I was going to write today all about my hot date on Saturday.  Ma and Pa came to stay with the little angel while my beloved and I Pricelined a hotel on the Plaza and went to dinner and Four! Bars!  Three! Cover! Charges!  Six! Drinks! In! One! Night!  This sort of frivolity has not been had in a long time.  It was glorious and adult and very fun. 

We arrived home, a wee bit hungover, about 10:30.  "You didn't say anything about the potty," my mom said.  "I hope we did it right."

Me:  "WHAT?"

Ma:  "Oh, yeah, she said she had to use the potty last night, and she peed in it."

WTF?  This from the kid who screamed "NO POTTY!  There is no potty ANY MORE!" last week.

Huh.

Not five minutes after we got home, she said she wanted to use it again.  She sat there so long I finally left her to go look at My Yahoo.  When I came back, she has not only peed in her little potty but also pooped.  I stood there with hungover shock on my face (because, though I was proud, a little pile of poop just waiting for me to clean it up was not really my idea of a good time on Saturday morning).  I thought to myself, hmmm.  Maybe I need to go on dates more often.  Maybe next time I leave her overnight, she'll learn to mop floors or maybe drive.

She hasn't done it since, and she's still wearing the diapers.  I know her, she can be a bit cagey with the new skills.  It was a big weekend, though, and my liver has superseded all other organs for blood supply, so I have nothing else to say.  Except that in a few days, I'll be headed to San Jose for BlogHer!  WHEE!  So my liver can HATE ME AGAIN.

Food is a stressful topic for parents. When my babe started solids I was a mama obsessed. I made sure the babe had veggies before fruits, balanced food groups throughout the day, all organic produce, and plenty of variety. I exposed her to a new food every few days and filled an entire journal with her input/output details lest I suspected allergies (clearly, data collection has been a big part of my life…). I spent a lot of time in front of the stove and Cuisinart, steaming and pureeing food, and freezing the puree in covered ice cube trays. I occupied an entire section of the freezer with bags and bags of frozen food nuggets. Sometimes there was little to eat in the house other than frozen food nuggets.

I like to think that my reward for my obsession was a good eater, but I suspect that largely, we've been lucky. A mama asked me to include a post on picky eating; here are a few thoughts and resources:
Probably the most liberating piece of advice I read regarding feeding was this: So long as you put a nutritious, balanced meal in front of your babe, your job is done. You are not a short order cook! Once I stopped fretting over whether the babe actually ingested enough of this or enough of that my life was so much easier. And of course, the less I pushed certain items, the more willing she was to eat them. Click here for Dr. Sears’ tips for pleasing the picky eater, the original source of my culinary liberation.

Another online article, “Picky Eaters; Born or Made?” offers perspectives and suggestions, two of which I find very important. First, do not barter about food. Drawing connections between food and good/bad behavior can have detrimental long-term implications. Second, it’s okay to be sneaky. Whenever possible I hide minced vegetables under cheese (e.g., quesadillas) or in sauces (e.g., pizza, lasagna).

And of course, good eating is a mutually beneficial arrangement. At one point I realized that I was obsessing about the babe eating enough vegetables, but that we, the parents, were doing a pretty bad job remembering to eat our veggies. We started balancing and enjoying our meals better, the babe followed our lead, and I’m pretty sure that even if the babe doesn’t eat perfectly every single day we’ll be able to stave off scurvy.

Day cares – especially those that take infants – are tough to find, but Bright Horizons offers plenty of places to look. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Bright Horizons from several mama pals. Bright Horizons is massive; they operate more than 600 child-care centers and schools across the U.S., Canada and Europe. In Massachusetts, locations that are open to the community for application include Allston, Andover, Bedford, Beverly, Boston, Boxborough, Braintree, Cambridge, Charlestown, Foxboro, Framingham, Franklin, Hingham, Lexington, Marlborough, Milton, Natick, Needham, Newburyport, North Reading, Norwell, Pembroke, Pittsfield, Quincy, Randolph, Sudbury, Wakefield, Waltham, Watertown, Wayland, and Wellesley. Click here to narrow your search by distance from your home; check specific locations for age limits.

