What's Hot and What's Not when Looking for Ways to Have Fun with Your Baby

A Mom's Definition of Fun

On a recent visit to the pediatrician's office with my little ones, I picked up the April 2007 issue of babytalk magazine. Self-touted as the source for, "Straight Talk for New Moms," I was drawn to one of the magazine's feature articles entitled, "play! 21 ways to have fun with you baby".

As I checked out its byline, I noted that the author's name, Melina Gerosa Bellows, was familiar to me, but I couldn't recall how. Then I connected the dots.

Back in 1998 when I was a single girl looking for ways to enjoy my time while not having anyone on my dating radar, I happened upon a tome entitled, The Fun Book: 102 Ways for Girls to Have Some, at the bookstore. Skimming the easy-read pages, I determined it was just what I needed. The author of the book? Single gal Melina Gerosa.

Seemed as though over the span of my donning large Jackie-O sunglasses and pretending that I was a celebrity gone 'incognito' (as one of the tips in The Fun Book suggested), getting married and birthing a boy and a girl, Melina was doing the same. And now she was Melina Gerosa Bellows, writing about her son, Chase, and her daughter, Mackenzie, 17 months apart to my children's 30.

"How cool!" I thought. We'd come a long way sine those single girl days of fun seeking. Now, the new challenge was on-having fun with a baby-and I knew I could trust Melina. We had a fine history, as she'd left me in good stead as a single girl. So as I read this precursor to her new book, The Fun book for Moms, that will be published in May 2007, I was ready to see what she had in store for us.

I read through the tips, and while some of them resonated with me, like Tip #15, "Every Mother's Day, have a photo taken with your kids," and Tip #17, "Let your whole family take a day off and hang out in pj's all day long," some of them fell flat. Way flat. Like Tip #11, "Take your baby out to the movies at night". Uh... no. I'm not going to be THAT Mom. I didn't like her when I was a single girl on a date with the guy du jour, and I don't like her now when I'm trying to enjoy a rare movie date night with my husband. Find a sitter like I did, or find something else to do.