While your baby is sleeping, pack up a bunch of toys in a duffle bag for her to discover and pull out of the bag when she wakes up. Julian always unpacked everything to the right so if I acted quickly enough, I could keep refilling from the left.

When you’ve tired of that, put her in the duffel bag and hit the road.

I was shopping in Target with Holden. We needed pajamas. He found some.

I loathed them: the licensed character, the polyester. Ick. Double Ick.

He was so very happy.

“Mommy, you like cool things and I like cool things”

So we bought them.

This summer I reached out to Erin Chase from 5 Dollar Dinners to ask her for her EASIEST tips for new moms trying to get dinner on the table.

She went one better. Rather than a few handy tips, she shared with us her strategy for avoiding cooking during the witching hour altogether.

At the time I reached out to her, she and I both had two little guys, age two and four. Well, now that November has rolled around, she has added a third baby boy to her family (congratulations!) along with all the challenges of feeding her family healthfully, cheaply, and with an infant (and toddler and preschooler) hanging off her at all times!

Luckily, she stocked her freezer before baby Tyler arrived and we can learn from her planning. She worked with (and highly recommends) Tricia from Once a Month Mom to plan, make, and stockpile all the foods she’d need for feeding her boys.

I don’t know how large her freezer is, but can I just say Wow?! In addition to baked goods, snacks, side dishes, breakfasts, homemade jams (!), she also cooked up 13 main dishes (some of them doubled up!) like Chicken Parmigiana, Taco Soup, and Zesty Slow Cooker BBQ.

We wish her an easy recovery and hope that her hard work means she can rest a little more this week.

Read her entire freezer stock up list.
Learn the way of the Once a Month Mom.

Another trick for filling the freezer, rookie mom style, is to freeze little cookie dough balls and then eat them one at a time as needed.

Gone are the days when Alec and I could just go away for a few months with nothing but a pair of backpacks. Traveling with a baby requires more strategery, but this is one of my strengths, so allow me to share a tip:

You do not need to bring it all with you!

Flying with babies is a whole new adventure. And with the new luggage restrictions? Hold me. After a recent trip to Chicago (in which we did not travel light), I discovered that there are many ways to avoid carrying 17 bags, a stroller, a suitcase full of diapers, a carseat and a sleeping place for the baby. Here’s how:

1. Call before you go. If you’re visiting friends or family, can they borrow a bouncy seat and a pack n play for a few days? Does the hotel already provide portacribs? Whitney and I bring our own sheets so the bed will smell like home (and a single sheet packs easier than the whole portible crib).
2. Send stuff ahead. Jet Set Babies and Babies Travel Lite both send ahead kits of diapering and feeding supply “bundles.” You can do it yourself on Drugstore.com or Amazon too.
3. Shop when you get there. Do yourself a favor and carry on one diaper per hour of the flight and toss a few more in your luggage. Then plan to buy ‘em when you get there. On this same trip to Chicago, we only packed about 10 of Holden’s #2 Huggies and the drugstore we went to carried only #1 or #3 (of every single brand!) but we managed.
4. Rent some baby gear. After you’ve exhausted the free options, Traveling Baby Company and The New Parents Guide list many baby equipment renters across the country so you can have a high chair and a bag of toys ready when you get there. If you are traveling without your partner, you might want to consider doing this, as carrying all that crap AND a baby who needs to get changed or fed as soon as you get off the plane is pretty overwhelming.

Now, going to visit grandma doesn’t have to be like camping unless you want it to be.

Anyone else have tips to share about lightening your load when traveling with a baby?

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).

As we barrel toward the holidays, it is easy for me to think “we have too many toys!” and my boys just don’t need a thing. Other times, we visit friends for playdates and I think the opposite. Maybe my sons have all the wrong toys. Ugh.

