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Whitney and I are blogging for Savvy Source, a preschool directory, about activities to do with preschoolers in the Berkeley + Oakland. East Bay parents, check it out!

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).