Posts from — January 2010

When my husband goes out of town, I miss him most in the morning.  He is a morning person, as is M.  Not me.  Last night, when M went to bed, I persuaded her to set the alarm for 6:15 am instead of 6 am, which she prefers.  She is a morning freak of nature–a 7-year-old who will wake up on her own, get dressed, and head downstairs.  In fact, two nights ago, there’d been a quick power outage and I didn’t realize that her alarm had gotten messed up until I heard her up and around at midnight–she was pulling her jeans on for school, looking so perky and composed that for a minute I thought that I was the one who was confused.  When my husband’s gone, I don’t want her to feel lonely, so I drag myself out of bed, but it isn’t pretty.  This morning I heard her before 6 am–she was walking around the house with a flashlight.  She’d gotten impatient waiting for the alarm.  This after my little one had gotten up and crawled into my bed in the middle of the night sobbing because she wasn’t feeling good.  Oy.

So moments ago, I was doing one of my favorite activities when I’m barely awake, which I supposed could be entitled “Do With Me What You Will”.   I remain prone and semi-conscious while a child does things like shine flashlights into my ears and nose or brushes my hair.  I’m currently sporting a large purple flower barrette.  When J had completed her masterpiece she was thrilled.  “Oh. My. Gosh. Beautiful!  Go look in the mirror!”  I’m going to look extra fabulous at gymnastics today.  Unless she calls my bluff and asks me to take it out in the car–keep your fingers crossed.

Anyway, under the category of miscellaneous, here are a couple of Friday additions that I missed in my earlier post:

• 10:30 am Drop-in story hour at the Scotia branch library. It’s for the 5-and-under set.
• The Southern Saratoga YMCA is having a free Winter Carnival that’s open to the public from 7-9 pm

And I know that this is out of town, but as the mom of 2 daughters I love the idea of Gore Mountains “Take Your Daughters to Gore Week”, which starts on Monday–free skiing and tubing for girls under 19.

I’ll have stuff for the weekend late today or tomorrow.  Actually, that’s been my habit, but is it too late for some of you?  Myself, I don’t plan too far ahead.

UPDATED: I’ve been finding more activities and throwing them onto this post since it was first published. -K.

This topic is so very close to my heart that I know I’ll ramble.  So if you want to cut to the chase, head on down to the bolds & bullet points.   And of course this post–the first of two–is for the new parents, because the truth is, when you’ve got a second or third child, your teensy baby just goes wherever the big kids go.  My suggestions fall into two broad categories: 1). Places especially for you & your teensy baby, and 2). Babies can go pretty much anywhere that you would like to go. So, here goes:

Places especially for you & your teensy baby:
There’s something especially wonderful about finding an activity that’s designed especially for you & your new baby.  I think first-time motherhood is one of those crazy, difficult times when each person is vulnerable and needy, like new student orientation at college or the very first day of kindergarten.  There’s so much emotion and stress involved in becoming a parent that it’s  a unique opportunity to bond with people who will be some of your very best friends ever.  And you’ll need some new friends.

I say that because, even though it’s wonderful to have friends who already have kids, it’s also crucial to spend time with people who are at your parenting stage.  It’s as if parents have very short generations–infancy, toddler, preschool, big kid, tween, teen, empty nest.  Just like 6 months in the life of a baby counts for a lot, so too does 6 months in the life of a new parent.  Your friends who have kids already are great:  they can tell you which shiny baby products aren’t worth buying, and they can talk you off the ledge when you’re feeling overwhelmed.  But you also might think that they are perhaps not as vigilant or attentive as they should be, or you might feel frustrated because they seem to have  everything under control while you . . . don’t.

When I first had M, I went to the nursing support group at Bellevue every other Tuesday.  It was designed for mothers of babies who were 0 to 9 months old.  When I first showed up, I was so impressed by these “older” moms who breezed in, popped their sitting-up children on blankets, and started chatting.  By contrast, I felt shell-shocked.

