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First off, this is not the place to find out about counting pounds or calories... so, I can recommend the following tasty ways to get your calcium: mint chocolate chip ice cream in front of the TV cheese - fancy with red wine or the stick variety in the middle of the night a tall glass of milk with cookies or cake hot chocolate made with real milk decaf (single shot, double tall) latte real whipped cream on anything vanilla flavored steamed milk this enormous cream puff -- heavy cream means heavy calcium, right?

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Meagan, who is a rookie mom to Soren, wrote to us with this suggestion for how to be better about connecting with your friends. I love that is in the true spirit of a geeky girl's approach to motherhood: As my very understanding friends can attest, I have never been good at keeping in touch. I’m usually the ‘callee’ rather than the ‘caller.’ I had the requisite falling-off-the-face-of-the-earth period after my son’s birth in September, but recently began feeling guilty about my passive roll in various friendships. I resolved to be more proactive, but found myself overwhelmed as to where ...

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Now officially a second-time mom, Heather called me at 6.45 this morning to report that she was at the hospital, "kickin' it with her epidural" at 9 cm. Her OB would be there in a few minutes. Ninety minutes later, she called me to say she had a son, Milo Theodore, who was one-hour old. This photo of Heather (and Milo) and Holden was taken on Saturday. If you want to send her a message, use heather @ rookiemoms.com. If you want to send her something in the mail, send me a message at whitney @ rookiemoms.com and I will provide ...

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I'm sending you on a scavenger hunt as your activity for the day. Take a picture of your baby that captures the essence of the city or town in which she was born. Maybe a famous landmark is in the background, or maybe she's sitting on the shoulders of a local celebrity. So far we have a picture that captures San Francisco, and the one to the left here that shows Julian basking in the L.A. sun with palm trees in the distance. I'm still working on a concept for Berkeley. Photojojo has some great tips for photographing in and around ...

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Whether you do it on purpose (driving around town to induce a nap) or by accident (windows down, music blaring, begging baby to stay awake to no avail), sooner or later your baby will fall asleep in the car. Some people can get babies back to sleep after extracting them from the car seat, but that's not the case with my kid. Sure, you'll be delighted to see the blissed out look of baby sleep... but you might also wonder what the F*&k to do with yourself. Here's the tip: have a nap watching station all ready to go. With our ...

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Attention Dilbert fans, did you know that Comeeko.com allows you to upload photos and add speech bubbles to make a comic strip? You can share with friends and family through the web site. (via lifehacker.com)

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We recommend you try using that baby carrier, stroller, whatever before you really need it. Whitney actually practiced using her breast pump on her leg when she was 40 weeks pregnant, and it was a good thing: she ended up needing to use it for real the day after she gave birth, which is no time to figure out such an appliance. Tips for Baby Bjorn: If you had a C-section, you might not be ready for this for a few extra weeks. Get to know your stroller instead! Follow the little picture or see instructions online. Lay the baby some place safe. Adjust the ...

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This suggestion came from my friend Sunny on a rainy day. "You put a boy in a small bucket and see how long it takes for him to get himself out," she explained. "In this case, he wanted to stay in there." Seriously, a new container that your child has never seen might inspire some imaginative play that allows you to ignore him and focus on reading clever web sites. Put toys in the bucket. Let him eat a snack in the bucket. Turn the bucket over and stack blocks on it. Hide something under it. Decorate it with ...

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Faced with all his usual toys, Holden turned toward his faux rattle and rolled it and shook it for 2 days. Here's how to make this awe-inspiring toy: Wash and remove the label from a Gerber Prune Apple Juice container Let dry (important or it all turns to mush and is fun for noone) Insert about 6 Cheerios or Oatios Leave for baby to discover And that's it... I'm not kidding that this thing holds his attention right now better than his wiz-bang "real" toys. He likes to shake it and also roll it around the carpet and the floor.

