My friend Mike used to take his toddler Miles out for Garbage Truck Friday each week without fail. They did it for years. Their routine included picking up muffins from the local bakery and following the garbage truck all over Oakland for an hour or so. It was something that they both looked forward to.

I like this activity for all rookie parents but its especially fun as a regular father/son outing; it includes so many things that toddlers love:

• CarbsYummy breakfast
• An easy excuse to spend time together
• Quickie tradition (see Crock Pot Monday or Fearless Friday) to give structure to the week
• Big vehicles (see scope out some big wheels)
• A way to get someone small to willingly go to the car (ok, that one’s more a win for the parents)

No offense to the trash trucks in your town, but the ones in Oakland are sweet. They have long robotic arms that do all the work. If Mike and Miles had invited me, I think I would have happily joined in.

Yes I have two sons and they’re waaaaay into vehicles, but I think this activity could work for most toddlers. Let me know if it works for you!

My middle school ex-boyfriend, Neil, is now a rookie dad to a toddler (ain’t facebook great?). He likes to take his son, Graham, out in the Burley trailer for coffee dates. Neil drinks the coffee while Graham sips his leche.

Graham drinks his latte

Neil reports:

Even in the fun Portland winter weather, I like to take Graham out as much as I can. He’s recently been asking to go for rides in the Burley, so I take him to a coffee shop that’s ~1.5 miles away. He usually falls asleep, but didn’t yesterday. We did that trip again today. 3 for 3 now. We’ll see what he does tomorrow.

Don’t underestimate the power of sitting and sipping your normal beverages in a special place. I used to watch parents of toddlers serve their sons little demitasse cups of foamy or whipped milk at our corner cafe. Adorable. And sometimes free!

The baby version of this activity is Pretend You’re in Paris.

By the time I took this picture, Julian was to big for this fleece sling, so I was thrilled to wear Heather’s baby Holden in it. If you don’t already have a sling, consider it.

Wearing your baby keeps him happy, especially if he’s the type that likes to be held all the time. Instead of holding him, you can use your hands for other things, like dialing the phone, telling a story in which you gesture wildly for emphasis, or typing. Once the baby is situated in the sling, you will feel like a free bird. As tempting as it is, please do not hop in your car and drive around town.

You can certainly buy a sling or any other front carrier online, but I recommend going to a local independent baby store. It really helps to have an expert coaching you. Ask to try it on.

Find out if your partner will be willing to wear the sling. If not, choose as girly a pattern as you like. If yes, you might want to stick to black or navy. My husband said yes to the carrier, but not to this one I brought home from CatBirdBaby.

I guess a person who does not carry a purse does not think this is “cute”.

Some women are able to nurse while wearing their baby in a sling. (Not in a back carrying position, obviously!) Anyone have luck with this endeavor?

Find a good time between baby’s naps and enjoy a brunch out with your partner or some friends.

You want to find a place with wide enough aisles between tables that you can wheel a stroller or walk with a toddler, no fancy table cloths, and a changing table in the restroom. Ambient noise is generally a big plus!

Some of my go-to places in Berkeley:

• The West Side Cafe in West Berkeley is pretty baby friendly and makes yummy pancakes and chilaquiles.
• Bette’s Oceanview Diner on 4th Street is always crowded, so send a friend ahead of your group to put your name on the list, then enjoy a nice walk on over. It’s noisy, fun, and delicious! It’s also across the street from Cody’s Books and a toy store if you need to kill time or change a diaper.
• Bacheeso’s at Dwight and San Pablo is a favorite of all our out-of-town guests. Because of the popular buffet, there’s no need to wait for your own food or for a piece of bread to throw junior.

Where is your favorite baby-friendly brunch spot?

I’m not going to lie to you. My kids and I spent 90 minutes in Target yesterday, and all we bought was toilet paper and tissue.  I went there because it was raining, I needed those two items, and I thought we could waste a good hour not touching the holiday decorations.  And we did. (I did not buy anything that wasn’t on our list, so a round of applause please.)

We didn’t even hit the toy aisle, because if we did, well how would we ever leave?

So now I want to remind myself that we’ve had just as good a time and spent just as long in some of our local mom and pop toy stores. They carry brands and styles that the big box stores don’t, and I appreciate that.  They make our shopping destinations fun and interesting, and without them, we’d have only strip malls. So this is just a little plug for us to remember the mom and pop toy stores when we do our holiday shopping.

Cute mobile, right? Not from Babies R Us. No ma'am.

I may curse their prices, but I don’t want to lose them in my town. So I pledge to spend some dollars next month with my favorite specialty toy retailers. Please join me and shop local!

Berkeley favorites that you can shop from your own house: Kid Dynamo, This Little Piggy, and The Ark (coming soon).

An umbrella is a terrific gift for a preschooler. My toddler loves to hold her own kid-sized umbrella, and it gives us something to do on a rainy day – go outside and stand there with an umbrella over our heads.

I saw this rainbow umbrella for kids in a Museum catalog and thought it was worth sharing. Then, when I searched for it on Amazon, I found even more cuteness – all six umbrellas are less than $20.00. Great gift for nieces or nephews.