Scary toy pile from Wendy

Here are some how-to instructions for doing an effective toy box sort (adapted from the guidelines by Discovery Toys‘ educational consultants):

1. Sort. Make two big piles: “toy keepers” and the “toys you can do without” — More often than not, the toys in the “must keep” pile are open-ended (like Legos, blocks, stuffed animals) and the “forgotten” pile are toys that don’t do very much at all.
2. Edit. Pare down the collection, remove any broken toys, pack away toys that are not age-appropriate (both too young and too old). Toys that are outgrown can be stored or passed along. Toys that are broken can be repaired or find new homes.
3. Organize. Sort the keeper toys into like categories. Whitney uses these categories for her kids’ array of toys (with a bin or cubby for each): puzzles, small people + animals, things with wheels, puzzles missing pieces (triage), doll house accessories, pretend food, puppets, trains + tracks, costumes, babydoll clothes, instruments. I also like to store half of the toys in a back room so I can keep the selection fresh with rotation.
4. Label. After you’ve pared down and organized, store toys in clearly labeled bins (preferably clear bins!) so that each toy has a place. For pre-readers, you can use photos and names on your labels.
5. Evaluate. Is anything obviously missing? Is your child lacking puzzles, craft supplies, dress-up clothes, or age-appropriate books?

Streamlined toy system from Wendy

To fully appreciate Wendy’s efforts in toy storage and mastering the toy box, you must read her post. Her categories include trains and train tracks, train set “destinations”, play food and kitchen stuff, stuffed animals, plastic animals and safari toys, vehicles, construction toys and tool.

As part of this exercise in my house, we determined that Milo, the puzzle fiend, really could use a puzzle board so he can do his puzzles in the living room without the frustration of pieces sinking into the carpet. Holden and Alec are going to make him one as a project.

I’m not convinced Holden needs any more toys though. We have a Hot Wheels track that I haven’t given him from last year and I think he’ll really like it. If only I can find space for it!

How do you manage the toy chaos? Any success or failure stories you’d like to share?

Plan Toys are exactly the toys I want my kids to like. They are attractively designed, eco-friendly wooden toys without a licensed character in sight. I believe they allow for kid-powered creativity and open-ended preschooler inventiveness like pretending the little crazy-haired dude is a princess who wishes she were an owl.

When we received the Activity Bus from Plan Toys, it was my sons’ favorite toy for one day. Only.

They loved setting up the little bus, desks, and non-gender-specific figurines in little configurations. I was smitten. And they seemed happy too.

On the second day, Holden got mad at us (because we said he could not bring the toy to school) so he punished us by breaking the toy. You have to love the way a four-year old’s brain works. Yes? To punish US he broke his own current favorite toy.

He cried. Milo cried. We did not cry.

The construction of the bus itself had a little hinge holding the two bus halves together; the hinge allowed for opening and closing the bus. Open to play. Close for storage. Break when angry. We were able to force it back in, but it just hasn’t been the same since.

But you know how kids are. Sometimes they play with that water bottle stuffed with pennies for days on end. Other times, they won’t play with that cool new toy once the box has been recycled. Ugh.

Sadly, the activity bus has been cast aside for play food, Legos, cars, trains, and Holden’s other favorite toy, the (broken!) garbage truck!

ebeanstalk is a unique resource for parents on the hunt for age-appropriate educational toys and baby gifts. They work with a team of parents who routinely test and evaluate toys to have the best selection. I’m so glad my strong opinions help them. I wrote about my love for their toy subscription service years ago.

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ebeanstalk and Plan Toys sent me this toy for my honest review. If we had not been sent this product (free for evaluation), I might have purchased it for our own use. I’m glad I did not buy it because it has not been played with since that incident.

