We are big fans of the I Spy books, starting with the board book versions I bought when Julian was a baby. We play “I Spy” with regular books, too, and now we’ve graduated into Where’s Waldo? territory.

When Julian was four, he and I did a little photo shoot with big plans — still unfulfilled as of this writing — to make our own I Spy book. We ended up with unbound printed photos. (You can do it, that way, too.)

DIY I Spy Book

1. Set up a solid colored background on the floor. We used a foam play mat.
2. Gather a laundry basket full of {insert nice word for “junk”}. Include favorite objects and personal items.
3. Spread your items on the background as you like. Since there’s no wrong way to do this, let your preschooler help.
4. Try to talk your preschooler out of being in the picture himself. I failed. See above.
5. Photograph the scene.
6. Arrange new items and repeat.
7. Upload set of photos to your choice of photobook makers and order yourself a book.
8. Alternatively, cheap out and simply print the results on your own printer. Paper clip the photos together to make a set of I Spy cards for use in the car or on the plane.

Another fun version of this activity is to dump your purse and photograph the results.

This is part of our year-long series Makin’ It with The Rookie Moms. To contribute your own idea, click over here.

Socks? Yes, socks. I’m talking baby socks, toddler socks, preschool socks, and all manner of little kid socks from infant on up. I realize in confessing this, I might sound a little crazy. But the truth is that I only buy certain makes, models, and colors of socks and I’ve come to have very strong opinions about them. It’s the engineer in me; I can’t help it.

It all started innocently enough with my first little baby. We lucked into a dozen or so super awesome socks along with a mixed bag of other varieties. Then, inspired by an old Parent Hacks post, I began to look at the big picture.

Babies:
Trumpette socks are the very best. They don’t fall off little feet and they come in cute mix-and-match colors and patterns. Buy a dozen – yes they cost more! – and be done. You’re welcome.

They come in skater vans, Mary Janes, + lots more varieties

Toddlers and Preschoolers:
Gap makes the best triple-roll socks for this age group. I suggest you buy 10 or so in the same color and never worry about matching socks again. Yes, I color-code my kids. Currently Holden wears grey and Milo wears red. (His choice, not mine.) The basic colors and grippy writing on the bottom of the foot make these little guys great for new walkers and the kids who like to sprint through my kitchen. I prefer to buy dark colors to hide the playground dirt better. Old Navy ones are decent, but I’ve found that sharp little toenails make holes in these socks faster than the Gap variety. Visit the gap.com baby socks selection.

Big preschoolers on up:
My friend Alissa turned me on to Children’s Place as the best place to get solid colored socks. Around shoe size 11, Gap socks veer away from the solid colors with the grippy bottoms toward something else entirely. See the boy/girl solid socks assortment hidden under accessories at childrensplace.com.

Is there a topic you have irrationally strong opinions about? Bring it.

When Julian has a day off from school that Scarlett doesn’t have, I usually take him on a special date. We have done karaoke, gone to a kid’s art museum, seen a movie in San Francisco, and hit The Exploratorium. Recently we went to Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world.  Lombard Street is depicted in a few books we have about San Francisco, which is about 25 minutes from our house. I let Julian (age 6) take all the pictures.

I mentioned a few months ago that I planned to start a Posterous site for him. We’ve been loving it. It’s his own website where we can forward pictures that his grandparents send us to show him and they are displayed as blog posts. He has added YouTube links to his favorite videos and my husband posted his soccer team roster there. You can post anything, like a regular blog, but also you can add a “post”, just by sending an email to a certain address. The site is private, so I don’t have to worry about him writing crazy posts as he tends to do and the whole world seeing them. For example, he wrote a recent post titled “My Dad’s Phone Number”. The text of the post? His dad’s phone number.

After our Lombard Street outing, during which he counted the steps alongside the street, he posted a tally of the stairs he counted:

Later, I uploaded one of his photos to the post.

Often other parents at school send me pictures of my kid as attachments. I know I’ll never remember to look at those emails again or to show them to Julian. Sometimes they’re so enormous, I can’t even see them on my screen properly. It’s dead simple for me to forward them to post@posterous.com. The subject line of the email becomes the post title and the photos show up in the body of the post. The images get resized automatically. Here’s one I received from the last day of school.

This post, as you may have guessed, is sponsored by Posterous. Anyone who is concerned about privacy and security of their photos might consider setting up an account for sharing kid photos. Also? If you don’t need all your former co-workers seeing your summer vacation/bathing suit pictures, this is a way to create an online record of your photos without opening them to your entire Facebook posse. Simply send them as attachments to emails addressed to post@posterous.com and they’ll be displayed as posts.

Check it out — there’s an iPhone app, too!

Your 26th weekly challenge is to invest in a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps each day. You’ll be surprised how many steps a mom can take just running around the house, but if you’re going to reach 10,000, you’ll need to take a walk outside for sure. This is good motivation to get some fresh air.

Both Whitney and I enjoy tracking things and counting steps has been an on and off obsession over the past years. One day, I called her and said something ridiculous like, “I hope you don’t want to do anything with me before Baby Brigade because I walked 17,000 steps today so I’ll be on the couch.” Being in the middle of my maternity leave, I thought this was a totally normal thing to say.

