I’ve become quite adept at claiming hand-me-downs with bambino numero tre. Maternity wardrobe? Yes please. Tiny infant clothes? Sure. Gently-used baby stuff? Don’t mind if I do. I feel truly blessed by my community of moms for paying it forward and I’m happy to do the same.

For the most part, my washing machine does all the dirty work and my family saves hundreds of dollars by not purchasing new gear.

One amazing benefactor, my friend Lisa, a stylish mom of twin boys, has even handed me back some of the cute mini clothes that my older boys wore as babies.

Recently Lisa offered me a well-loved exersaucer-jumper that just needed a little elbow grease. My big guys, armed with a few Q-tips and toothpicks dipped in soap to clean out the crevices, made it shine like new. The washer ate up the gunk on the fabric. Sawyer loves it; Holden and Milo were proud to give it to him.

I later learned that Q-tips Precision Tips could have done the job of both the regular swabs and toothpicks combined. Fortunately, there are many more cleaning tasks in my near future.

We are giving away three $50 gift cards.
Comment about any terrific hand-me-down baby product you’ve either given or received before February 16 and be entered to win a $50 gift card to spend at Amazon.com. We will choose three commenters at random after we close the comments on that day. More rules here.

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Disclosure: this is a sponsored post by Q-tips as part of the Tipster Ambassador program. All opinions, creative ideas, and baby toes are ours.

For many years, when I watched HGTV, I would tell myself that if only I had a staple gun, I would be reupholstering stuff left and right. And then my husband bought me a staple gun for Christmas two years ago. Twenty-five months later — yesterday — I used it for the first time.

We have had this little art table for the kids since Julian was about two.  My sister bought it at Michael’s, painted it, and decoupaged it with pages from Goodnight Moon. It was cute, but the paper layer didn’t last. A couple years after, Ryan scraped the pages off, sanded it, and sprayed it with chalkboard paint.

Everything I’ve seen online with chalkboard paint seems so charming, but the reality is that the chalk dust makes a mess if it’s the surface of an indoor table.  Chalk in a dining room = not so good. Also? Here’s how the chalkboard painted surface looked after a while.

Covering this table with oilcloth makes it easy to clean, perfect for art projects and snacking. It’s a kid-sized table, coming up just above my knee. I cut the cloth and stapled the edges down. That’s it.

Oilcloth (or laminated cotton in some cases) comes in so many fun patterns. This etsy store is full of them.

Stapling not going to happen? Just throw the oil cloth on the floor and have the kids get messy there.

This project idea is part of our Makin’ It series, weekly posts with ideas for things you can make. Baby too young for this one? Check the list of DIY ideas for a Makin’ It project you like.

Today Heather and I (and Sawyer) are headed for Chicago where we will be attending a Blogger Summit hosted by Kenmore. As my husband and I are actually in the market for a new range/oven/stove/whatever you want to call, you know, that big device that cooks food in the kitchen, I am extra interested in hearing about stoves/ovens/ranges/cooktops.

But, like any margarita lover, I won’t mind seeing a demo of a blender while we’re at it. With tequila in it. Okay? (My twitter friend Laura tells me that consumption of alcohol is critical to staying warm — and Chicago is a snowy 18 degrees currently.)

The question they’ve asked us, as a conversation starter, that I am now asking you is this one: Do you have any unusual, practical uses for your everyday appliances?

For example, our reader Elizabeth in Chicago told us on the Rookie Moms Facebook page that she leaves the oven light on as a nightlight in case anyone in her household wanders into the kitchen during the dark hours. Others warm up blankets and teddy bears in the dryer.

Myself, I just realized that the mac and cheese I usually take to potlucks to ensure my own child will eat SOMETHING could be made more enticing if I brought it in my slow cooker. Set it on potluck table plugged in to offer warm food. (Maybe everyone already knows that and I am a late bloomer when it comes to potluck protocol.)

Another blogger who will be attending, BusyDad, demonstrates using his stick mixer as a guitar accessory.