Rainbow Spectrum Umbrella

Cloud Umbrella for Kids (comes in adult size, too!)

Monkey Umbrella

Red Polka Dot Umbrella

Apple of My Eye Umbrella

Ladybug Umbrella

At the beginning of September, I set out to rally my peeps for a diaper drive. I was inspired by Help A Mother Out and figured that between my children’s two schools, my family, neighbors, and friends, I would be able to generate a 1000-diaper donation for my nearby women’s drop-in center. They serve a population of women who don’t always have the money for diapers they need and whose public assistance funds are not always applicable for diapers.

Now for my bragging
Thanks my neighbors and friends, the box I placed outside my side door got filled many times over with diapers. When I first counted and realized I was at 600, I began to worry that 1000 was a lofty goal. I sent a status update email to motivate my network. I cheered myself on publicly via Facebook. As my self-assigned deadline approached, the diapers appeared at a faster pace. I was excited.

I attended a little gathering of bloggers at an E.L.F. make-up party and asked those ladies to donate. Some gave diapers and some gave me cash. (Turns out that women who have never themselves shopped for diapers are overwhelmed by the thought of choosing a size and brand.) The cash was worth even more than the face value as my husband took it to CVS and used some heavy-weight coupons and his clever math strategery to maximize the number of diapers he brought home.

I was proud. I had about 1500 diapers spread all over the floor in my home office. I took them to the Women’s Drop-In Center and spent the rest of the day feeling like a powerful superhero.

And then. More.

My friend Kimberley, a recipient of my email call to action, passed the word about my drive to her associates at Safeway, our regional grocery chain. The marketing person in charge of their house brand, Mom to Mom, decided she would match my drive with a generous donation of 1000 diapers from Safeway. I picked them up at my local store and headed back to the Women’s Drop-In center. I hope that the Mom to Mom team spent the rest of their day feeling like superheroes.

Frequently Asked Question: What about cloth?
When I initially posted about this and also asked my neighbors for donations, many asked why these folks do not use cloth diapers. Yes, for those of us who have a predictable place to hang our diaper bags each night, cloth diapers may be a money-saving choice. Imagine you are in transition, however. Different friends and shelters are serving as your bed each night. Or perhaps your apartment does not have a laundry facility on site, and laundromats do not allow diaper washing for sanitary reasons. For those folks and for the truly homeless, carting around soiled diapers until laundry becomes available is simply not practical.

Did anyone else take my challenge and become a diaper superhero? What are you waiting for?

San Francisco-based photographer Nancy Alcott is a rookie mom who is on a mission to save you from yourself when it comes to producing a photo appropriate for a holiday card. Her aesthetic is clean and modern. No holiday sweaters allowed.

Here are Nancy’s tips:

Dress them like kids, not elves.
The holidays are festive but be careful not to overdo it on the outfits. Avoid busy holiday motifs or bold patterns and stick to simpler, solid colors to ensure their faces are the hero of your photo, not junior’s explosion-at-the-candy-cane-factory jumper.

Lineups are criminal.
For truly distinctive shots, forego the typical family lineup by paying attention to backdrop and poses. I like keeping subjects away from walls and busy backdrops, opting instead for cozier, more natural settings. Also play around capturing your subjects in ways other than dead-on facing the camera. A slightly turned head or angled shoulder turn can be the difference between capturing a cast of characters versus a night at the precinct.

“A” is for Auto. “B” is for stop doing that.
Automatic mode can help ensure a decent photo but to get the best effects for close-ups on faces, choose “portrait” mode, or for the more adventurous types with more advanced cameras, “aperture” mode. Experimenting with these modes can create beautiful artistic effects by blurring out the background and drawing attention to your subject’s face.

Teach your camera colors.
Learning advanced features can be daunting so I always tell amateur photographers to experiment first with white balance (sometimes abbreviated “WB” on cameras) because it will have the biggest impact on creating true colors. Believe it or not, your camera can only guess at precisely what colors it’s looking at. Setting your white balance (sunny, cloudy, fluorescent, etc.) ensures your colors are accurately portrayed.

Testing 1, 2, 3…
99% of the time, my best results are when the subject least expects to be photographed. Candids tend to draw out your subjects personality, before they go rigid readying their pose. One trick I use to get great semi-posed portraits – tell your subjects to pose for some “test” shots to help you prepare your camera. If they think it’s not for real, they’ll tend to be much more expressive and natural.

Get more inspiration from Nancy by browsing the photos at her website.

Today’s challenge: Find a park you’ve never visited that has baby swings.

If you live in Berkeley, Terrace Park is a cute little park you might not know about.

While your baby is still small enough for the infant carrier, take advantage of your relative “freedom” to get your toenails done. In the East Bay, we have Cure Spa, a totally fancy place that offers special service to mommies (like access to a baby swing), but we’ve also experimented with many other less schmancy places.

Scarlett is one week old

A pedicure is also a great first solo outing to leave the bambino with daddy for about an hour while everyone hopes for the best (and probably does awesome without you!).

What was your first solo outing without your baby and how did it go?

