RookieMoms Blog

These allergy alert labels let everyone know what allergies they should be aware of. I would appreciate this, especially when kids are in a group setting. A lot of the young tykes in my life have long and ever-changing lists of allergies and it’s hard to keep up with all of them!

They’re really pricey though — $18.50 for a pack of 20? That’s almost a buck each! No word on whether they go through the dishwasher well either.

If your child has allergies, I suggest you just crib their idea and make a whole bunch of personalized allergy labels on your home computer — you can buy a whopping 750 blank neon-colored labels for your home printer at Office Depot for only $12.

That’s a savings of, uh, about a zillion percent.

> Buy from Mabel.
> Buy from Office Depot.

Sometimes Heather and I worry that we are making assumptions about our readers’ lifestyles that aren’t true. We assume everyone lives in a place like we live, where you can walk to a dry cleaner, corner markets, and to some pretty great destinations if you are willing to push a stroller for 15 or 20 minutes.

I’m guessing she thinks my location is better than hers (we live 1.6 miles apart), but this morning as my family and I had breakfast in Heather’s ‘hood, we were saying that they scored a pretty great location. And, according to WalkScore.com, her house is actually more walkable than ours.

Check out the site. It might make you appreciate some close by businesses you never thought to frequent. That’s how I’m feeling right now.

Ok, I’m supposed to be honest. How I’m really feeling right now is guilty because I told Ryan not to go running until Scarlett wakes up so he can give her a bottle so that I can feel like she takes a bottle and go somewhere without her. But oddly, she decided to take her longest nap of the week — two and a half hours. I can’t win. He could have gone on a thirty minute run 5 times already.

I was asked to test drive Printakid (personalized books for children) and let y’all know what I think. I have long been curious about the professional ways to write your own baby into a book and jumped at the chance.

Holden is quite happy with the finished product with his cartoonish avatar and very own name alongside three of his best buds enjoying a series of outlandish adventures. That said, I have to admit to disappointment on a few different fronts: 1) experience creating the book 2) price of the product and shipping 3) the story itself (that must be read over and over and over).

On ordering the book
Upon ordering my customized book, I knew I had created a cartoon-like character named for my child in a story called The Kingdom of Nevernight, but I didn’t know much more than that.

My chief complaint is that there’s no preview function. I could select a few drop-downs for customizing my hero, Holden, but I couldn’t tell what I made my kid look like. Worse, I left the ordering process with this weird feeling that the book itself is like a mad lib and really wanted to see it before making it a forever kind of thing. For example, I entered three friends and I wondered, are they all just grouped together or will one of them be the best buddy or the scrappy sidekick or the brain?

The site insisted on the guardians names (first names only) and relationship, but I didn’t know why…. is there a place for “mommy heather”? I wanted to ADD MILO but I couldn’t tell where a helpless infant would best fit the story. I hope future iterations of the order process offer more of a preview of the book.

On paying for the book
The price for one book plus medium shipping was $44 at the time I placed my order — can i get a “hell no”?! In my cheap-a$$ opinion, this is a price-point only a grandparent could love — I bet you $10 that my mom would be fine with it. If I were going to pay that much for a single book, I would really like to know a little more what’s coming. Can you tell I’m a little hung up on this point?

On owning the book
Yep once ordering and buying the book is behind you, the proof is in the pudding. And Holden thinks the book is just fantastic and loves reading the goofy story featuring himself and three of his best pals (unrecognizable as a bedouin, a knight, and an ice fisherwoman). Over and over and over.

The story we chose is quirky (at best) and a little hard to read because of an unpredictable rhyme scheme. There are a few other story choices targeted at older kids. In a Sandra Boynton world, The Kingdom of Nevernight drives my husband just crazy enough that he wants to hide it. But Holden will find it again. He’s always looking under the couch for his missing treasures.

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Parentbloggers allowed me the chance to review this book service for you. I have to tell it like it is.

My 12-week old is named Scarlett. We had this name picked for our 3 year-old as well, but he turned out to be a boy. After going through the whole name selection process again, we decided Scarlett was still our favorite. Here are 13 other girl names we considered:

1. Alice
2. Autumn
3. Devin
4. Dylan
5. Frances
6. Georgia
7. Layla
8. Lily
9. Lucy
10. Natalie
11. Noe
12. Sidney
13. Summer

See more silly and serious lists at thursdaythirteen.com or make your own.

We have started to get a lot of solicitations for all manner of things: stuff ranging from Nintendo products and printers to manscaping tools and fruit juice. When it’s something that we like or think you’ll really like, we have no problem talking about it.

But when it’s something of only mild interest, I wonder do YOU care about it and I don’t? Do YOU only come here to read what I (we) care about because it’s our site or do YOU really want to be alerted and notified about contests and charitable promotions?

I have a conscience about some earthy things. Not all. Of course. I don’t buy lunchables; I recycle and sometimes compost. But I have a love affair with Ziploc bags and really long showers.