The group was supposed to end at noon, and the lactation consultant would gently shoo us out because the room was inevitably reserved for another program. All the new moms would take turns going to the bathroom while we had someone to “keep an eye” on our babies. . . which, of course, sounds silly to any mom who’s had more than one child. And then we’d reluctantly shuffle out, leaning into the weight of those infant car seats. Gosh, it’s sounding more tragic than it was, but. . . it was hard back then. And it was such a comforting place to be.  I remember that I kept going until M was turning a year old.  No one was going to kick me out of the support group, but I knew, deep down, that our expiration date had passed.

On the last day that I went, I looked around the room at noon as all of the mothers reluctantly gathered up their burp cloths and car keys and fake car keys.  Impulsively, I asked if anyone wanted to come to my house for lunch. The relief was palpable. We caravanned–I lived very close–and 8 or 10 women piled themselves and their babies onto my living room floor.  I ordered from Pizza Hut. And as I ran around passing out cups of water and paper napkins, I realized that I’d become one of those easy-breezy mothers. It clicked, then, that it wasn’t that those mothers were extraordinary. It was just that they, and now I, had made it through that first storm and passed into the next generation of parenthood.

So, if you’ve got a teensy baby, where are you going to find mothers who are in your “generation”?

Support Groups
You might not think of yourself as the “support group type”, but it’s worth a try.  They’re free, you don’t have to plan ahead too far, and if you think about it, you probably have some questions that you’d like to ask somebody.  So give a support group a shot–you don’t have to go twice.

• That Bellevue nursing group still meets on the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays of the month.
• Bellevue also has a postpartum depression support group called “Out of the Blue“.  Call their social worker’s office at 347-3399 for more information.
• La Leche League supports breastfeeding moms.  There are chapters for Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaer, & Saratoga counties as well as a Troy site.  These websites aren’t super-helpful, so pick a name & number from the website and call for the scoop.   My friend who works with Schenectady LLL confirmed that the regular meetings do, in fact, meet every third Wednesday morning (see link for details), and that they’ll be raffling off baby slings in April to people who attend events and/or buy raffle tickets.
• Community Cradle can connect you to a Postpartum Depression support group.
• The Family Life Center at Albany has a “Mother to Mother” group.  It also has an occasional “babywearing” class where you can try a variety of slings and carriers.
• St. Mary’s Hospital in Troy has a Moms Supporting Moms group that meets once a month on Monday mornings.
• Sling Babies can help you find the right sling, plus they have monthly meetings to get to know other babywearers.

Baby-oriented Storytimes
Most local libraries do storytimes for very specific age groups, and for your purposes, that’s really good. Do a little research ahead of time, because pre-registration is required for many. There are multiple branches , so you might try a couple of different destinations, especially if you don’t get a great vibe from your first place.

• Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library Storytimes
• Guilderland Library Storytimes
• Albany Public Library
• Schenectady Public Library

Swimming Lessons
You might not feel particularly swimsuit-ready, but classes where you take your baby into the water with you are pretty common, and this time of year it’s a nice change of pace.

• The Schenectady JCC has swimming lessons for babies 6 months and older.
• Various branches of the YMCA of the Capital District have swimming lessons for parent & baby beginning at 6 months old.
• I also found an infant swimming instructor in Troy–looks like it will cost a bit more.

Yoga with Baby Classes

More classes for parents and new babies

There’s a huge variety of classes that you can take.  Maybe you’re feeling guilty about spending the money if you’re not currently working for pay.  Consider it an investment in your sanity.

• Gatesway Health & Massage in Colonie has infant massage classes.
• The Center for Women’s Wellness in Latham has a Post-Natal Fitness class for moms with their infants, and it even incorporates infant massage.  It’s designed for moms with babies 0 to 6 months old.
• The Southern  Saratoga YMCA has a Stroller Club spring through fall for moms of children 2 mos. to 3 1/2 years.
• The Language Learning Institute has a Mommy & Me French class for kids aged 2 months to 4 years and a caregiver.
• Tumbling Tykes has classes specifically for 6-18 month old babies as well as for other children.
• Albany Med has a class on Breastfeeding and Returning to Work.

