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Both of us Rookie Moms have parents who were divorced before we were in pre-school, and both of us want to have long epic marriages that last for 50 or 70 years (long after our diaper-wearing boys are out of the house). In that vein, here are some of our best tips for looking out for your marriage: Go on dates. Figure out the childcare thing and make it happen. Aim for once a week. Commit to every other week. Have little impromptu dates at home once the baby is in bed. Light a candle. Try to make a souffle. Have fun ...

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WANTED! UNEMPLOYED BABIES I saw the ad below for baby scientists in my neighborhood parent newsletter and it inspired me to think of more ways to find work for infants. A few ideas I have for getting your baby a job are: Baby doll: Seek out an expecting couple you know and offer to let them practice on your baby. They can bathe your baby. Go do something else during the bath so that you don't act like a total control freak and scare your friends. Usability tester: If you live in the Bay Area, sign up for the LeapFrog toys user lab. Actor/Model: ...

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You have a special super power in the first months of your baby's life. Maybe this falls into the very large bucket of "nobody ever told me this was going to happen." Your boobs might get all tingly for no apparent reason. For me, it could be triggered by hearing any baby cry having any emotion at all (sadness, confusion, joy, whatever) reading a menu and seeing hot chocolate was listed So, my tip is that if you start to get a funny feeling in your chest when you read a menu, you are probably biologically programmed to neeeeed ...

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Are you tired of every other word being "choo choo" or "digger" or "princess" (am I just projecting here?)? This too shall pass so take some pictures of your babe at his happiest and get in on the fun. In my house, it's all about trains! Instructions for indoor fun: line him up with all his trains, in his engineers cap, Thomas books, and with any other related paraphernalia that you can't believe has made it's way to your house. As an outing, go seek out the real thing and photograph him around town in front of the train station and at all ...

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Kirsten, a clever, crafty, and experienced mom, has made a booklet of her tips for new mommies available for download as PDFs. She even has a cover that she herself embellished with a button to make it look adorable and handcrafted. She's shared her booklet, Things I Wish I'd Known, with you in whichever format floats your boat. She encourages you to keep it for yourself or to make a nice version of the cover and give it as a gift. The last page is blank, so you can add your own tips if you are passing it along. Cover Mommytips booklet Mommytips ...

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Cook a meal in view of your baby and narrate as you go. What are the ingredients and what are you doing? Isn't it all so much more fun with a captive audience? Ha! “This is the microwave, and I am pressing the start button” is probably going to be Holden's first complete sentence.

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By the time I took this picture, Julian was to big for this fleece sling, so I was thrilled to wear 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 ...

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Instead of just waiting around for the big milestones to occur, we want to give you something to do. Sit the baby up in front of you (supporting back shoulders, grab the overall suspenders, or whatever feels right) and dangle toys in front of him. Swinging at toys while seated is a brand new experience. When he's stable-ish, let him go (forming a protective ring around him so he can't fall in any direction too hard)... now COUNT. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... woohoo - 5 seconds of sitting. Now, rest. :) If you are like me, then every day for the ...

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To prepare your baby for the fact that life is hard and he may eventually be earning a living playing con-games against tourists on the streets of New York City, you'll want to introduce him to the shell game. Take 3 plastic bowls or cups and put them face down on the ground after first showing him which one his cheerio is underneath. Swap the positions of the bowls and cups and then let baby flip one over. I use cups that are somewhat see through, so I'm not really testing Julian's sense of object permanence, but I think it's ...

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Take baby to the grocery store for practice when you're not totally desperate for a kitchen's worth of food. Use a cart, but just buy a treat for yourself. That way, when you actually have to go grocery shopping, you’ll know you can do it. Two ways to approach the cart: wear your baby in the bjorn and push the cart put the infant carrier in the cart. Make sure it doesn't wobble. Another handy grocery shopping tip is to ask them to bag all your cold stuff together in plastic and the rest in paper bags so if you need to ...

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I am the first person to delete the blurry pictures and the closed-eyes pictures from my computer, and, unlike some parents I know, I make a strong effort to edit what I share with the world (despite what my MIL might think)... but what about the funny, goofy faces? Do those get chucked out too? Well, how sad. Do yourself a favor and make a little collection of those faces only a baby can make and you'll see the immense cuteness. I found this collection of Cricket's silly faces over at Mama C-ta Once you have a good series going, you can ...

