Can’t We Just Name Her Jane and Call it a Day?
When I cracked open a review copy of The Complete Book of Baby Names by Leslie Bolton in search for a name for my yet unnamed fetus, I was expecting the same old same old.
There’s a Rocket in My Pocketbook
I’m embarrassed to say it took me a long time to learn mommy lesson #416: No matter how much of a rush you are in, never throw a bottle or sippy cup into your purse. The learning curve cost me a new cell phone battery and way too many hours getting orange juice pulp out my lovely bag.
It’s All in the Cards
There are a few things in life that you don’t realize you need until someone gives you it to you. And then you can’t believe you ever lived without them. Like that battery operated "massager." Thin Mints in the freezer. And personalized note cards.
Your Kid the TV Star
The consensus at Cool Mom Picks headquarters is that we don’t love licensed character products as a first choice for gifts. The only problem is, our kids generally do. So being the lovingparentsthat we are, we’ll occasionally cross the line to make our kids happy — or in this case, totally indebted to us for life.
Who Has Time to Scrapbook?
Don’t ask me why exactly I still have the ribbons off the generic going-home gift the hospital gave us, but I do. I save and document everything, which is all well and good when you’ve got a first year baby journal to fill up, but after that you’re pretty much to your own devices. Can you say "shoeboxes?"
Playing Like it’s 1899
Kids today, they’ve got it so good. Back in my day, toys were made of plastic. We played with their semisynthetic choloride polymer parts, and no one complained. But now we’ve grown up and want something completely better for our offspring, something like our great-grandparents might have owned.
Making Grandma’s (Mothers’) Day
I am not a diy-er, crafter, Martha-in-training, or whatever you want to call people who have the genius ability to make things that don’t look, well, like they made them. This is not a big deal until my own mother gets on the phone and tells me to "make her something" for Mother’s Day. And I don’t think she’s referring to the new grandbaby on the way.
The Writing on the Wall
As far as I’m concerned, one of the best parts about being the grown up in the house involves the simple fact that I can write whatever I’d like on the walls if I so choose.
Crib Sheets Made for Sleeping
As adorable as they generally are, kids can be an assault on the senses. Their rooms are littered with plastic toys, most of which emit ear-splitting sounds and require daily battery changes, and their walls are painted with rainbows and clowns and construction equipment. Is it any wonder that the darlings have trouble falling asleep in there?
Bonnets, Brooklyn Style
I may gravitate to the classic and the traditional, but I don’t dress my girls like we live on a little house on the prairie. Thoughts of calico dresses and frilly bonnets give me Nellie Olsen flashbacks. No thank you.