Be Assertive and form your own playgroup
This is exactly the sort of thing I was generally too shy for, but if you’re cooler than me, go nuts.

• If you’re reading this while still pregnant, notice which moms you like at your childbirth or prenatal classes and try to chat them up.  Or, if you like most of the group, ask in class if groups ever have a post-birth reunion.  You can also ask if you can post a note on the bulletin board at your mid-wife or ob-gyn’s, you know, like, “Baby Due in February or close to it?  Email or call Katie if you’d like to join a playgroup.”
• Join a moms’ group (there are some listed on the links page) and call people with children your age to set up a playgroup, or post to 518 Moms.
• Keep your eyes open and don’t be afraid to talk to people you see.  I used to run outside to say hello when I saw women with strollers walk by my house.  I was approached by another mom in the grocery store–we had a playdate, and now we’re class mothers together.

Hopefully, at least one of these activities sounds to you like it’s worth trying.  If it’s a class that you have to pay for, ask if you can take try it once for free.   Remember, the activity itself is largely a means to an end–getting you out of the house and in touch with some other new moms is the key.  But, meanwhile, keep in mind that various activities will attract vastly different crowds. So, for example, if roll your eyes at organic food & holistic medicine, your peeps won’t be hanging out at the infant massage class.  And if you invest in a particularly expensive class, you might find yourself in a crowd of snotty mommies.

One last piece of advice: be prepared to piggyback outings.  If you’ve got a 10:30 am class, be sure to bring along cash & extra baby necessities so that you’ll have the freedom to join someone (or ask someone! what can it hurt?) to go to lunch afterwards.   When M was teensy I was so excited when the mommy I liked from moms’ group asked if I wanted to come out to lunch–and then at the restaurant I realized that I’d left home without a wallet.  Since then hundreds of dollars have been loaned back and forth between us, but the first time, I was mortified.

Good luck!

And, if you’re an experienced mom and you had the patience to skim through this, please add ideas that I’ve missed to the comments or send this along to families who are expecting.  And thanks to M & C for helping to brainstorm ideas.

I think that if you’ve had a snowball fight before 8 am, you’ve already earned your Good Mommy badge for the day.  So I’m just going to pretty much coast until bedtime now.  I wish.  I have errands to run, and I hate to drive even in this wimpy slushy snow, so I’ll procrastinate first by sharing some activites for this week with you.

First of all, a disclaimer.  When I do posts like this, it doesn’t necessarily include absolutely everything.  There are regularly scheduled events that I don’t include.  I’m hoping that soon I’ll have a link to these listed over on the right, next to the Big Ol’ List of Links for You (see? I moved it).  Also, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, so if I’ve already told you about something, like when I listed off upcoming theater stuff, I’m not going to post it over and over again.  Unless I can’t contain my excitement.  So, for this week. . .

Tuesday

There’s a Valentine’s Stamping Party at Schenectady’s Woodlawn Branch Library at 2 pm. They’ll have refreshments, but you have to register ahead of time.

On  January 19^th, the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library has a drop-in program called It’s a Small World for 3-8 year olds from 6:30-7:30 pm.

Wednesday

On the 20^th, the Quaker Street Branch Library of the Schenectady Library has a drop-in storytime at 10 am.

Thursday

On the 21^st, the Children’s Museum at Saratoga has a cooking class called Katie’s Kitchen (not me!) from 11 am to 12 pm. You have to pre-register & pre-pay.

The FETCH!™ Lab at the Schenectady Museum this week is Toy Chemistry. It’s running from 2:30-4 pm Thursday-Saturday.

There’s also a special after school program with Daniel Bernard Roumain at the New York State Museum. Roumain is a Haitian American, and he’s now also doing a benefit concert for earthquake relief at The Egg the following night.

The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library has a Science Matters: Weather Wonders program for students in grades 3-5. It’s  from 4-5 pm. Registration is required.