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We tend to both be a little firm on the topic of "No TV" for the babies each for our own reasons, I'm sure. Heather thinks that TV is a scary addiction for babies, not unlike crack. Besides my belief that it's just not developmentally appropriate for a baby, I think the addiction actually threatens the parents, not the baby, as having your baby in a glazed-over state of relaxation sure is tempting. If you already use TV, then you are probably smarter than we are, and your kid will probably turn out smarter than ours, too, with all those hours ...

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Since Julian never took a bottle, I was really scared into making sure Holden would take one, so he got one bottle each day since he was three weeks old (at least three times a week and no more than once a day). My best tips for pumping: Free your hands. Get the easy expression pumping bra or make your own by cutting holes out of an old bra. Seriously, it allows me to have both hands free so I can surf the web, read, talk on the phone, or scratch my nose. Make the time. It is hard to find time for ...

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A little confession from the Rookie Moms. We are both pregnant with #2. For our readers, we think this is great because we'll be revisiting months 1-12 all over again. For our toddlers, this is great because they'll become big brothers. For our bodies, well, we do it for the family. For our hearts, I honestly can't even finish this sentence because pregnancy hormones have made me a tearful, pot-bellied mess when I think about how much love a mother of two must feel. So fellow pregnant readers, enough about us; what about you? Leigh from New For Baby has a ...

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Were you pregnant at the same time as Britney or Katie? Have you memorized more than the normal person's share of information about baby Kingston Rossdale or Moses Martin? Did you find out you were pregnant in the same place where the latest Jolie-Pitt baby was born? We're telling you that's okay. For example, I know that Tori Spelling got married the same weekend as me, and we are both pregnant now. We are cosmically linked whether she knows it or not! And Julia Roberts and Whitney (the Rookie Mom -- not Whitney Houston) were pregnant the same time the first ...

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There's been some talk in the blogosphere about babies born with URLs already reserved for them. That's fine and all, but there's a reason to get your pre-reading child online that's not just about reserving his or her Internet real estate. If you sign your kid up for an email address, you can send messages to his or her future self. All those things that you aren't writing in the baby book are candidates for an email to your child's future inbox. Dear Julian, today you threw a tantrum like none other I have seen. You have impressed me. Dear Julian, today you ...

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It makes me and Ryan feel like Real Parents when we take Julian on outings like Tilden Park's Little Farm. Animals and their sounds is one of our favorite topics of conversation with Julian. Of course at this age, our babies barely get what's going on, but showing them the live animals on a farm somehow feels very important. Perhaps you live near animals and don't think anything of it, but for us city folk, these experiences have to be sought out. In Berkeley, there is a little farm and nature center in Tilden Park. No admission fee. Just like on ...

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I've read in some well-meaning parenting magazines that the secret to looking fresh and awesome despite sleep-deprivation lies in a "quick" makeup routine that is five times more involved than what I would do before going to a party. Thanks but no thanks. I give you two images to consider. First, this is me immediately after childbirth: Next, this is me after having my eyebrows and eyelashes "done" by a professional: Next time, I vow to have my eyebrows and eyelashes done before labor and delivery so that I can look just a tad bit more awake during any pictures that may ...

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Since my New Year's resolution was to walk 10,000 steps a day, and so far I have failed miserably, I have a new piece of advice for myself. I should be doing as many errands as I can on foot. I did so much better when I was on maternity leave and then when I was working 4-hour days. Now, I'm not doing nearly as much walking. If you are reading this looking for a suggestion for the day, this is it: Run errands. For reals, girls, run them. Ok, walk if you're not a runner. Put the kid in the ...

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We try to focus on activities more than products, but this product seems like such a good idea, it could help you avoid a daily activity: cleaning pacifiers. (That is, if your kid is a bink-aholic like mine was.) Check out this pacifier that stays closed when not in the mouth. As soon as it hits the ground, the shield closes around the nipple. Anyone have experience with it? More details> Some advice from the trenches: as soon as Julian was able to put the pacifier in his mouth himself, we began placing a minefield of pacifiers in the crib ...

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Have you been a little hard to reach? It might be time to come out of your shell a bit. I recommend getting a hands-free phone to catch up with friends while strolling or nursing. Or make the time to return a phone call during naptime. Whitney pointed out to me that Holden was a full six-weeks old before I ever called her unprompted. How sad.

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My friend Mary (who had her son Del in the same hospital the day after I had Julian) gave this idea to our moms group. She said that 13-month old Del loves the pet store where he can check out the animals, especially the birds. To kill two birds with one stone (no-offense, bird lovers), you could be a really nice friend and offer to pick up pet food for that post-partum friend of yours, meanwhile taking your older baby on a super fun and free/cheap outing.