How about you? Do you have any appliance-related tricks up your sleeve? Do you store forks in your blender? Use your waffle iron to put cool patterns in your hair?

photo: TammyGreen

It will suck {My personal studies have shown that as long as you expect it to suck, it will probably be okay}.

the easy kind of flying with a baby

You will be pooped on. If your child is beyond the poo’splosion age, expect a bottle to burst, projectile vomit, overturned apple juice, or a simple pee accident. To combat this reality, pack 1 diaper per hour of travel and an extra set of jammies. I love pajamas because they pack up nice and small. Throw in an extra shirt for yourself too.

You will lose stuff. Hopefully, you only lose the poop-stained jammies, but it might be a precious security object, important part of your breast pump, or your cell phone charger. Expect it, roll with it.

You will annoy other passengers. Being the person with the crying baby is no fun. It might make you sweat (it makes me sweat). This coming trip I’m packing two packs of earplugs for every passenger within hearing range; it might not help, but they’ll know I’m trying.

Your kid will be in pain. I don’t know whether teething will start, an ear infection will blossom, or tummy troubles will kick in. I always pack children’s pain reliever in my carry-on even if everyone boarded the plane healthy. That stuff comes in handy!

There will be delays. Whether it’s an airplane stuck on the runway or stopping every 77 minutes to feed a baby on a roadtrip. Expect it to take longer and be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong (I’m not wrong!).

Your sleep will get effed up for days. Expect an approximate four-day reentry window to train your little one to sleep and wake on schedule again. Coming and going. Room darkening shades can be your best friend but, as with everything else, you might as well plan for sleepless nights.

We do have a few tips and tricks, but I truly find that managing my own expectations and expecting an adventure is more than half the battle. But here you go, some friendly advice:

• Round-up of tips for traveling with a baby
• How to minimize sleep disruption by Nicole Johnson
• Beyond baby, tips for flying with a toddler
• Stop lugging car seats on airplanes
• 10 tips for breastfeeding during the holidays (travel, cocktails, etc.)

Happy Holidays, all! I’m getting on an airplane with my newly minted family of five soon. Can you tell I’m nervous? We can’t even fit in one car when we get there!

Contest now closed, video still adorable. Watch this video of Heather using Q-tips to clean between Sawyer’s toes and then tell us what use you have for Q-tips that people might not know about. Each comment will enter you to win a $50 Amazon gift card. We have three to give away!

Comment about your special use for Q-tips (besides ear cleaning) before November 30 and be entered to win a $50 gift card to spend at Amazon.com. We will choose three commenters at random after we close the comments on that day.

Make sure to join Q-tips on Facebook and check out their Q-Tip-a-Thon. Share your tips, and you could win a $100 weekly gift card or the grand prize, a $1,000 gift card and a year’s supply of Q-tips.

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Disclosure: this is a sponsored post by Q-tip as part of the Tipster Ambassador program. All opinions, creative ideas, and baby toes are ours.

My super special guest today is Dottie from Modern Kiddo! I asked for Halloween costume ideas that were based around items that can be used again and again. Dottie told me she was inspired by some charming Livie and Luca western boots and I can see why.

Sources for these adorable finds, all of which look like welcome additions to a wardrobe and playroom:

• cowgirl hat, Amazon
• denim skirt/pants from Target
• boots, Livie and Luca
• Western shirt, Etsy or Ebay
• Riding horse, Amazon

Thanks, Dottie, for your superfun costume idea!

Christine Koh is the founder and editor of Boston Mamas and a great friend. I asked her to share her experiences coordinating (umm, I mean “being the guest of honor at”) a second-hand baby shower. Voila:

After wading through what seemed to be the waters of secondary infertility for several years, my second pregnancy came as quite the surprise. And of course I learned I was pregnant not long after finally coming to terms with being a three-person family and donating most of my baby stuff.

When my girlfriend Heidi offered to throw me a shower, I asked whether she would be willing to coordinate a secondhand baby shower since I already had mom friends asking me to take baby gear of their hands, and because it seemed like the perfect idea for this eco-obsessed mama.

Here’s how Heidi and I made it happen:

1. Get jiggy with Excel. Since it had been so long since I was in the baby zone (my older daughter Laurel was almost 6 years old when I found out I was pregnant with Violet), I looked at one of those giant (absurd) “must have” baby gear/items registry lists and culled the essentials. I created a spreadsheet listing the essentials and noted what I already had.