More indulgent confessions: As you now know, I love celebrity gossip. I subsequently was beside myself when I discovered the Celebrity Baby Blog. Not only do I like the site because it is run by a fellow mama, but this mama does a great job with her team to suss out all the latest on celebrity mamas and babies. Talk about doubling your pleasure!

I love optimization and organization. So I was thrilled to discover the Mothers Milkmate Storage Rack ($26.99 at Amazon). It optimizes because the bottles hook up directly to most breast pumps and can attach to a universal nipple and collar to feed the babe directly. The system organizes by featuring a space saving storage rack designed to allow ten five-ounce bottles to rotate so that the milk is used in a "first-in, first-out" basis (i.e., you pull the first bottle out, and the others roll in behind it).

The Kosher certified storage system includes a heavy-duty wire rack, 10 polypropylene plastic bottles, 10 plug and cap sets (to eliminate leaking), and freezer grade labels.

Okay, how funny is it that a feature on working mamas, appearing in today’s Globe, is written by Joanne Cleaver? I wish the byline just read “J. Cleaver” but it’s close enough. Fed to the Globe via the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this article focuses on a current trend in the workplace, that of younger mamas negotiating for flexible schedules in order to achieve better work-home balance.

I love that my dad used to use the term “dog party” whenever he saw a big group of dogs playing. You’ll see that and more at the Beaver Brook Reservation (Mill Street, Belmont/Waltham). This impressive piece of land includes 59 acres of open fields, wetlands and woodlands that are open to walking, biking, and picnicking. The north section of the park includes ponds, fields, marsh, and a cascading waterfall. The south section of the park (immediately visible from Route 60) includes ball fields, a wading/spray pool, and a tot lot. There also are restrooms on site when the park is open.

During the summer the spray pool is open Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 4:30pm; the tot lot/reservation daily from 10am – 6pm. There is no admission fee to the reservation. Tel: 617-484-6357.

How much leave time should I take? This is a common question for working mamas and one with so many more questions and variables attached to it. What does your workplace offer? What are your job security guarantees (e.g., compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA)? How much unpaid leave time can you afford? Can your partner take leave time? Will you go berserk being home all day?
Everyone’s situation is different and complex, but consensus among some of my mama friends is that if it is at all possible, take more than 3 months of leave. The first 3 months are pure boot camp, all work with very little tangible gratification (other than the little bundle in your arms of course!). I have heard some people say that it doesn’t seem like a biological accident that around the 3-month mark, when you’re near ready to head back and return your delivery to the hospital, the babe starts being more responsive and adorable. It seems a shame to survive the really tough period then go back to work just as things start to get more fun.

I took 4 months formal leave then unexpectedly went back at a reduced schedule (slowly ramping back up to full-time over the course of 9 months) due to other family issues and I felt so fortunate to have so much time with my babe. She just got more fun and interactive as time passed, and as I got better at learning how to take her out and about everything started to click.

Please feel free to share comments on how much leave you took and how it worked out for you.

I know there are issues with traffic congestion and pollution, but those problems aside, oh what a happy day it would be if IKEA ever arrived in Somerville. Meanwhile, head to Stoughton for your Scandinavian fix. Where else can you get these super fun Mula stack and nest cups? The set of seven cups is $2.49 and is a hit with babes who love building towers or putting objects inside other objects.

If you haven’t been to IKEA before, here are a few shopping tips: 1) arrive as early as possible before the crowds build up; 2) pick up a retail slip at the beginning of the journey or bring pen and paper to jot down location/item information for items that only live in the warehouse at the end of the yellow brick road; 3) jot down backup items in case the item you want is not in stock in the warehouse. The fact that you can get all the way to the end before knowing your product is out of stock is a major problem with the system.

And be sure to clean up your babe’s paws if he/she plays in the kids’ area. Our babe caught a cold immediately after our last visit.