Whit recommends the Omron pedometer (pictured above, only about $17) because it has a memory function that lets you look at the past 7 days worth of data. Additionally, it tracks both your total daily steps and your aerobic steps, or those that were part of a 10 minute or more walk. I’ve also amped up the geekery with the Nintendo DS pedometer nugget. No DS? No problem. Advanced geekery and insight into your daily activity level with the fancy fitbit (for about $99, it tracks calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled and sleep quality). More fun with data!

Do you, would you, could you count your steps?! Let us know we’re not alone!

Surely you’ve seen those coffee makers that use little pods for individual servings of coffee. Now, there’s a drink machine just for your baby.

From the website MinuteBuzz.com:

Swiss mums have a new labour-saving device to add to their armoury with the advent of Baby Nes — the equivalent of the cult Nespresso coffee machine, but for baby formula.

The capsules offer customised nutrition for every stage of a baby’s development, and the milk is dispensed right into the bottle at the correct temperature for instant consumption.

See the marketing website for La Systeme Baby Nes (all in French) here.

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this! Fun? Ridiculous? Stylish accessory for your kitchen?

I’ve seen a lot of baby gifts in the past ten years and many have made me oooh and ahh — and even wish for another baby to wrap in that cute sling — but none have seemed as thoughtful and sensible as a tupperware container filled with medical supplies that I saw given by a nurse friend at a shower last year.

Of course there is nothing cute about a digital thermometer, boxes of infant Motrin, and diaper cream, but it sure is useful. And of course you can make it cute by putting it all in a nice container.

The other thing I like about this gift is that it’s a nice way for one mom to pass her new-found wisdom on to her friend.

(Not the make-it-cute kind of gal? Someone has taken care of the whole thing for you and is selling her packages under the name Mommy’s Medicine Cabinet.)

Have you ever given medical supplies as a gift to someone? How would you dress it up?

My husband and I had a blog years ago, before there was Facebook. We posted pictures on it, shared favorite music, and documented stories about our life together. Then we had Julian and our parents were hungry for pictures, and more updates. We were dutiful and updated frequently for quite a while. Finally, Facebook came along and completely wiped out my motivation to post on that family blog.

When I put my pictures on Facebook, all my friends see them too, and they don’t have to remember to go to our personal site.

Unfortunately, my stepmom is not on Facebook. And neither is my Aunt Allie. And actually, my 29-year old sister has too many other friends to notice my posts. So when I posted my latest Julian rock star video, I forgot that some of his biggest fans were left out.

The grandparents (we have six actively involved ones) take a ton of their own digital pictures, too. Ones that we want to see, because they take our kids camping and on other adventures. And you know how they share them? They send them attached to emails. While it is swell that they know how to make the photo sharing happen, once I file away the email, I never see the pictures again.

Solution? Posterous Groups.

Only one person in the family needs to be involved in the set up of a Posterous group. After I set one up, I just add the other family member’s email addresses. Posterous gives me the address to which any of us can send an email  — and then any email you send turns into a simple blog post. Even an email that you forward with 5 pictures attached.

The screenshot above is the result of me forwarding an email I received from my stepmom to the Posterous address. Done.

So now, after Great-Grandma’s 80th bday party and instead of a flurry of emails with photos attached, everyone can send them to the Posterous site where they will result in a series of blog posts with photos embedded. Super simple.  A private group blog, via email.

My friend Elaine says that it keeps blogging simple for her because she just shoots off an email with the blog post title as the subject line, and whatever she puts in the email becomes the post. Done and done.

I can also envision setting up a Posterous site for my six-year old with all the stuff we look up online together. His personal site would be his favorite YouTube videos, videos I take of him, photos his grandparents send him, and emails I write him. Currently, he has no single place to look at all that stuff.

My next-door neighbor, a plumber, told me “Posterous is so easy, even I can can do it.”

The folks at Posterous gave me some additional concrete examples for their groups. You can use Posterous Groups to:

• Start an email list for everyone in your moms’ group to share outings, milestones, and photos
• Organize your movie or book club
• Start planning a multi-family summer vacation

So have I piqued your interest? I told you this post is sponsored, right? Anyone who clicks over and starts a Posterous group can be entered to win a $500 Visa gift card.

To win: Click over to start a Posterous Group and leave us a comment about how you’ll be using it. We can’t wait to hear all your ideas.

How will I know? I have ways of knowing, my friend, so don’t comment to enter unless you are going to play around with Posterous. (We’ll be validating email addresses.) If you ARE going to give Posterous Groups a go, then please! enter to win! We would LOVE to give a $500 gift card to a Rookie Moms reader.

Update: This giveaway ended on midnight Pacific Time on February 23^rd.

When we look back in 25 years, we will marvel that our babies have become adults who drive cars and earn their own paychecks. (Here’s hoping!)

You probably have a baby book to track your bambino’s progress through the first year: sitting up, crawling, first tooth, and so on.

But how will you remember your rookie year? After all, it’s filled with important experiences that will one day make you a veteran mom, capable of coaching soccer, chaperoning school dances, and sending annoying e-mail reminders about unwritten thank-you notes.