Friday

There’s a drop-in program from 10-11:30 am for little ones called Wiggle & Giggle at the Children’s Museum at Saratoga. It’s free with admission.

All of these sound much better than grocery shopping and returning shoes and ordering more contact lenses . . . ( sigh).

Get a bowl full of clean snow.  Add milk (or cream or half-n-half) until it’s wet enough, sugar until it’s sweet enough, and vanilla.  I always have the economy-sized imitation vanilla for wintertime.  We don’t do exact measurements–it’s a lot of dumping and stirring, really.   So it’s a good kid activity.  Usually by the time you’ve got it perfect it’s more like snow ice cream soup, but my kids and I love it.  J will say in July, “I can’t wait until we can make snow ice cream again.”

This morning we got some new snow that’s perfect for snowballs & snowmen!

Or snowgirls!  Note the eyelashes.

So I had to run out of the house this morning, and I felt pretty guilty when someone called my house because I had not yet posted where to go sledding. (Jeez!  Who would do that?  I mean, really?  What a freak!  And yes, I’m kidding.  About the freakishness.  Someone actually did call me.)

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to share what I know on sledding hills, but I have two problems:  1) I don’t know all that much, especially beyond my neighborhood, and 2) it’s hard to judge a sledding hill unless you’ve been there when there’s snow and people sledding.

But I’m going to operate under the assumption that a little bit of information, including much that is secondhand, is better than none.  Please, by all means, add suggestions in comments.  Okay?

Some suggestions:

• The Albany Times Union lists reader-voted best sledding hills, an the consistent winners are Frear Park in Troy, Capital Hills Golf Course in Albany, and Sand Creek Middle School in Colonie. See votes for 2008 and 2009.
• Lincoln Park, near the DMV in downtown Albany–park on Morton Avenue across from the Stewarts Shop on the left.  Lincoln Park and hill are located right there above the city pool.  Also, the tee-bird golf course in Moreau, north or south . The south, hole #4, has the best two sledding hills of them all. This is located off of Reynolds Rd.  Both of these suggestions are from this cool sledding site.
• www.Saratoga.com has a list of best sledding hills
• www.Albany.com includes sledding hills in their “best of” lists—you have to scroll down a bit
• Rosendale Elementary School in Niskayuna—bear left and go behind the school
• The Schenectady Municipal Golf Course—take Golf Road away from Central Park and park near the clubhouse
• Blatnick Park in Niskayuna
• Collins Park in Scotia has a small hill good for little kids, with the added bonus of the library to warm up and a Dunkin’ Donuts for cocoas both in walking distance

Okay, I made this whole entire list and then I accidentally deleted it and cursed repeatedly and meanwhile my children are clamoring to make snow ice cream.  I was going to give the recipe here, but they’re about to flip out.  So, I know it’s getting warmer–grab a big bowl of ice cream and stick it in your freezer and I’ll tell you later–okay?

Voici, c’est la raison que j’aime travailler sur ce blog.  Et aussi, la raison que j’aime le Google translate.  Okay, I’m getting silly now, but between my lapsed college French and Google translate, I can sound convincing as. . . someone who used to vaguely know some French.   As I was saying, this is why I love working on this blog.  Because in the process of looking for teensy baby activities, I stumble across other things, like the fact that you can go to Chez Daisie in Schenectady every third Wednesday evening of the month to hang out and speak French!

Will I ever actually get around to doing this. . . peut-être non.  But do I like the idea that I could? Mais oui!

I have the great good fortune of serenity time courtesy of my neighbors who took my two children over to play right after church.  I love neighbors.  I am blessed with excellent neighbors.