Here are a few of the do-goody things that came through my inbox recently:

1. The League of Maternal Justice is kicking ass and taking names at leagueofmaternaljustice.com — if you’re pissed off about the recent breastfeeding scandals or other ways in which moms are given the short end of the proverbial stick, pay them a visit. Raging hormones optional.
2. Goodyblog is asking us to take 2 minutes to help save children’s health care from dramatic cuts in the senate. Read about it and take advantage of the speed of the Internet to do some good! I think it took me even less than 2 minutes to fax my senators.
3. The price point at myconservationbaby.com is too rich for my blood, but their hearts are in the right place. Who out there pays $30+ for a onesie? What if it could stop global warming?
4. Anyone too busy for an actual lactivist event can join the virtual nurse-in on 10/10 at 10:00. You’ve got to join it to understand it. (Sorry league, I don’t think I can deactivate Facebook at this time, I’m too into scrabulous)
5. And speaking of boobs, give breast cancer the boot — buy any product on hatleynature.com during October and Hatley will donate 20% of the purchase to John Wayne Cancer Institute (JWCI) Breast Center at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. That’s nice.

So, what do you think? More of this? Less of this?

No girls allowed:The official contest in honor of Tonka’s birthday offers a prize of being visited by a life-size Tonka truck filled with play-size Tonka toys. See rules at details here.

RookieMoms is offering a random subscriber to our newsletter (of any gender) a big ol’ Tonka dump truck. I don’t know what it’s like in a house of girls, but I can say that Holden loves his diggers and dump trucks.

Mamas, do your girls play with trucks too?

In an era of DVR’s and Netflix and on-demand, who’s sitting around waiting for the new shows to start? Me!!! Here’s why:

13 reasons i can’t wait for the new tv season

1. Heroes — yay! Next week, it’s coming and I can’t wait.
2. Lost — but come on, when’s that gonna start?
3. Sex and the City — tivo is now catching the same old episodes over and over. I recognize them by title!
4. Wonder Pets — Holden and I have seen them all. Sadly, when I got everyone to bed last night and collapsed to watch some TV, it was still paused on WP from the day before. I’m ready for a new flock of animals to save. Anyone with me?
5. More kid shows — tivo is fetching only kid’s shows for us now. How sad are we?
6. The movies all suck now.
7. I’m too lazy to read.
8. My kids still go to bed by 7:30 (fingers crossed that I’m not jinxing myself) so I’m ready to pick up and knock down some new shows.
9. Scrubs. Office. Earl. 30 Rock. Our dessert shows after a hard day. We ration them out throughout the week.
10. Singing Bee — new guilty pleasure.
11. Ugly Betty — old guilty pleasure.
12. Note from the Underbelly - is it coming back? Will I still care?
13. Six Feet Under — we finally finished watching our series on netflix and now have nothing to watch.

See more silly and serious lists at thursdaythirteen.com or make your own.

If, like me, you think you’ve seen it all in terms of front carriers, slings, etc, take a look at this product. It’s the Water Wrap by Gypsy Mama. I’m not sure if it’s more a problem solver or a problem creator. What do you think? I found it on BabyWit, a very cute site with some rock onesies that are hard to resist.

Hilarious. Maybe you are lucky like my cousin and won’t have your period return for over 2 years. But if you’re like many new moms, you’ll be surprised (whenever it happens) that it’s not what you remember. It might be different (heavier, more erratic, mood-swingier) or you may just be out of practice.

I’m the conservative one, so I say: keep those choking hazard tampons out of baby’s hands and add a little pizazz to your purse or diaper bag with these amusing tampon cases from Uncommon Goods. Whitney brings Julian into the bathroom with her and hands him a full box of tampons to play with. To each her own.
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This was formerly an activity on RookieMoms until we decided that it’s really more of a product tip so voila, le blog! I hope nobody misses it too much.

ParentBloggers and Ryka shoes are asking the question, “how do you FIT it in?” and I aim to answer. Here are my favorite exercises for getting sweaty post-baby:

• Running. “Running late” that is, with a baby strapped to my chest or dangling from my person for an extra 17 pounds resistance to build my over-developed right arm.
• Biking. That’s real outside fresh air biking or a spin class. Alec commits to staying in with the boys on Sunday mornings so I can get my ride on. This coming Sunday, I’m doing the Tour d’Organics with a girlfriend. Allegedly. We’ll all drive up in the morning on Sunday and Alec will meet us at rest stops for fresh organic fruit and nursing breaks. We’re doing the short one.
• Swimming. Swimming was my sport of choice when I just had Holden to contend with and I can honestly say I’ve only been in the pool once post-Milo. I did the ocean swim portion of an Olympic triathlon while nursing a four-month old in the transition area, so it’s a point of great pride for me… even if it’s in the past.
• Chasing toddlers and deep breathing. These are my real exercises. The ones I do every day.
• Baby Bootcamp. I fit in the real class exactly once and loved it (despite my own crying and my baby’s crying it was good to have an actual instructors and compassionate peers). The photo here is me and Scarlett and Milo making up our own rules with lunges, jogging stroller, and the Bjorn.
• Laughing. Is that a sport? It’s probably the most important one to make time for amidst the chaos.