RookieMoms Blog

Wah! I want to throw myself on the ground and kick and whine, “where did MY Halloween go?! wah wah!” I love costumes and carving and silliness. One year while dating, Alec and I were both red fuzzy dice and my favorite memory was us walking toward each other in costume from opposite parts of San Francisco. Various commuters saw us at different points of our journey and we got double-takes for several blocks each.

But since having that darn baby, I don’t seem to get Halloween anymore. I’m just pouting in my costume right now lamenting this unfortunate turn of events.

I don’t want to be one of Those Moms who doesn’t let her kid do anything until said child winds up totally rebelling in college by getting into all that nasty stuff just because he couldn’t have sugar or TV in his house growing up. But I have to say, I’m well on my way.

This was Holden’s third Halloween not celebrating Halloween.

I did manage to trick him into his costume for some squinty pictures. Yay. And he got a little modified trick-or-treat action at a preschool party as practice for next year. So that’s something.

In order to prepare for the first big ToT’ing, Rookie Dad ordered us an early pizza so we could eat at 5:30 and hit the streets at 6pm. I made sure that Holden’s costume was a comfy and layerable (but not too fussy) skeleton that he’s already comfortable with (so we wouldn’t have the howling of 2005 or the flat-out refusal of 2006 repeated). I was optimistic. But we scrapped the whole trick-or-treat thing tonight because of his crazy toddler behavior that shouldn’t be rewarded with candy and staying up late.

Crazy behavior included, but was certainly not limited to:

1. Loudly proclaiming, “I hate pizza, go away” during our attempts at the early dinner
2. Trying to hit his baby brother with a flashlight in the head and yelling “YES YES YES” when I said we don’t hit babies
3. Wimpering “Daddy go to work so I will miss you” during the normal dinner time when we’d pretty much given up
4. Arguing (for no reason), “I don’t like candy. Milo likes candy. He has teeth.” (ok, that wasn’t bad, just funny… Milo is a toothless 8 month old)
5. General kicking and flailing

So I’m sitting here in a Clifford the Big Red Dog suit while I wonder where it all went wrong.

Or at least he was in the seventies. I love this video, it’s just so matter of fact.

It kinda reminds me of how funny, cool, and edgy the Mary Tyler Moore show was without trying.

If you already know the answer to this analogy, then pardon my ignorance, but for the rest of you, the answer is: Crazy 8. I just learned this.

Yes, Gymboree has launched a cheaper, hipper brand and my husband just told me about it as he unpacked some clothing for our kids he had bought online from Crazy 8. Hello? How does he know about a new kids brand before I do? Oh, because he is the master of e-commerce?

Anyhow, shipping is currently free and they have some 2-for deals like 2 tshirts for $12.

Note to Heather whose daycare does not allow onesies on babies: Many long-sleeved t shirts for Milo like the one pictured here which is $4.99.

And, for the fancy pants moms among you, did you know that Janie and Jack is the Banana Republic of the Gymboree family? Well, I didn’t until just now. Call me slow.

To compensate for my pro-carryout post, I want to admit that I cook at home a fair bit. I have a few links, tips and tricks to share:

• I really like the The Best 30-minute Recipe (even though it’s more like best 90 minute recipe with a toddler and a baby around) so we try to work those in as often as practical. Once every week or two.
• I’m also a huge fan of the scramble, but how many times can I write about that? Besides, that really works best if you commit to it one week (5 dinners) at a time.
• Eggs!!! I confess I wish I could cook scrambled eggs every night so I’m working on perfecting my frittata so I can do just that and have it be a little fancier. Throw in some bagged spinach and a chopped vegetable (tomato, mushroom, peas?!), and add panko breadcrumbs before cooking in the oven for a few minutes. Mine are Ugly, but they taste fine and Holden doesn’t care.
• 101 meals ready in 10 minutes or less from the NY Times shared by our friend Sunny. Some of these look super simple and some kind of weird so let me know what you think.
• Creamy garlic shrimp fettucine in under 20 minutes from Karen’s aunt Julie — Get the frozen big ones and keep them on-hand for a fast dinner but do not peel your own; it’s icky and time consuming. I’m trying this recipe next week.