So, I sat down to lunch and the Gazette.   First, if you’ve ever wondered about the photo on the top of this website, well–it’s just a random photo that I bought off of a royalty-free site, and you can see the front of those gals in this week’s USA Weekend.  I turned to the page talking about “sneaky fitness” and thought, I know them!  Perhaps you recognized them, too?  Incidentally, how sneaky is it, really, to remove all of your dining-room chairs and replace them with fitness balls?  That just seems so obvious and heavy handed that it could potentially lead to thousands of dollars paid to therapists and nutritionists. . . . you know, like you’re saying, “Okay, see if you can use both hands to shovel the food in while you’re balancing on a ball!”  I mean, am I being oversensitive here?  I think that if I were a chubby child and my mom made me sit on a fitness ball to eat, it might hurt my feelings.

OK, and now I’m rambling a little bit, but on the topic of stupid ideas about eating with your family, this reminds me of the time that I heard a radio ad for Heluva Good dips and snacks.  The ad started with a couple of kids  whining about how there’s nothing good on tv.  So, of course you think that the clever parents are going to suggest playing outside, or perhaps an outing to a local amusement park. . . . “Hel” no.  Instead, we hear them pulling out big bags of potato chips and Heluva Good dips because if you are stuffing your face with junk food while watching tv, it makes the really crappy tv seem almost mediocre!  I’m serious!  Did anyone else ever hear this ad?  I remember stopping in the middle of the grocery store aisle to listen because I was so appalled.  Then and there I swore off the entire brand on principle.

But moving on to other important news items, my horoscope (Libra) says, “Play around with some ideas on the computer or in your notebook.”  Why, thank you,  I think I will!  I’m one of those people who “believes” good horoscopes and ignores anything else.  But I am playing around with some things.  I’m working on the regular events calendar (still, I know, sorry!) and I’m also trying to make some cute little business cards to put on bulletin boards and hand out hither, thither, and yon.

If I actually get one of these tasks accomplished, y’all will be the first to know, and meanwhile, I’ll have an update on events during the week by sometime tomorrow.

We had a great time at Central Park today, and it was a pretty good turnout.  When we showed up, there were about 50 people there, and the kids had already blown through the 50 cups of cocoa (Daddy made some at home later).  It was getting a little bit melty on top, so it was a combination ice skating/muck-about-in-the-slush outing. . . should have worn snow pants.  And I brought my fancy shovel, but I guess I was a little ambitious thinking that I could ice skate, help little J, and shovel.  I’m often a little bit too ambitious.  Instead, I sort of shouted out to random strangers that anyone could borrow it and people looked at me and seemed to be thinking, “Wow, I hope that lady who loves her shovel will quiet down and skate away.”  So I did.

Anyway, if you’re inspired, the ice is pretty clear there now.  If you’d like to check out another location, here are a couple to try:

• All Over Albany reports that Van Schaik Park in Cohoes is clear.  Click the link to see it in all its splendor.
• Saratoga Spa State Park: friends report that this is clear and nice and the warming hut is a bonus.
• The rumor I heard is that the Crossings in Colonie clears ice and posts a sign by the road to let you know if you can skate on any given day–I tried to call them to confirm today and I got a machine.
• Capital District Parent Pages says that there’s outdoor skating in Glens Falls at Crandall Park or East Field, but I wasn’t able to find much additional information on these.
• CDPP also talked about Swinburne Park in Albany, and I found a bit more information on that one–click the link.

Looking at my ice skating notes, I stumbled on snowshoe information for Guilderland that I must have misplaced when I was doing that post–sorry!

I’m feeling a little bit guilty that this post is not quite as well-researched as I hoped it would be. . . but I’m tired!  Played tag ice skating with Madeleine and it has worn me out!  Plus, there’s a photo!  That’s a new skill for me.   I think I’m going to go take a nap. . . .

OK, I should have known not to post right before going to the downtown Schenectady library.  I always find more good stuff on the bulletin boards there.

