Rookie Moms

Today I saw an infant carrier whose plastic parts had been stickered by an obviously much older sibling with punk rock and skateboard stickers. The upholstery had a patch sewn onto it, Beastie Boys proudly displayed just above the infant’s head. Very cool, I thought, a car seat with “flare”. Then, I spotted these on Nested. I LOVE THIS IDEA! Add flare to my diaper bag to commemorate significant episodes in my life as a mother? You betcha. The badges come in ten skills, allowing you to boast about your motherhood survival skills on airplane rides, shopping trips, through diaper blow-outs and temper tantrums. Do you breastfeed? Give yourself a badge!

mama merit badges was started as a response to the dearth of authentic recognition for the very hard work of mothering. Overly sentimentalized depictions of motherhood belie the actual daily duties that alternately feel like drudgery, brave political acts, and absurd performance art. This irreverent award system invites public dialogue about and visual recognition for the unpaid and often ignored labor that is parenting.

The badges are 1½ inches, iron on, and 100% embroidery. They can be worn on your diaper bag, purse, tote, jacket, jeans, scarf or baby carrier. Stick them on your wall, fridge or bulletin board.

How awesome is that?

I never thought I’d be great at boy stuff, you know the sports and trucks and stuff, but I’m doing pretty good as a boy mom.  I can get into pretty much anything Julian is interested in and have more fun with it than I ever imagined.  So far.

Recently there’s been a lot of talk from him about good guys and bad guys. Not sure he really knows what he means by this, but he says he’s gonna put the bad guys in jail. So maybe he’s headed for a career in law enforcement.

I took him outside today and asked him to show me a good guy and a bad guy so I could take a picture of each one.  He also posed for me as “excited”, “sleeping”, “mad” and “fwustewated”. It was super fun and he loved looking at the pictures and repeating which emotion he was acting out.

I’m sure there’s something educational about doing this as well, but mostly it just gave us a few minutes to bond and laugh.

Above is the good guy and below is the bad guy.

I see an Oscar nomination in his future.

• Just Do It: A couple has sex for 101 consecutive days and lives to tell about it. (My parents noted that The Rookie Mom’s Handbook would be a natural follow-up to their book. Ha ha.)
• Shop: Mighty Girl tells us 15 perfect baby items that you must register for.
• Decorate: Cool metal room decorations from Crib Rock Couture via Julie on Cool Mom Picks, who, like me, doesn’t do themed nurseries.
• Make: Toddler pants! Another great execution of our Easy Kids Pants from On-Hand Modern. And another from Angel Bird Flies.

I saw this activity on photojojo this morning and ran right out for bulldog clips to get started.

Unfortunately, my local Office Depot does not carry them in stock (nor does the next one down the street, which I stupidly thought was a different chain… but was the same chain!) so I got these over the top zebra-printed binder clips instead.

As you can see they match the weird zebra theme we have in the office. But that’s a story for another day.

Back to the activity.

Why’s It Cool?

Why would you cover your walls with bulldog clips and hang a bunch of photos? So many reasons. It’s super cheap, it’s ridiculously easy, and it requires practically no skill. Plus it means you can change the photos you have up at any time with practically zero effort.

If you have binder clips around and some fun snapshots that you’re meaning to Do Something With, this project can be done in the span of the tiniest nap.

The instructions on Photojojo for the bulldog clip photo wall give variations like OCD-style and tips for not creasing your photos. Check ‘em out.

If you want to go the high-end route, read Whitney’s instructions for the classier “Family Photo Wall.”