2. Provide needs and guest list (including email addresses) to hostess. I sent Heidi my lists and she crafted an evite and shared my needs list and asked guests to tag in for specific hand me downs. If people did not have hand me downs or want to bring them, she welcomed them to simply come and hang out, or bring gift cards or diapers.

3. Mingle and be merry! I think showers are all about the people — refreshments can be as simple or fancy as people desire. Heidi ended up having brunch catered and it was super elegant and delicious (you can see additional pictures from the shower here). She was also kind enough to check in advance as to whether I was experiencing any food aversions. She’s thoughtful like that.

4. Open gifts and freak out appropriately. I’m sort of kidding about this but sort of not. We did the traditional gift opening and there was plenty of freaking out over cute little baby things.

5. Get help getting things home. This is something that ended up working out fine for me on the fly but I recommend planning in advance. I received a lot of large, bulky items that would not fit in our little car and Heidi lives about half an hour away from me (so, multiple trips back and forth would be a bit time consuming). We ended up having several friends offer to load up their cars and drop by my house, which worked easily since many of the guests live in close proximity to me. If your attendees are more spread out and the shower is not at your home, it would be a good idea to check in with nearby friends to help get gifts back to your home.

And that’s it! The most challenging planning involves going through your list and having the hostess keep on top of emails to avoid duplicate hand me downs. And I found that the cool thing about a secondhand shower is that it not only helps friends who want to clean out their basements of baby gear, but also can result in the passing down of some items that would be cost prohibitive to gift brand new.

I was truly overwhelmed by the generosity – among the secondhand items I received were a car seat/stroller system, crib mattress, jogging stroller, high chair, and giant crates full of baby clothes and toys (literally, 4 of them). There also were new baby clothes and toys and spa gift certificates. I was so touched, and above all, it was so utterly lovely to celebrate Violet’s impending arrival with such a fantastic gathering of mom friends.

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In addition to everything else mentioned above, Christine is also the designer behind Posh Peacock and writes a personal blog at Pop Discourse. She tweets about it all at @bostonmamas. Thank you big time, Christine!

When Whitney and I “coordinated” a secondhand shower, it went a little differently since none of my pals seemed to want to give used presents. See our lovely eco-geeky baby shower story and pictures.

photo: The Macs

Before we get all in a tizzy about first birthday parties and the cuteness you are about to behold, allow me to confess that I think the first birthday party is optional. Parents doing something momentous to celebrate their own first year of parenthood also seems like a fine idea (first overnight away?) and well, if baby is sleeping at home or at Grandma’s house, terrific.

Ok, now that’s out of the way. Ideas from around the web:

Invitation

This one is from tinyprints.

This one is from minted.com

and this one is from Etsy

Electronic invitations are obviously cheaper, greener, but frankly not as gush-worthy cute as the ones you’ll find to buy online. I couldn’t get over my own obsession with having a mailed invitation as a keepsake, so I put one together on Shutterfly when Julian turned one. Kid #2? She probably got an email. I don’t even remember.

Food

Go crazy with homemade, thematic snacks a la Martha Stewart or order pizza, make a fruit rainbow platter and call it a day. Since your baby and his “friends” may have a limited menu, it’s hard to please everyone. My personal go-to for parties at my house is my local taqueria. I order a pint of black beans, grilled chicken, spanish rice, and carnitas. We put out tortillas, cheese, salsa, and guacamole. Everyone can make their own burrito and the babes can eat black beans, rice and shredded cheese with their fingers. In the backyard, please! Add some bowls of diced fruit for color.

Decoration
If you read a lot of Internetz, you know that a decorated birthday buffet table with printed signs is all the rage.  Don’t let this make you feel inadequate, but I am posting a few pictures that none of us can ever live up to — because we are hosting a party and have a 12-month old to take care of!

John and Sherry at YoungHouseLove provided complete explanations on their printed food cards at baby Clara’s first birthday.

Theme
The site One Charming Party is a great resource if you want an amazingly beautiful, coordinated party. It’s an online store that sells party plans which detail the decorations, food, activities, and more for a number of different themes from superhero to mermaid to country fair-themed.

