Memories… (My Baby Book Criteria)
March 22, 2006
At first I thought, “I’m a creative person. I should make my own baby book for Finn!” Afterall, I have a degree in cutting architecture. But I thought the same thing about a wedding album, and we still don’t have a wedding album. So in the interim (now going on three years) I decided to buy a baby book.
These are my criteria for a perfect baby book:
- it should be non-denominational
- it shouldn’t be too cute
- no proprietary cartoon characters
- it should leave enough room to be able write something meaningful
- it should trigger you to record milestones, events and thoughts that you wouldn’t normally have thought of
- places for Dads to write things, too
- open enough to allow you to free think
- doesn’t play into gender stereotypes
- logically organized (unlike this list!)
Poppy and Mimi makes a great baby book, with a colorful cover and sophisticated pages. It’s a little pricey at $60, though, and doesn’t leave a lot of room for writing long rambling explanations, which I tend to do. The pages I’ve seen look nice, but there are only 30 pages, and the book is only 9” by 9”, so maybe it isn’t quite as comprehensive as I’d like.
The way I feel about Finn’s baby book is that I’m recording this information for her, so I don’t think the book needs to look like it was designed by the Bauhaus; it can have a typeface that is not Futura and I’m ok with kid-friendly illustrations as long as they’re not Winnie the Pooh, Elmo or some other recognizable tv or movie character.
We bought Oh Baby!: A Journal for Finn. It is written by Helene Tragos Stelian and illustrated by Theresa Case (I’m giving credit here, because I think they did a great job of creating a book that is sweet yet not cloying, comprehensive yet not difficult to fill out, and meaningful yet not hippy-dippy).
Not that you can judge a keepsake this way, but at 12 cents a page (v. $2.00 a page for Poppy and Mimi’s version), it’s a bargain, too!
Rock’n'Roll
March 9, 2006
Rocking is not only for antique collectors
My mother insisted that a rocking chair was a crucial item of baby equipment, but all I could imagine was the rocking chair she had when I was little, with turned spindles and a quilted seatpad, that looked like something you’d find in the Walton’s farmhouse.
So I didn’t buy a rocking chair. Then, when Finn was 7 months old, I was over at a Janie’s house for a neighborhood meeting. Finn became tired and fussy; there were 60 people all talking about how we need a trail along the river and she’s naturally curious, and social, and she couldn’t fall asleep. So I went into Janie’s daughter’s room, sat in her rocker, and in about ten seconds, Finn was asleep.
The most expensive baby item so far?
I went home and started scouring the internet for rocking chairs. And here is what I found: there are rocking chairs and gliders, and they are not the same (Janie had a glider). And there are rocker gliders, and I have no idea what that means. And some gliders swivel, and swiveling can make you sick to your stomach.
Here is another thing I found: rocking chairs (and gliders) are expensive if you don’t want something that looks like crap. Even if you’re ok with something that looks like crap, they’re still expensive.
So we bought a less-expensive model from Babies-R-Us (rocker? glider? I’m still not sure) and found out something else: an inexpensive rocking chair is still $319, which is a lot of money, particuarly if what it buys you is made out of particleboard and is stapled together rather than upholstered and rocks at a cockeyed angle while trying to pitch you forward onto the floor. We returned the rocker/glider/rocker-glider to Babies-R-Us. I had ignored the poor reviews. Do not ignore the poor reviews; do not buy this!
I feared that we’d have to buy the even-more-expensive Pottery Barn rocker (this, it turns out, is actually a rocker and not a glider) which is probably very nice if you have $650 lying around, and a month to wait while they custom build it. But while we were in the throes of rocking chair hell, we took a trip to IKEA.
Our solution
IKEA’s Lillberg rocking chair is not on the IKEA website (but matches the Lillberg sofa, so take a look); we bought it through catalog sales. For $99, it’s amazing – comfortable cushions, basic modern design, solid wood. Since I’m short, I have to lean against a pillow, which makes the rocking not quite as smooth, and the arms are wood, so I’ve draped a blanket over each one so that Finn doesn’t bump her head while she’s falling asleep. But for the money, and the styling, and the removable cushion covers – this rocking chair rules. (Add IKEA’s Pallbo footstool for $30 and you’ve got an entire system for helping your baby fall asleep).
If you don’t have style issues, buy a glider, but if you don’t have style issues, why are you reading this website?
Low Commitment Baby Room Decorating
March 9, 2006
What to do on date night
Once a week, David and I have date night. It’s nice to go out for dinner, but dinner takes about an hour and a half and our babysitter’s minimum is three hours. The enforced exile from our own home was disconcerting, but we quickly realized that if we come home we have at least an hour to do anything we want while the babysitter is still looking after Finn. This can be: taking a bath, writing entries for this website or napping.
Last week we painted Finn’s wall, something we intended to do before she was born. Alas, she came early and the paint came late.
Low-VOC paint
First, about the paint: we used Wellborn paint partly because I use it on my projects and the very nice paint reps gave us a gallon for free, and partly because Wellborn has low VOC’s (volatile organic compounds – nasty stuff). And I have to say, after we painted the odor was gone after about 24 hours with the window open.
It took me forever to decide on the color, because all greens are not created equal. Too much blue and it would look minty, like toothpaste. Too light, and it would look too pastel. Too dark and it wouldn’t look appropriate for a little girl’s room.
Stickers!
A blank green wall is not very fun, but I found the coolest thing to put on the wall: blik. Blik is removable surface graphics (ok, they’re stickers) in fun designs. We didn’t end up using blik on Finn’s wall, though, because I couldn’t figure out if the surface graphics (stickers) are repositionable in addition to being removable. If anyone has used them, I’m keen to know.
More stickers!
I did find a blik-like product from Modernseed called Freckles that is both removable and repositionable (stickers which are a little bit like giant round post-it notes), and looks great on the wall while not being fussy like a wallpaper border or cutesy like a painted mural. Wallcandy Arts makes a similar product that is a little more expensive, but offers a lot of choice in patterns. Liking the word “blik,” I have a tendency to call all of these removable surface graphics (stickers) blik.
I need to mention one last thing: blik, freckles, wallcandy - incredibly fun to put on the wall, and I’m fighting the urge to stick dots everywhere. Also, blik is a fun word to say, and David will tell you I manage at least daily to insert the word “blik” into conversation.
blik update - You can now get blik for your car! I am trying to convince David that this is a good idea.