• Little kid-sized backpacks – My son loves having his little backpack that fits his preschooler body just right. Cool Mom Picks shared a 25% off code for these hip toddler backpacks from Four Peas. Type in COOLKIDS at check-out.
• Naptime gift project for shutterbugs – Tracey from ShutterSisters has posted a template for a 2010 calendar that fits in a jewel case intended for CDs. You add your own photographs and Tracey’s taken care of the rest. The template is a set of PSDs, so Photoshop knowledge is required.
• A guide to being a baby cheapskate – Angie collates tons of coupons and alerts about diapers, toys, etc and publishes them every day. Get to know it.
• 10 things you need in your closet – Sometimes you just need someone to tell you what to do.  Susan is telling you.
• Skirt to toddler dress refashion inspiration – the sewing Britt describes might be too complex for some of us, but I’m totally inspired.

And finally, chocolate. Sucre sent me and Heather some delicious chocolate. Thank you, nice chocolate marketing people! I loved the dark chocolate bar with candied violet.  If you would like to buy chocolate for all your friends and neighbors, save $10.00 off artisan chocolate orders over $70 when you use the code SUCRE at http://shopsucre.com.

Oh! If you are not already subscribed to our RSS feed, do that now.

We were already fans of the Wii for new parents long before we heard of Wii Fit. But now, geeking out with video games and trying to be fit shredheads with Jillian are two great tastes that taste great together. Thanks to Sports Authority, we’re giving away one Wii Fit Plus Board and Jillian Michaels’ new fitness game.

Sports Authority is opening up a new Wii Fit area of their store, called the Wii Fit Plus experience, where you can go and try out some of the games. Moms having more fun? We couldn’t agree more!

If you’re anywhere near the Sports Authority in Torrance, CA on Thursday morning, Jillian Michaels will be there in person whipping folks into shape and giving away video games. The event starts at 9:30 a.m. and runs all morning.

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Leave a comment to win

To enter to win Fitness Ultimatum 2010 and Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board ($129 value), leave us a comment below and tell us how you find “me time” now that you’re a parent. The contest will begin at 12:00 p.m. (PST) November 18, 2009 and will end 8:59 a.m. (PST) November 30, 2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

• No duplicate comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments. (something like “Sweet! @rookiemoms is giving away a Wii Fit Plus + Jillian’s new game” but up to you!)
• You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
• This giveaway is open to US Residents, aged 18 and older. (Sorry!)
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
• You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Be on the lookout for a second chance to win a Wii Fit Plus Board in two weeks!

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We were not paid to write this announcement or administer this contest. Unfortunately, we’re not eligible to win it either. Gah!

With the economy totally sucking, we’ve modified our babysitter retainer model slightly and are trying to have a few more date nights at home. If you thought it was totally unrealistic when I told you to put your kids to bed before 7pm and have a date-night, I feel you.

Here are six slightly more inventive ideas for dating during your kids waking hours, because let’s admit it, things just ain’t what they used to be.

Dates involving the kids
It can be a tricky balance to let the kids participate and still have it feel like a date, or at least a special occasion.

1. Serve me. Get the kids to serve you somehow. Big kids can prepare dinner, little kids can walk on your back and we can call it a spa/massage.
2. Join us. Throw a wintry picnic in the living room, a silly way to celebrate that you’re more than a couple, you’re a family.
3. Class it up. Order the best takeout in town, serve it on the good china with cloth napkins. Light candles.
4. Play Rock Band where you do the instruments and singing and your kids accompany with egg shakers and tambourines from their kits. (Rumor has it that Lego Rock Band has kid-friendly tunes.)

While the kids are distracted
These can be a little hard to pull-off but here are some ideas to sneak in a date while your kids are looking the other way.

1. Elmo sex. As described by Mom101, “in which you plop the kids down in front of Elmo, race into the bedroom for 15 minutes, then get the 2 minute warning when the theme music comes on?”.
2. Drug ‘em. Benadryl the kids and make out while they’re passed out. Naw, I wouldn’t. But tell me if you you’ve tried it.

We use a few different strategies to double dip on childcare we’re already using. For example, Alec and I can sometimes have coffee date before work or sneak in a matinee when the boys are at preschool.

What kind of things do you do to have a “date night” at home?