This is a preview of the 50-page manual you receive as a pdf with all your instructions, including cupcake toppers and invitation templates.

For one-year olds, I am most in favor of a simple theme, such as their first initial or polka dots because really, are they passionate about Dora or football yet? Unlikely.

Source: fowlsinglefile.blogspot.com via Kaci on Pinterest

Three do-able decorations

Now that I’ve intimidated inspired you with pictures that are literally out of Martha Stewart’s media empire, I leave you with three ideas that won’t break the bank or your back when it comes to adding pizzaz to your party.

1. Rainbow streamers above the door. Wendy made this special doorway for Augie’s birthday and it’s delightfully simple.

Source: wendolonia.com via Whitney on Pinterest

2. A string of balloons. I always hit the party store and get a bunch of balloons on the morning of my kid’s parties. They fill up any dull space in your house or yard and toddlers go nuts for them. (They are also terrible choking hazards, so keep them up high and monitor any interaction with balloons and one-year olds closely.)  This one is from the Young House Love first birthday party.

3. Pinwheels. Buy them at a party store, dollar store, or toy store — or make them if you are super crafty — and use them as decorations. (My cousin just stuck them in the grass to create a festive border for her son’s party at a park.) Then, send them home with the kids as favors. Double duty!

Source: deckthehalls-christmas.blogspot.com via Whitney on Pinterest

Source of letter “E” party: marthastewart.com via Ellen on Pinterest

Do you have any easy first birthday party ideas to share?

At the annual BlogHer conference this year, alongside the traditional hosted cocktail parties that require inspire bloggers to bring every dress in their closet, a small group created a service project. The goal? To generate funds for diaper donation to families in need.

Last month, ten thousand diapers that resulted from this project were dropped off by Alicia. TEN THOUSAND! The recipients of the donations are clients of three different social service agencies in Southern California.

How did they do it?

MomsLA, a new go-to resource for Los Angeles parents was throwing a party. They signed on the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor Information Center as a sponsor, enabling that organization to get to know the bloggers in the area. One of the MomsLA bloggers, Kim Tracy Prince, who is a co-panelist of mine on Momversation, invited the folks at Momversation to donate two iPads for a raffle.  Ywater donated one as well. The three iPads were used to incentivize party guests to buy raffle tickets at the party.

Marketing lesson of the year: Everyone wants to win an iPad.

I attended the party and was more than happy to buy a strip of raffle tickets. Heather did, too, and she WON an IPAD 2!  Woohoo!

Making it bigger

The benefit of executing a service project at this event was that the word of mouth extended beyond the party attendees. An online form enabled people who heard about the event on Twitter or Facebook but weren’t going to be there to make a donation and be entered to win as well.  Finally, Kim made a video that was distributed online, asking people to make a donation. She shared it and asked other people to spread the word.

I thought the whole thing was brilliant. At a party where folks are indulging in appetizers, cocktails, and “cute shoes!” compliments, I don’t think anyone minds opening their wallets for moms who are unlikely to be treated to such luxuries in their day-to-day lives.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. I am happy to invite the MomsLA crew to help answer them.

This post is intended to plant the seed of a diaper drive in your mind. As part of the Huggies Every Little Bottom™ team, I am being compensated to help spread the word about diaper need. Please also see “5 clever diaper drives.”

I met Dana as @civil3diva on twitter. She offered me her best lessons learned that helped make the transition to baby #3 smoother than the one with baby #2. I love her suggestions and I can see myself doing some of them!

I have some hazy but not unpleasant memories of missing sleep and being knee-deep in unwashed onesies when my first child was a newborn. When her baby brother arrived three and a half years later, I was completely unprepared for the mayhem. It seemed easy on paper. I would be “home” while I worked freelance. I greatly underestimated caring for an infant while juggling work, preschool, swimming lessons, music class and even just breakfast for a three year old. My first two are now seven and three and a half. Six weeks ago, we welcomed a new baby brother.

Here are some things I learned from the second baby that have served us well since his arrival:

1. Simplify and Document the Morning Routine.

If possible, have someone else take it over for a few weeks. This has made a huge difference in our household sanity this time around.

