Silly

Taking the baby in the pool is both scary and funny.

If you are alone, think carefully through the logistics of how you are going to change your clothes, change baby, get in the pool, get out of the pool, get on dry stuff and get back in the car. You are not as smart as you used to be and you will probably mess up part of this process and end up walking out to your car in just a bra and towel holding your baby in one arm and a diaper between your teeth. Let me just help you out: Take your stroller with you into the dressing room. That way you have someplace to put the baby, towels, wet bathingsuits and diaper bag while you get dry yourself.

In El Cerrito, there is a beautiful saline community pool and we take the babies in to splash around during family swim. At Berkeley High, there’s a warm pool reserved for seniors and babies. Friday afternoon there’s a drop in class for $4.50. Check the PDFs linked from this page for details.

Here’s a list of all the San Francisco public pools… only $3.

This is also a fun activity for a very pregnant friend.

Aside from The Rookie Mom’s Handbook (of course), this new book from Chronicle has got to be my favorite baby shower gift idea this year. Porn for New Moms is a collection of photos of hunky, shirtless guys doing the things that turn women on: holding babies, folding laundry, and preparing food. Each photo has a message from the model to the viewer. The whole concept of the book is just *so* my sense of humor, I had to share.

From the publisher:

Prepare to enter a fantasy world, a world where men insist on changing diapers, where guys get up for 3 a.m. feedings, and where they just can’t help but admire mom’s sexy all-sweatpants wardrobe. Page after page of titillating shots and dream-worthy captions will make every mother swoon. In fact, it might just leave her begging for more. . . . Oh, daddy!

What would your new-mom-porn look like? I think I’d like a picture of my husband getting out of bed at 5.59 (alarm clock would be pictured in the background). The caption would read “I’ll go sit outside the door of the children’s room to be sure I can get to them as soon as they awaken. That way, you won’t hear a thing.”

The first year, four-month old Julian slept through the whole thing, but when he got his first taste of Easter, Julian never looked back. Since he is not actually Christian, his experience of Easter was limited to the hunting of plastic and hard-boiled eggs. And hunt he did.

It was so much fun, that I realized we should be doing this in the backyard whenever boredom strikes. The more the merrier, so this might be something to suggest when your relatives are visiting. A little fresh air is good for everyone.

So the activity of the day is to conduct an age-appropriate treasure hunt for pre-verbal toddlers.

Materials needed:
- three or four of the same object, such as golf balls, tennis balls, or plastic eggs (we use lemons).
- small gift bag
How to do it:
- Place objects in a grassy area in plain view.
- Hold a small gift bag on behalf of your little scavenger.
- Announce the hunt: “Let’s go find some golf balls!”
- Model the desired behavior: “I found a ball - now I’ll put it in the bag!”
- Help child “find” another object and place it in the bag.
- When child is not watching, take “found” object and toss it from the bag back onto the grass for more finding fun.
- Practice this exercise periodically so that when Easter rolls around next year, your toddler will be kicking butt and taking names.