And these tips are not fast fast, but help you get dinner on the table quick if you plan ahead a bit:

• Crock Pot night — especially good when all you have to do is chuck stuff in the pot and come home to a meal. I made some shlock last week requiring about 16 hours of prep plus two overnights. I took some logical (to me) short cuts and the resultant chili was inedible. Oops.
• Double your recipe. Freeze half then serve your family. Schedule (and label) the leftover so you don’t forget about it.

Hey new moms (and friends of new moms) — what about gathering all your life-saving take out menus in one place so you don’t lose them. In my house it’s a drawer, which is great, because I can’t lose the drawer.

If you’re not the cooking kind, drive or walk to collect some menus and put them in this adorable box from tatutina.com. And if you’re coming to my house, bring some pad thai from Ruen Pair cuz they don’t deliver.

Or if you run a restaurant in Berkeley, how about delivering?!!

[Idea from hybrid mom magazine that I got at a cool conference]

Last night we attended a panel discussion about working and motherhood in San Francisco. There were 600 women present, and it was strange to realize that everyone in the room was a mother. I am used to assuming I am special when I’m at a work event. I have thoughts like, “I have to get home and nurse my baby — y’all wouldn’t understand.” But everyone there last night did understand. And my breasts were totally cooperative with my four hour outing, although I had stashed a hand pump in my purse just in case.

Also present were some cool book authors including the women behind the milk memos. Have you heard about this book?

It all began when IBM manager Cate Colburn-Smith sat down in the company’s employee lactation room, shed a few silent tears, and wrote this on a paper towel: I’m a new mom and today is my first day back at work. Is anyone else using this room?

Right away women responded, and the paper towel was eventually replaced by a series of notebooks, in which these moms offered one another advice and support for juggling work, life and a newborn. Based on the original notebooks, The Milk Memos is an informative, encouraging (and often hilarious!) guide to blending motherhood and work. Actual journal entries are interwoven with information-packed sections on subjects that matter to working moms, such as:

* Finding the right childcare solution
* Getting a decent night’s sleep
* Finding a private place to pump breastmilk
* Establishing a pumping routine in the midst of a
busy workday
* Negotiating with an employer for flextime, part-time,
or a job share

The web site for the book has some helpful PDFs that you back at work nursing moms should take a look at. At the event last night, they also had a recipe for milk production-boosting cookies. I’ll find out if we can get our hands on that and share it with you.

And, before you click away to check it out, have a look at the Rookie Moms pumping project and share your story.

I proffer two examples to remind you that in the parenting pantheon, you are a great parent! I am, of course, assuming that it wasn’t you who ordered this rather ill-advised “Grand Theft Auto” cake for a 4th birthday…

Nor buy your child this toy gun with a whistle on the barrel, which encourages him to put the gun barrel in his mouth. Yikes!

So as long as you’re not doing either of those things, you’re ahead of the curve. Good job!
—
Karen is our friend and the brains behind the fabulous mailboxtees.com. We thank her for thinking we’re such awesome parents because we don’t do this stuff. Yet.

We have a friend. She’s cool — you’d like her. She has a funny food blog and a funny design blog and an awesome business for mail-order-subscription tee shirts from famous and up-and-coming designers.

>> mailboxtees.com:: t-shirts in your mailbox
>> offthemeathook.com:: lifestyles of the carnivorous & fabulous
>> blog.mailboxtees.com:: design+art+shopping

Karen’s not a mom but a really cool auntie and when she stumbles upon quirky products or fun activities for little kids and babies, she shares them with us.

And we totally forgot to tell you that we invited her to write a few guest posts for us before posting one of them. Oops!

Heather asked her to do this as a favor to us and to keep our posts fresh and tasty, so go buy a year’s worth of shirts. Thanks.

We had an evening on Tuesday that was super fun — just how you imagine adulthood will be when you’re a teenager.

We got both boys (now 7 months and 29 months for anyone losing track) in bed by 7pm and had the evening to ourselves. We played Big Brain on the Wii for the first time, split a piece of Boston Cream pie (officially just for the winner - me - but I shared), and then settled in to watch Heroes on TiVo.

And I looked over at my cute husband and said, “sometimes, it’s fun to be a grown up.”

At postnatal yoga today, Scarlett and I sat between moms with baby girls named Sage and Hazel.

Are we a trend? Are people going to think we Berkeley mamas pick our children’s names out of the J.Crew catalog? Should I have considered Amber? Mauve? Ebony?