Holden and I used to cook together a lot. Before his little brother Milo joined our family, Holden would stand by my side at the kitchen sink and crack eggs, stir with a whisk, or rip greens for a salad. Unfortunately, I must confess, I now put the two of them in front of a 25 minute kid show while I race to get dinner together most nights. So I was a perfect candidate for this lesson a few weeks ago.

Holden and Shayna cooking at Eat Real Fest

At the Oakland Eat Real Festival, an amazing event aimed at helping folks “put the food back into fast,” Holden cooked on stage as part of the children’s cooking demo. Along with 3 other children, he helped make “Scissor salsa salad” under the guidance of Shayna Marmar.

Shayna is a from-scratch cooking teacher-extraordinaire. She started Honeypie Cooking & Events in Oakland to bring fresh, seasonal, and delicious foods back into our kitchens.

Scissor Salsa Salad, all kid-made

As she was leading the children through food preparation, Shayna talked about eating fresh real whole foods as often as possible. We sat on hay bales as she encouraged us to get our children more involved in the creation of their meals. She has seen many parents who said their children hated veggies eat their words while their kids ate salad for the first time.

I emailed her after the event to find out if she had any tips for the Rookie Moms who want to cook more with children, and she told us to get out the safety scissors:

While safety scissors are not generally thought of as a cooking tool, they work great in helping kids of all ages cut various fruits and vegetables. Keep a pair in your kitchen drawer, specifically for cooking, and your child will instantly be able to assist with food preparation tasks without the use of a sharp knife.

Help your child along by cutting the fruits and vegetables into slices/strips beforehand. Foods that can be cut with safety scissors include tomatoes, bell peppers, apples, peaches, cabbage, and cucumbers, among others.

She offered a ton of great hacks for getting kids involved in cooking; here are a few other tips I picked up from the demo:

• Leave your perfectionism at the door; better that the food products are kid-made than perfect.
• Do rough cut prep in advance so kids can avoid a lot of waiting time as well as large knives on counters.
• Think about what foods can be torn by small hands: lettuce, herbs, bread…
• For safer cutting, have a pair of kids’ safety scissors dedicated for use on food (see above) or use a butter knife for other foods that won’t easily fit in the scissors.
• 

  Mashing out some tortillas

  Don’t have a rolling pin? Wash some tools from the play-doh kit or use a cleaned can. Let kids use their hands to pound out dough and smash out tortillas.
• During the final tasting, ask kids “what would you change next time? what would you add more/less of?” to get them thinking and engaged in the process. Holden said “more tomatoes,” a big boy said “more spicy,” the little girl said “just right,” and the big girl refused to taste it. (can’t please everyone!)

Taste test, hmmm more tomatoes please

—–
I want to thank Shayna for sharing her tips with us!

Shayna offers cooking classes & parties for older children, teens, adults, and families as well as workshops for teachers & parents highlighting tips & tricks for involving children in the process of preparing and eating wholesome and tasty foods.

She can also turn your next kids birthday party into a healthy cooking party, emphasizing fun in the kitchen. How brilliant is that?! She also blogs at Peas and Carrots 123.

Did you know that government assistance programs like food stamps cannot be used for diapers? Also, food banks don’t stock diapers. This means that mothers without the means to pay for the supply of diapers their babies require may be using dirty diapers for more hours or reusing soiled diapers in order to make their supplies stretch farther. Imagine having to choose between food, shelter for the night, or diapers. It’s not easy.

What can you do?

Hold a diaper drive.

Rally your family and friends, your mom’s group or neighbors. More inspiration and instructions can be found courtesy of Help A Mother Out, a small group of women who are working to raise awareness of this issue. They have organized drop-off destinations for diapers in my area.

I am personally pledging to round up 1000 diapers during the month of September to donate to mothers who need them. I will hit up my preschool, my co-workers, and my family. If I can get 25 people to contribute 40 diapers each, I can do it.

Consider holding a diaper drive in your area. Anyone can do it, at any time.

Help A Mother Out provides us with some creative ideas and a toolkit.

• Throw a baby shower for a homeless baby. Invite the girls over for brunch and ask them to bring diapers. Make it fun with baby shower games.
• Host a bake sale. This is a great idea to involve lots of people for little cost, with a great payoff. Use the money to buy diapers!
• Collect loose change. At work you can do this over a period of time. Community groups might choose one month to dedicate to this. Go to Coinstar and redeem 100% of the money for an Amazon.com gift certificate to buy things from wish lists.
• Ask people to go shopping in their own closets. Maybe kids have outgrown a diaper size? Organizations will take individual diapers from an opened package.
• Parties: lots of people are coming together already, why not ask everyone to bring diapers? This is a great idea for baby showers, bridal showers, and kids’ birthday parties.

If you are inspired, I’d love to hear your goal.

——————————
Bay Area drop offs for diapers and pull ups:
Sadie Dey’s Cafe ~ 4210 Telegraph Ave., OAKLAND, CA
Natural Resources ~ 1367 Valencia St SAN FRANCISCO, CA
Baby Buzz ~ 1314 Lincoln Ave, #1A SAN JOSE, CA