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Scrounge around for some pictures of you and your mate together from when you first started out dating and wooing. Make a collage and put it on the fridge to remember your pre-baby lives. It can be as easy as tacking up a few old favorites that have been sitting in a drawer (bungee-jumping, wine tasting, skinny dipping?) or as high-tech as you want. I did this for our dating-aversary using Kodakgallery.com last fall and it was a big hit. If you go this route, you'll want to pick a square number (4, 9, 25...) to avoid the weird repeat feature. ...

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We confess to having stolen images from other (more creative) people's online baby clothes stores and putting them on our own baby's clothing using iron-on transfer paper. I found some new inspiration today at a few sites I had not seen before. If you are not feeling creative or simply don't have the energy to decorate your own baby clothes, consider some of these hipster choices, and shop. Check out the nutrition label bodysuits and flaming pants by Angelic Genius; Collage-style bodysuits by Little by Jenny; Minimalist motifs by Miele Fresca; hand-sewn appliqued shirts and hats by PlayDateNYC (pictured above)

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You probably did nice things to your baby’s bedroom to get it ready for him. How about your bedroom? Make a small change that will make you happy in your bedroom. Move a piece of furniture, hang something on the wall, or get rid of a clutter pile. (I didn’t say clean up – just hide it somewhere else!) Heather and I both painted our bedrooms in honor of this activity. It is one of the biggest impact, lowest cost design changes you can make.

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Save old sunglasses, cell phones, remotes and key chains that are no longer needed in a drawer. As a good rainy day activity for baby: pull them out one at a time. As junior plays with one, you can usually sneak another back in the drawer for an endless supply. Sometimes when I need to remove my cell phone from Julian's little paws, a decoy cell phone is the way to avoid a mini-tantrum.

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Sorry rookie dads, this one is for the ladies... So, we're all supposed to do kegels, right? How we're supposed to remember to do them with all the other stuff new moms are juggling is totally beyond me... so I came up with a brilliant little technique that I can share with you. Do one for every email you receive in a day. This way, each time you check emails, you can bust out (7) or (12) or (34) depending on how cluttered your inbox is and if you get a lot of junk mail. My nurse advised me that my little email ...

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'member those candy hearts that say "Me Too" or "Love Ya"? They're called conversation hearts. Rookie Moms reader, Veronica, suggests that we use our babies to make cards with this Valentine's Day theme for our family members this year: Pay homage to the throwback days when you made Valentine's for every kid in the class! Have baby pose with a cut-out construction heart and matching attire. Once you have a keeper, use Photoshop or your favorite scrapbook program to add fun, quirky sayings to the "conversation" heart! Be creative and come up with one for everybody on your recipient list! You ...

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I just read this idea on Flexible Parenting and my stepmom (aka Gramma Leslie) did this awesome toddler activity with Julian at her house, way before it would have occurred to me. Bring a stool to your empty kitchen sink and let your toddler climb up. Fill the sink with warm soapy water, plastic cups, utensils, etc. Let your toddler pretend to make something or wash dishes. For some reason my little man likes to say he's washing dishes. Far be it from me to inform him that washing dishes ain't fun. Try it. You'll be surprised at how long this can ...

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Make your partner feel loved by using your baby's chest as advertising space. Put an "I love" message on a onesie or bib and take a picture of the baby wearing it. This baby is rocking the straightforward message to daddy. I myself prefer a more subtle tribute to my husband with a projection of his hobbies or interests on the kid. "I (heart) downloading music for free" or "I (heart) burritos". I've thought of a few ways of achieving this: Order the item on customglambaby.com or ILoveAnything.com Use iron-on paper in your computer printer and make your design in Word ...

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Hi Ya'll. Well, this is hard for me to day, but I need to acknowledge that I've been a complete idiot. It was like I got myself back, and I was free again and I forgot the past few years and wanted to be a kid again. I hope you can imagine what it's been like for me, and try to put yourself back at my age and try to imagine being in my shoes. So yes, I let myself go, I drank too much and decided to hang out with some very unfortunate people who also drank too much. I ...

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