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and LEGO® DUPLO®

My daughter is abusing the word “because”. She has become a master of the run-on sentence, linking together every thought that comes into her brain, often in a circular logic fashion, with the word “because”.

She is two years old.

Mommy, I was crying because I was looking for my dolly and I find it under da coffee table because I was looking for my dolly because I was crying.

I love that she has enough words at her disposal to give me these explanations.

And since I’m truthfully not such a rookie mom anymore, it has inspired me to dig back in my brain to a technique I used to use to get inside my son’s creative little developing brain when he was at this stage of verbalization. We would play the “What would happen?” game.

It’s an entertaining way to pass time in the car or while waiting in line for something – and can even be used as a distraction or mood changer for an upset kid.

What would happen if I stacked these bricks all the way up to the sky?
What would happen if we gave a cupcake to a baby?

Kids. They say the darndest things. But it can help get the conversation going if adults say the darndest things first.

“Scarlett, what would happen if you turned into a bat?”
“I would turn into a bat and den I would eat poop wif Daddy and Julian because I turn into a bat!”

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We have been playing with a new set of LEGO® DUPLO® bricks – another opportunity to peek into the inner workings of my kid’s brains.

“Is that a fire station? “
“No, it’s a pizza oven!”

I love that the LEGO® DUPLO® bricks can be anything my kids imagine. Three dimensional building lends itself naturally to the stage of understanding his world in which my 5-year old lives. We can build a park, skyscrapers, and the other stuff that you expect to see with LEGO® DUPLO® bricks. And now that he’s learning about patterns in school, we can use the colors and sizes to make patterns. Red, green, yellow, red, green, yellow. (We have a HUGE tub of LEGO® DUPLO® tricks with every color in the rainbow.)

The folks at BlogHer sent us this awesome LEGO® DUPLO® Legoville Fire Station to review. It includes the makings of the fire station structure (complete with slide), plus the firefighters, a fire truck, PLUS a helicopter, AND a ladder and hose!

Nothing has been left out, and there are enough features that both kids can play at the same time and have their own vehicle and “guy”. See how one of the fire fighters is sitting on the balcony using a computer? My son loves that.

The included fire hydrant is not in this picture, because we’ve built a city “across the street” that houses that fire hydrant. My five-year old is very thankful to have such a complete playset.

Plus, my 2-year old uses it as a pizza oven.

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YOU can win a set just like this one!

To enter to win a $20 LEGO® DUPLO® gift card, leave me a comment below and tell me how you get creative and stimulate development in your kids. The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) November 16, 2009 and will end 8:59 a.m. (PST) November 23, 2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

• No duplicate comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. (something like “oooh, @rookiemoms is giving away a Duplo set http://bit.ly/1boxUR” but up to you!)
• This giveaway is open to US Residents, aged 18 and older. (Sorry!)
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
• You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
• Please see the official rules here: Official rules

We had a board book that I didn’t like too much. The illustrations were too wishy washy and there were too many words. We also had a board book that I loved, by Todd Parr, called This is My Hair. Bold illustrations and simple text. Plus funny. I decided I wanted the first book to be more like the second book. And I needed a Father’s Day gift for my husband.

So, I painted over the cover of the book, put stickers on it and pasted all sorts of stuff on the inside. The main theme was “This is my dad”. I made a cartoon-like image of my husband’s head and copied enough of them for each page of the book. Then I pasted it over various environments that I cut out of magazines. I hand wrote the captions. I did not worry about letting the original contents of the book show through. It was obviously hand-made.

I think it looks really messy and amaturish, but visitors to our house seemed to be very impressed. So, I share this idea with you so that you can impress your own visitors. Feel free to copy my ideas exactly.

Apparently there is a whole art form called altered books, where people collage on the pages of regular books. They make some amazing stuff. My version is less than amazing, but it is a board book that my son and husband read together – and it’s made by me.

I reviewed a Duplo set and YOU can win a gift card. See details on the review page.