So, there was an activity that screamed out, “Katie!!!”  Someone’s organizing a “skate in” at Central Park in Schenectady from 1-3 pm on Saturday, Jan. 16th. This is because the City of Schenectady has decided not to clear the ice for skaters since not enough people skate, anyway.  Well, personally, I sort of understand where they’re coming from, because not too many people skate there, and of course practically every municipality is in a fiscal crunch.  But the skate in appears to be partly a “we’ll show them” move and partly a “let’s do it ourselves & build community” sort of event.   People are asked to bring their own shovels to help clear.  According to the note, they are attempting to get the Schenectady PTO to help by providing free ice-skates, but of course you can also slide on your boots.  Anyway,  I am so there! This includes so many elements of my favorite things:

• ice skating, which my girls love
• embracing winter, which I try to do
• getting the kids involved in something political
• building community
• using our fabulous Dakota Sno-Blade

Now watch, this will be the one day ever that my girls are not in the mood to skate.  We’ll see.  .   .  .

If you simply don’t want to do this, you can take in a free Young Person’s Concert–14-year-old George Lee will be playing the piano at Niskayuna Library at 2 pm on Saturday.  It’s not on their website, but I checked and double checked, so it’s on.

Finally, if you were wondering, like I was, about any big, official observances of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, wonder no more.  There’s a ginormous observance followed by a “Beloved Community March” in downtown Albany.  You might recall from the last post that there’s also an MLK craft going on at the library downtown.  The New York State Museum will also be open.  The Albany Institute of History & Art and the Albany Art Room, alas, are always closed on Monday.  (I am not linking to everything here. . . do you resent me?  Feeling a little lazy–they’re all on the links page).

That’s right:  a 3-day weekend.  I’d gathered these activities together and then waited so that I could call and ask if kids were invited to polka dance at the Polish Community Center. The woman on the phone seemed so confused by the question that I must conclude that no one younger than, say, 62 ever shows up to polka.   As a Pole I can vouch for it:  those old folks can really move!  But you and your kids should probably find something else to do.  Here are some suggestions:

Saturday

There’s a Jam & Sing Thing, which is a weekend-long celebration of traditional music.   There’s a lot going on, but this schedule shows the most kid-oriented activities: they’re in purple in the nursery.  It’s $35 for a family if they want to go for Saturday only (there are a variety of possible ticketing configurations, but with the schedule as it is, this is what you’re most likely to want).  Also, the website is careful to say that if you’re a family, no matter how many kids you have or how old everyone is, you count as one family.  So if you’ve got 5 kids and grandma & grandpa in town, you are looking at a bargain.

At the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology, they’ve got a program at 1 pm on Tracking. It’s for kids 4 & older, preregistration required, $2 for non-members.

It’s Family Fun Weekend at the New York State Museum. The theme for this weekend is Hudson River Valley History, and it’s a free drop-in program from 1-4 pm on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday from 2-3 pm, it’s make your own sundaes at the student center.  That part is $2 for non-members.

Logan Studios in Clifton Park is having an Open House from 2-6 pm.

Sunday

At the Hyde Museum, you can drop in between 1-3 pm to take a tour designed for families followed by an art-making session.

There’s Weekend Music at the Children’s Museum at Saratoga from 1:30-3:30 pm, and they’re making Valentines for Troops at 2 pm.

At the main branch of the Albany public library, they’re having an Un-Birthday Party from 2-3 pm. Call ahead to sign up.

Monday

All day at the main branch of the Albany public library, kids can make an “I Have a Dream” Mobile Craft.

The Children’s Museum of Science and Technology in Troy will have special programs all day. If you decide to go, notice that there’s a school-aged kids’ program at 1 pm that you have to pre-register and pay for.

The Troy Public Library‘s holding a program called Amazing Animation for kids 8 and up at 2 pm.

There’s a program called City by Design at the Children’s Museum at Saratoga from 10-11:30 am. This is designed for kids 5 and up, but you need to sign up as you come into the museum.

The Schenectady Museum has special activities from 12-3:30 pm as well as special MLK Day planetarium shows.

The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library is holding a Beads Galore activity at 11 am as a drop-in activity. It’s designed for school-aged kids.

Towne Bowling Academy has a Family Rock ‘n Bowl from 12-3 pm.  It’s $10/person.