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The big 0-3 is this weekend and we had a little party in the park Exactly As Holden Specified.

He said he wanted a party in the park with all his friends and cookies and cake. He started asking for this as soon as Milo had his birthday. “Who has the next birthday?” he asked. “Mommy” was the answer… oh, bummer.

And after my birthday, he asked again.

Fresh haircut for the occasion and seated with some of his best buds: Miles, Olivia, and Julian

His story did not change over the next several weeks, it only became more specific by naming which kind of cake (chocolate), which kind of cookies (chocolate), and which friends (all of them). When I gave him a choice of what kind of food to eat among pizza, sandwiches or Picante (Mexican), he said emphatically “sandwiches.”

Last weekend, he was enjoying his morning snack of dry cereal and blueberries and said, “this is a delicious snack, can we have Puffins and blueberries at my birthday party?” — I thought serving a bowl of cereal was a little odd, but the mixed berry fruit salad was born in that conversation.

I’m sure next year he’ll have plenty of ideas too, I only hope they’ll be so easy to work with.

Happy Birthday Holden, we love you!
And thanks for going easy on us for our first real kid b-day party.

Today, in celebration of the launch of my book, the Parent Bloggers Network is hosting a blog blast. This means that anyone who wants to should blog on the chosen topic and then send them the link. They post all the links so that everyone can enjoy each other’s post on the topic. And today the topic is… activities for a mom’s rookie year.

A flashback to my own rookie year:
When Holden was only two weeks old, he went to his first movie in San Francsico. My mom and Alec were there so we had a 3 adult to 1 baby ratio that I found very comforting. I furiously Purelled after touching anything at all and we otherwise enjoyed Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith until the last big scene…

2 week old going to the cinema

During a fight sequence between soon-to-be-Darth-Vader and nimble-and-feisty-Yoda, my little baby had a massive diaper blast. Luckily, being an over-prepared new mom, I had a full change of clothes for him, so I struggled a bit but managed to change him in the back of the theatre so I could still watch. Bad behavior, but I was too clueless to know.

Snuggled in to watch Batman at 10 weeks

Going to the movies with Holden was an almost-weekly occurrence. I went to a few mid-day matinees with mom friends and dozens of night-time movies with Alec as part of Baby Brigade. Holden saw Brokeback Mountain, Batman Begins, and Transamerica while Alec and I enjoyed the pizza and beer at the Parkway theater in the company of other sleep-deprived new parents so grateful to be out and about.

The first 2 were rocky (constant shushing and bouncing in the corner with periodic screams), but then we got into a real groove. I wrote up a checklist of items to pack for his eating and sleeping comfort. We had a regular nighttime routine going for the movie nights and Holden would usually oblige by falling asleep within the first 20 minutes.

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To read more from other parents reflecting on their rookie year, check out the blog blast write up on the Parent Bloggers Network. If you have a blog, share your best, bizarrest, coolest, whatever rookie mom year outing and win some prizes (all weekend long).

As we begin this second year of Milo’s life, I keep thinking about what a different kind of first year Milo had, as opposed to Holden’s first year. It’s funny how I often think that in the long run (we mathematicians like to say “as their age approaches infinity”) they’re really quite close in age. But right now, Holden is the amazing rambunctious 2 1/2 year old who is so articulate and so specific about what he wants, and Milo is the baby who just crawls around trying to get our attention.

Heather and I are both the oldest in our immediate nuclear families, so we don’t really know what it’s going to be like for him to be the youngest.

And so Milo begins his life playing second fiddle to this kid thousands of times his age who can do a hundred times more. At least now, at 1, he’s approaching half Holden’s age, and as that gap closes, so will Holden’s ability to monopolize the conversation! But it does mean he gets to ride along for all of the different activities that Holden gets to participate in.

Highlights so far:

• Steam trains at 2 weeks
• The Zoo at 2 months
• Carseat facing forward 3 weeks before his birthday
• Music Together at 2 or 3 weeks
• Science Museum at 11 months

So in a lot of ways, his position as youngest in the family has some perks!

And I think Milo is starting to come into his own, too. He’s stubborn - much happier feeding himself than having us try to feed him. And he’s intensely curious. Combine those together and you get a kid who is determined to explore every inch of every room, undeterred by people picking him up and telling him not to climb into the dishwasher.

Maybe he’s just instinctually developing his skills in dealing with his increasingly bossy older brother: “Milo do NOT climb in the dishwasher. Do NOT! I said do NOT!”