A post from Designing Moms crossed my path just as I was realizing that I need a zipper pouch in my purse to contain all the loose pieces I keep for emergency kid entertainment. Plastic spiders, packaged snack bars, and tiny cars are forever preventing me from locating my keys quickly when I dig my hand into my purse.

Guissell identifies the contents of her two tote bags with detailed notations. I would call these two the “with kids in tow” bag and the “without kids” bag.

Some items, like wallet, keys, sunglasses, and phone go into both bags. Things like wipes and board books stay in the “with kids in tow” bag. You get the idea.

Read the details of her system to fully appreciate how clever it is.

Call me sentimental, but I am a fan of tiny baby feet on little coasters, mugs, and tiles. When Holden was 6 weeks old, we dragged him to a paint-your-own-pottery place to stamp his tootsies on trivets (the cheapest pottery they sold) and I already felt that I had missed his “newborn foot size.” In hindsight, I think I was overreacting just a bit; his feet were still plenty small.

The professional paints baby foot. Baby screams.

Heading out to the local Color-Me-Mine is a rite of passage for many Moms’ Groups and we encourage it. Lord knows we think you should get out of the house!

But there is another way to make these adorable keepsakes and turn the event into a fun party where you just need to brew up some coffee and let the fun come to you.

Yes, you can also have a paint-your-own-pottery party at home. A company called Thomas Claire offers kits of pottery, paint, and little name tags (to identify who painted what blob and which tiny baby footprint is actually yours).

Two-year olds can paint masterpieces. And themselves.

Babies participate by providing feet to be footprinted while toddlers and preschoolers can do handprints or sponging and older children can paint masterpieces. We, the rookie moms, did this with just moms and kids to make Father’s Day gifts but this activity can be a sentimental Christmas gift or a newborn keepsake.

Julian looks on as Holden hand prints the mug

Related posts:

• Tips on getting the very best footprint on coasters and trivets.
• For a Moms’ Group outing at home, just add breakfast.

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The good folks at Thomas Claire sent us kits to use as Father’s Day gifts. And I’m just writing about it now. Oops! I am using the mug today. For reals.

Heather and I recently had the pleasure of being guests on Lady Brain, the most candid advice show on San Francisco radio. Thanks to Internet magic, this show is not just for locals – you can listen to any episode on their website or subscribe with iTunes.

The hosts, Lauren and Steph, both moms themselves, take pleasure in setting people straight with their frank responses to calls. You know the saying “mi casa es tu casa?” Well, your drama is their drama. Body image problems? Questions about office romances? Wondering what to say if you fart during pilates? Ask Lady Brain. Call to leave them voice mail at 510-859-3603.

Listen to our interview, or become a fan of Lady Brain on Facebook so that you’ll know when they cover a topic that piques your interest.

Continue to try on all the new outfits you got as gifts, no matter how silly you think they are, and photograph him in the clothes before he outgrows them.

Remember to take pictures when outfit is fresh (it took me 3 tries on this outfit and I finally dressed him in the living room out by the chair!) — if your baby is a puker like mine, this is especially important.

Whitney calls this activity “playing baby doll.” After all, why did we have children if not to pretend they are our favorite toys?

If you have two kids within four years of age, it’s likely that you’ll find yourself strolling the younger one while the older one walks. May we recommend a little trick?

Attach something to the stroller for your older child to hold onto, so that she feels included and so that you know exactly where she is, without rolling over her little feet. Make a Big Brother/Sister Handle out of something you’ve already got in the house.

Here are three DIY ideas:

1. Cut three lengths of fabric and braid them together, tying one end in a loop for holding.
2. Use some of those baby linking rings to attach a bobble for holding.
3. MacGyver yourself something with ribbons and a carabiner or other “grown-up” accoutrements

My kids are two years and eight months apart. One possible way for me to take the two of them out together in the early days was to wear the baby in a carrier on my chest and push my nearly-three-year old in the stroller. But sometimes we were just walking from our car to a playground, about half a block or less, and the baby had no intention of “playing” when we got there. My preferred method of transport in this case was to keep the baby in her carseat/stroller combo and let my son walk. I trusted him to follow along, but crossing the street meant that I had to push the stroller with one hand, while offering the other hand to my son.

