Who doesn't love a montage?

The rookiemoms have challenged their readers and other parent bloggers to write about our favorite outings with babies as rookie parents... And it is fitting that it comes now as we celebrate the babe's first birthday. Since last night I've been poking the hubby saying "this time last year I was in labor..... I was yelling to get the baby out.....you were in the bar and I was trying to breastfeed" and other such memories from my first day as a mom. These memories of the first few hours of motherhood, prompted the hubby to get out the camera and look through old photos. He wondered why we had so few (friends of ours with a 10 week old have almost as many as we have over the course of the year) I have to explain that my mother takes about a year to develop a roll of film (yes film) because she forgets to take the camera out of her bag, I guess it's in the genes. Maybe I am genetically programmed not to take more photos, but here are some of the more interesting ones that made it through.

We take the babe everywhere with us, and as he was more than a week late these excursions began early in his life. The first real outing we had was to the Rangers Dinner Dance were I danced a jig with the babe in a sling, changed him on the first of many bars, and let him fall asleep amidst empty beer bottlesat 9 days old he already fit into the Gaelic Football crowd..

The next big outing for our little one was a trip to the Bronx Zoo, this was a large group adventure where we all really learned that a mom (or dad) needs to bring more than 4 diapers for a day long trip with a newborn.We also proved that human babies and monkey babies are surprisingly similar.

The gorilla baby and the babe are the same age (a little more than a month old), and just about the same size. The gorilla could perform feats of gymnastics, the babe had the power to wet through double diapers, shorts, a sling and my tee shirt in record speed. We also proved that a baby loves a bug carousel just as much as the next person.

Sweltering summer came and we left the city for the beaches of Long Island, where the babe watched two college grads try to put up a protective UV blocking tent for his enjoyment. This was after the same two college grads (one of which is now a doctor) spent twenty minutes trying to get a carseat hooked in correctly. The babe took it all in stride, the first time at the beach when we did get the tent up and the second when it collapsed all around us...

In the fall we went to Maine, where we discovered that the best cure for a teething baby at a wedding reception is a cold (empty) beer bottle.

We went pumpkin picking at the farmer's market for Halloween, watched the NYC marathon from the comfort of our curb, and picked out a Christmas tree at a local nursery. We rang in the New Year at a friend's house, complete with noisemakers and party hats.

There are 163 photos uploaded onto our online photo saving place, and there are another 260 on the broken camera, the new camera is up to about 75 photos and video clips, I'd estimate that most of these photos are of the babe's first year. There would be more, but I am like my mother; so much so that I would venture to guess if not for having a digital camera I would only now be developing pictures from my first days as a mom.

We have the first roll over on video, the first steps, the first haircut, and the first birthday locked away on memory cards and in our minds. We don't have the first real poop, or the first fancy dining experience on film, we do have the first bath, and we will have some potty training shots when the time comes. But I wonder if I will stop taking pictures of the big adventures in the coming years, or if I will overcome my genes and remember to take the camera out of the bag more often.

more firsts

So I promised video and here it is.... Baby's first real steps, and where does he go? Right to the dog food

And now also first haircut photos too...he went from this














To this: To finally this- Look its a real boy!
This should get everyone off my back about when he is going to get a haircut! The boy has his dad's curly hair up top. Apparently it is like his grandpa Joe's (I never met the hubby's dad as he died while Hubby was in High School) and it is easy to comb into a classic Grandpa Joe pompadour. Now all he needs is a little Brylacreen and two combs in his back pocket.

DayCare

Since I got a new job we had to look for childcare for the babe. Right now we have a wonderful sitter two days a week, but there is no way we can afford her 5 days a week....so the hunt began. I posted to our local parenting board and two lovely ladies told me about an in home place about 7 blocks from where we live. We went to check it out yesterday. Beautiful home and nice enough woman running it. She asked about the babe's schedule, his pooping, his eating. When we told her that he poops every other day or so, sometimes every three days she told us 'oh this is very bad, a child should be pooping every day, you need to figure out why he isnt pooping, maybe its his diet. What do you feed him?' I told her we feed him what we eat, whole grains, yogurt, veggies, meat. I don't think she believed me, and said something like 'well it sounds very starchy if he isnt pooping he needs prune juice'
We tried prune juice and it didnt do anything. She was crazy about the poop. We left feeling like our parenting was being questioned and that our child was a freak because he doesn't poop everyday. She also kept saying he was a big boy...now my hubby is over 6 feet tall and a big guy so it isn't hard to imagine that my son would be big. It made me feel like all the other kids in the daycare are going to be wimpy little things with poor muscle tone!
But overall we left feeling like "she is annoying but cheap and we don't have to interact with her" so we are set for daycare in the fall. I am glad we found a place near home that seems like a good fit. I am hoping that the other moms aren't crazy so maybe we can have some parent friends. I am hoping that the woman who runs the place doesn't bombard us with poop talk everyday. I am hoping this is a good fit.

documentation

I am in the midst of writing my IMP or independent master's project; but IMP makes it sound like a carefree little fairything that can do you no harm. This is the first in a series of documentation photos I will be putting in...Yes I am using my own child as a guinea pig, but I don't have access to many others right now.

I am writing an art curriculum guide for parents and caregivers of children aged 9 months to 2 years for use in home and daycare settings. I was frustrated with the lack of open ended art experiences available for kids this young, so ta-da creating my own

Here is the babe having the first of many fingerpainting experiences

Looks like mom is on the right track