At my house, each folder is marked with the month and year. Ideally, you do not keep every single shot you take. If you do, then you’ll want to create a new folder of just the photos you want on your iPod.

1. Open iTunes
2. Connect your iPod to your computer using the normal method (white USB cable)
3. When the iPod icon appears in iTunes, select it from the left-hand column



4. Click the Photos tab, highlighted in the screenshot above.
5. Select the “Sync photos from” checkbox and choose the folder that contains the photos you want to copy from the pop-up menu.

Apple warns, “It may take a while to copy all your photos the first time you perform a sync. Subsequent syncs should take less time.”

For more iPod tips, consider this book: iPod: The Missing Manual

My brain used to hurt with all the clever ideas for baby t-shirts I thought I was having. I’d think of ideas at the least opportune moments (nursing, driving, sleeping), try to remember them, make a picture or word art in Powerpoint, then print on iron on paper.

Use multi-packs of snapsuits from Target (5 for $9) for your canvas. Funny nicknames, favorite pictures, anything is fair game. The impending US presidential election may inspire you too. And then, there’s always Halloween (did we mention that Halloween was coming?!).

This picture of 4-week old Holden features his “Texas Hold’en” onesie.

Now that you have your very own baby, your Halloween costume options have really expanded. If your baby is pretty new, she can be carted around with you, with no regard to bedtime. Enjoy it while it lasts.

A few ways use your baby as a fun prop or sidekick to your own costume. Some of these are very easy on the degree of dificulty scale and some require some more effort, so you can decide.

I would love to hear from someone who incorporates some sort of gear - a backpack or stroller - into their costume.

1. Mom is princess, baby is frog (Optional: daddy is prince).
2. Parents are the Wonder Twins. Baby is blue space monkey, Gleek. Heather has wanted to do this for years but her husband thinks its creepy to be siblings.
3. Adults are characters from the Wizard of Oz. Baby is Toto.
4. Mini Me as suggested by a RookieMoms.com reader, Sean
5. Celebrity baby. If you have even the vaguest resemblance to Britney, Gwen Stefani, Angelina, put on your rock star clothes, wear baby in a sling, and carry a Starbucks cup. Alternative to the sling for lesbian moms: one mom is the celebrity, and the other partner dresses as the nanny and carries the baby.

We have some other Halloween costume ideas and tips for babies and toddlers:

• Keep it simple and low-key
• Have fun with it whether you make or buy

CelebrateExpress.com will guarantee Halloween arrival for baby costumes ordered before October 22 with regular shipping!

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