Even now, with my daughter being two and my son being five, there are occasions when he walks alongside the stroller. He likes to hold on to the side of the stroller to be connected with us, but that sort of interferes with my walking. Know what I mean?

Not a do-it-yourself-er? A new product called tag *a* long can serve this stroller “tag” function for you. A rubber handle that hooks easily onto your stroller, your big kid can hold onto the handle, as shown in the picture above. Stephanie, the mom who invented the tag *a* long sent me one to try, and my kids were SO excited about using it (my daughter had not gone willingly into her stroller for months, but she really wanted to have her brother hold onto that neon yellow rubber handle).

I attached it to the stroller in about 30 seconds, and we set out for a favorite shopping district where both kids promptly had a total meltdown and I had to work really really hard not to use any 4-letter words. Not my favorite day ever, but definitely no fault of our new stroller handle.

This morning at preschool drop-off, I was helping Milo to remove his jacket (while providing him the illusion he was doing it “all by self!”) and a teacher (let’s call her Jill) noticed we have the same color hair.

Jill said, “I guess that’s proof that you don’t color your hair.” I laughed a little and said I had heard that some moms will take their children to the salon and say, “make it that color” (pointing to the kid’s head) but no, I haven’t done that (yet!).

Yep, he's a redhead

Jill went on to say that another teacher in the infant toddler room had asked one child’s mom, “do you color Ethan’s hair? It’s so red!” and another (and this one’s my favorite), “do you give Jake those little blond highlights?” No and no.

As long as we’re on the topic of hair, Milo was so bald for so long that we didn’t know what color his hair would be until he was 18 months old. Granted, it still might change quite a bit, but for now we have a little redhead boy.

Milo was a very bald baby

Prancing around as a super pale redheaded child, I often cited that redheads were only 4% of the American population. More recently, I read that redheads are actually going extinct.

When I was little, I felt like an alien species at times. My hair would either be in style or out of style. It was never just hair. I was also mercilessly teased about my Caspar-like complexion. Even as an adult, strangers want to be photographed next to me to show of their suntans (this happens for real!) or the kind-hearted older ones will ask if I’m wearing sunscreen. Consequently, I always thought that fellow redheads were kind of icky. Being so pale and prone to sunburn was a terrible fate I wouldn’t wish on anyone I loved.

But now that I have a mini pale-face son with red curls and chubby (pale) cheeks, I wouldn’t wish for anything else. And some day, I might just color my hair to match his.

Julian had one friend sleep over for his fifth birthday this year. The child’s family came over for a pizza and salad dinner, and guess what? That’s eight people around our table. Eight is enough, right?

I was so in love with some of the other birthday parties I saw on the interwebz this month, those with lovingly designed party favor bags and cupcake toppers, that I couldn’t resist spending a few minutes making something personalized for the party. I think these little decorations could be used for any age of party, from one to 99.

I bought a package of orange circle stickers from the Paper Source, which has a store near me. On their website, there is a Word template you can download so that whatever you type on the Word doc will show up in the center of the stickers. I typed a number 5 and used different fonts for variety.

Then I looked in our wrapping paper stash for ribbon. I cut a few lengths of it and taped it to our doorway. Then I placed a sticker on each side of the ribbon every six inches or so. Repeat.

The second thing I did with the “5″ stickers was place them on each side of a toothpick. Then I stuck the toothpicks in the brownies.

I really really wish these were cupcakes. I think it would look much better, but the birthday boy was with me at the store selecting a mix (yes, I am that type of mom) and he insisted that he loves brownies.

I did have a few stickers left, and I could have made more streamers, but I decided to hand them over to the pre-K class so they could use them on the birthday crowns they make.