Eating my own dog food with my older baby, months 10 to 12 edition
Doing the rookie moms challenges with my older baby | Photo: Alex Cave
The jury is in and it turns out that while I am no longer a rookie baby mama, I’m still a total rookie at having three children. Not that I’m a pro with the baby, but this newest little guy gets to deal with carpools instead of mommy and me swimming classes; he’s more accustomed to riding along at a cookie decorating party than under the parachute at a Gymboree free class.
Whitney and I created the Rookie Mom Weekly Challenges to help new moms have more fun with their babies because it is fun to have a little mission. In that spirit, do as I say, not as I do.
I’m here to report on my adventures with Sawyer during months 10, 11, and 12:
40. Throw yourself an inside-out party to celebrate your baby’s 40th week on the outside! Wah. I did not do this. I did it with both older sons though. To celebrate Holden’s 9 months on the outside, we had cocktails and sushi grown-up style.
41. Test-drive some free music and movement classes. Yes, so fun! We *heart* Music Together. Lucky me, I already knew all the words to every one of the songs from our session because Holden had this series before.
42. Take a pumpkin picture. I took a splendid photo of Sawyer and his best gal, Emily, but he was already a man of 14 months by the time Halloween rolled around. Near enough.
43. Try a half sleepover. In the spirit of laying the baby down so Mommy and Daddy can do hands-free adult activities, we organized two different adventures during Sawyer’s third quarter year. First, we spent a weekend with Ross and Karen (and baby Laz) at their vacation house. Next, we invited another little baby-girlfriend to chillax at our house while we played games with her parents. And by “play games” I mean “eat dessert super fast so the baby doesn’t freak out.” Victory.
44. Wear something unusual. I wore a strapless dress. You’ll have to take my word for it because I can’t find the photos.
45. Do what YOU want to do. Constantly. Or at least, we do what the big boys want to do rather than following baby’s agenda.
46. Swap til you drop. Man, I’ve been meaning to do this. I truly love the wardrobe refresh that comes from pilfering my friends’ closets.
47. Join a museum. We joined the Lawrence Hall of Science and the Oakland Zoo.
48. Find some excellent graffiti. Fail. All the good stuff is cleaned up or near railroad tracks. Instead of the “tough” portraits I took of Holden in front of graffiti, Sawyer is posed in idyllic fields with his brothers.
49. Run or walk errands. Yes. We live near our grocery store so I’ve gotten quite talented at balancing the shopping basket on top of the stroller and the bags on my strong arms. Go, me!
50. Launch Camp Grandma! Better late than never. Rather than doing nearly a week away in honor of my biggest boy, we escaped for three kid-free days in a rental car. It was magic.
51. Meet your friends out for errands. Yes, indeedy. My little guy enjoyed many grocery runs with company. We do get around.
52. Celebrate your way. We celebrated big-kid style at Universal Orlando where Sawyer lived out every little boy’s fantasy and defeated a superhero.
Is anyone else doing our 52 challenges? How’s it going for you?
Related posts:
- Eating my own dog food, months 1-3
- Eating my own dog food, months 4-6
- Eating my own dog food, months 7-9
- Eat YOUR own dog food
I’m going to grade myself pretty highly for tackling so many of the rookie mom challenges with my little sidekick.
Oops! My baby is 18 months and I’m just getting around to this report. I’m all set to launch a new series on toddlers. So, get ready for the fun peculiar times!
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