Trust us: One day you’ll look back on the early days of motherhood and it will be hard to remember them. We’ve given you this chart to remind you that Mommy’s first full night of sleep is at least as important as baby’s first banana. These classic mama milestones are worth documenting: Rookie Moms Milestones [pdf]

[excerpted from The Rookie Mom's Handbook by Quirk Books]

Well hello there, 2011. You sound so futuristic. And you are: I played countless games of Scrabble against the iPad this weekend.

Three things I want to report here.

1) Heather and I spent New Year’s Eve at her house with our husbands, eating chocolate cake and playing games. My parents were at my house with my kids while Heather’s boys were asleep in their bedroom. Even her Rock Band rendition of Pink’s So What, I’m Still a Rockstar did not wake them.

We hope you had very happy holidays.

2. Which brings us to the topic of resolutions, goals, and challenges.  We are working on a Rookie Moms challenge and will have more details for you soon. Maybe tomorrow.

3. Why do I say “maybe” tomorrow? Because my personal goal for 2011 is to keep the blogging and blog-related email to a minimum in the evening hours. If I have a laptop on my lap at night, I hope to be answering personal emails, planning family vacations, or researching preschooler ballet lessons. My resolution is to keep my work – which as of this year is officially this very blog and our local blog – limited to normal business hours. Of course, I’ve already failed by writing this post at 9 pm on Sunday night, but the goal is to improve my habits, not be perfect.

My other goal for 2011 is to complete Project 365. That is, each day I will take photos and nominate one per day to be part of my set of 365 that will represent my year. I hope to improve my photography skills, dedicate more time to being creative, and have an interesting album at the end of the year. I am thinking I might post them here every couple weeks so you can see how I’m doing.

Here is one from today.

That is my rookie baby Julian, captured in the way I used to photograph him when he was an infant, by standing above him and shooting down.

Over on BabyCenter.com, I made a long list of resolutions of this type – ones that a bunch of people can do together, record, and share results. If you’re interested, check out 10 group resolutions with which you just might succeed.

So, how was your New Year’s? Any resolutions you want to confess?

Three easy steps to a super cheap (FREE + GREEN) thoughtful gift:

1. THINK about your friend. Really think about them. What does she need? More time away from the kids? Time to run a great trail? An excuse to try the newest brunch place?
2. Write out some fun ideas. Use your markers or different fonts to make it look interesting.
3. Pack it up. Pretty envelope. Tin can. Decorative box. Ribbon around a scroll. Glitter on a toilet paper tube. Whatever you have on hand.

This goes along well with our holiday mantra of more fun and less clutter. Ok, I just made that up but it sounds like us.

You can do this for a friend — capture ideas for her to do on her own or things for the two of you to enjoy together.

Or, give this gift to a couple. A few years back, in lieu of holiday gifts, Whitney and her husband and me and my husband exchanged the gift of seven different date concepts. It was funny to see where we overlapped. Having written a book together, we were not surprised to discover that our styles of presentation were very similar.

Alec and I still have two more of the assigned dates to cross off our list (and we won because as far as I know, Whitney and Ryan have done only one!). If we can only squeeze in a date-night at the rock climbing gym on Friday night, then find a day when the kids are in preschool and we have no work, we might just get the daytime cycling date in as well.

We keep our list on our fridge so we never run out of ideas for dates. You can see our scribbles from which ones we crossed off already. This was indeed a gift that lasted all year long.

Related post: Babies should wish for non-material possessions

Because we don’t have time to learn everything about everything, it’s nice to find trustworthy moms who will do some of the work for you. When it comes to gadgets, the women at Cool Mom Tech have offered to step up as that source.

Founded by Liz and Kristen of Cool Mom Picks, who partnered with Beth Blecherman of TechMamas, Cool Mom Tech launched a couple months ago. Daily recommendations for high-tech products, gifts for geeks, and tools for the modern mama will save you time (though probably not money!)

Their raison d’être:

We’re sharing photos, managing money, finding design inspiration, texting our kids. As parents, we want items that keep us organized, keep us stylish, keep our kids safe, keep life fun. We want services and apps that make us think, “how did we ever live without that?” And we want to know what other moms think is cool–not some 22 year-old guy.

Get hooked (and get help!) by reading these two posts about how housebound parents can watch new release movies:  The futuristic world of streaming movies on demand and Putting an end to that whole “parents never get to see movies” thing.

photo: vanessa bertozzi from etsy

We have previously written about our love and admiration for those who remember to take monthly pictures of their babies and add some style to the pictures. Heather used the same chair every month, as did Jen who kept it up for at least 33 months.

Scrapbooker Hey Jen Renee took it to the next level with baby holding a cute sign, and I made a downloadable version for you to print.

Now, I see that the couple who blogs at Young House Love has raised the bar. They are taking a weekly photo of their daughter in a white onesie on different backgrounds, and then photoshopping her age onto her shirt, making it look like she had an awesome collection of custom onesies that were only good for seven days.  I love these photos.

(photos from: younghouselove.com)

Are they geniuses or what?