While I'm Busy Charting Conrad's Baby milestones (first smile, holding up head, etc), the Pregnancy and Baby blog is busy charting mine.
Here are the Mama milestones listed:

* Making mama friends. (not quite yet, but am working on it)

* Feeling totally able to handle baby care at 3am. (oh yeah, totally)

* Breastfeeding in public. (been there, done that)

* Managing a leaky poop diaper while you’re out running errands AND you forgot a change of clothing. (done that too)

* Getting out of the house in under 30 minutes with both baby and diaper bag intact. (I've done this a few times but not always. I like to take my time.)

* Learning the perfect way to lull your babe to sleep. (It ain't perfect but it works 80% of the time)

* Ignoring all that bad advice people toss at mamas. (ohhh. this is hard to do! the aunties at the supermarket/knowitall taxi drivers with their crap make me SOOOO angry!! *growl*)

* Leaving your baby with a sitter for the first time. (i'm putting this off for as long as possible)

* Realizing you know just what your baby needs when she cries. (most of the time, yeah. but not always)

* Knowing you can handle this parenting deal. (I can do it!)

As you see, I'm not QUITE there yet, but it's cool to know I'm making progress.
All you fellow mums out there, how many milestones have you reached?

Also:

Want a fun way to make your kid do his homework/chores? Handipoints makes fun of work!
Pure genius.

To continue along the lines of un-spoiling your kids, how about also un-STRESSing them? DH Lawrence once said:

"How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone."

So, say no to unnecessary tuition and piano lessons your kids don't want! Say yes to play! woohoo!

I also have 2 more books to add to the reading list (I'm starting to feel like I should sidebar this. hmm..):

The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer - Mums today abandoning careers to stay home for their children after previous generations struggled for women's lib.
Here's a review by Salon.com

and also,



The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

“Alameddine mingles a four-generation family saga with a cornucopia of Arabian tales and historical dramas to create a one-of-a-kind novel. Osama al-Kharrat returns in 2003 to Beirut, where his family once owned a prosperous car dealership, to visit his dying father Farid. . . . Osama, who has lived most of his adult life in California, speedily sinks back into the excitable embrace of his extended family (including numerous strongminded women) as they take turns at his father’s hospital bedside. The history of the al-Kharrats and of Lebanon unfolds side by side with multiple strands of Arabian folklore creatively reimagined by Alameddine, who mischievously informs us at one point that his surname is a variant of Aladdin. Not content to let a single jinni out of a bottle, the author summons up a vast array of imps, demons, witches, warriors, slave kings and fierce females to embed his contemporary characters in the splendor of Middle Eastern culture . . . No one interested in boundary-defying fiction will want to miss Alameddine’s high-wire act. A dizzying, prodigal display of storytelling overabundance.”

–Kirkus Reviews

In between now and my next trip to kino when I will get my grubby little paws all over the aforementioned books, I'm reading Doris Lessing's The Grandmothers and telling everyone I know not to watch Love In the Time of Cholera (the movie). It's terrible.