I remember finally getting to sleep on the night-shift only to be woken up at 6:30AM by little fingers poking me in the eye. This time, I asked my husband and any visiting family to handle mornings. I’d rather have my spouse take 1 hour of vacation per day to do mornings for six weeks than a solid week off.

We have whiteboards for each big kid that spell out what they need for that day.

We gave everyone low maintenance haircuts and switched breakfast to easy foods that they can reach and don’t generate a lot of dishes like: yogurt, granola bars, cheese sticks, dry cheerios. Our first grader gets up to an alarm clock and gets herself dressed. We sort her laundry into a sweater organizer that contains five days of complete outfits including socks and underwear.

2. Put a bed in the baby’s room

I never saw the point of having two of us completely exhausted in the morning, especially once my husband went back to work, so I didn’t like the idea of having the baby in our room at night. The new baby’s room took our guestroom, so I put a twin bed with storage underneath in there along with the crib. I can sleep near the baby and feed him at night without waking anyone else or walking across the whole house. I know I am not getting much more sleep than I did with the other two, but somehow I feel much more rested. A temporary bed would do the trick, too.

3. Lower expectations

It all looked so easy when I plotted my life out in MS Project. I’d get the big kid to school, feed the baby and write my textbooks while the baby slept. I was stupid enough to think I might even be bored. Instead, I wrote to-do lists like “Laundry, Write a chapter, Get Baby to stop crying, Get myself to stop crying.”

This time, I took as much leave as I could handle without going broke. I asked my husband to take some time off. Last time, I wanted things to remain “normal”- which meant more than once I was dragging my daughter with one hand and carrying the baby in the other while running late to a swimming lesson where she ultimately refused to swim. Nobody seems to mind that we’ve cut back, and we’re all much more relaxed.

I am sure baby number three will kick my rear in all kinds of surprising ways over the next thirty or so years, but I will say that his first six weeks have been very fun. It’s been almost like having a first baby again because our big kids are old enough to feel the joy as well. I’m taking lots of notes so that if I do something stupid, like say, have another one, I can fine tune my systems even more.

Thank you Dana!

I asked the lovely Audrey from MomGenerations to share her secrets for getting a big posse of little boys out the door and off to daycare, preschool, and school. She has four boys, so she knows what she’s talking about!

Do you have any tips to help get a gaggle of little ones out the door?

Thanks so much Audrey for sharing your ideas!

I scheduled this post before my baby arrived. If you are reading this while nursing, rest assured that I am also either unsnapping my nursing bra or just snapping it back up. Or maybe feeling too lazy to bother clicking it back in place.

As such, I’ve collected the combined wisdom of many rookie moms to create a nursing cheat sheet for myself. Feel free to use it.

We live in Berkeley where breastfeeding isn’t so much a “choice” or a “lifestyle” but a “requirement.” I can only say that comfortably in hindsight.

I know there are many parts of the world where you feel this same assumption and there are others where the expectation is the opposite. If I remember correctly, Whitney was a breastfed California baby and I was a formula-fed Ohio baby. Of course in the seventies, we probably both had whole milk and even ice cream before we turned one. (And by “remember” I’m going by what my mama told me, not the actual memory of not nursing)

Our experience aside, breastfeeding is a very personal, individual choice. And once you make your decision to do it (or even not to do it), you are likely to face challenges. I’m talking about your milk supply, your modesty, your baby’s knack for nursing (or taking a bottle), your willingness to pump, other people’s support or criticism and on and on.

The most helpful book that guided me on the path to breastfeeding success was The Nursing Mother’s Companion. Between two different nursing babies, I had nearly every obstacle listed (mastitis, infection, blisters, etc.). Each of my dramas was dealt with in a straightforward manner in the book. And I plan to keep it handy again.

Here are several fantastic online breastfeeding resources from our guest blogger, PhD in Parenting.

Here are a few related rookie mom posts/tips/activities:

• Whip ‘em out (funny and supportive video)
• Tips for nursing in public
• Tips for pumping and our community pumping project
• Think with your melons (exercise your super power!)
• DIY nursing bra from a regular bra (with tutorial)
• Cut up your bra (helpful tip)
• Yoga moves to ease back strain from nursing

Any other advice or tips to share with me? I’ll take ‘em.