Hey, you guys! Baby Toolkit is no longer grounded

I should explain our recent radio silence.  For months, I have owed a car seat and stroller review to our friends at ZRecs.  In March, I decided to ground myself from Baby Toolkit until I handed in my homework.

This weekend I completed the review.  It's mammoth.  It has videos.

In other news, I've been exploring the outside world.  Through happy circumstance I stumbled into a really motivating exercise class.

Friends have visited, games have been played, books have been read, movies have been watched, gadgets have been utilized, problems have been hacked, and lots of food has been eaten.

One nice thing about time in the outside world is that it gives us a lot of inspiration for blogging.

Hang onto your hats, people!  We may start posting with intensity.  Once, maybe even twice a week.

So what have you been up to?

P.S. We also redecorated the blog, so if you feedreader folks want to stop by and tell us how much you miss the old 565 Blogger template, we're happy to hear your thoughts.

***Baby Toolkit is the independent opinion of some slackers who periodically write about geek parenting.

Listen-Along Storybook contest ends tonight!

Have you entered our contest to win all 8 books currently featured at listenalongstorybook.com? It ends at midnight tonight (CDT).

[Contest has ended.]

And find more great contests at Prizey.net.

Write a Letter Right Now: The Blessing of Paper Correspondence

Around two weeks ago, I got a surprise package in the mail. The sender included many thoughtful gifts for our family, but I most loved the enclosed letter from my friend.

Her handwriting, humor, and forthright personality reminded me that despite substantial distance and the passage of time, my friend and I still exist in each other's daily lives. Small actions (like the habit of tearing plastic windows out of envelopes before recycling), gestures, and environmental cues (book titles, dog breeds, places) offer me perpetual reminders of people I don't see as often as I would like.

I encourage you to pick up a pen and drop a line to someone who might enjoy hearing from you.

When I wrote my friend back by hand, it was a real shift from typing at my keyboard. I banned myself from looking up anything online during the duration of the letter (book titles were the true agony). It was strange to commit ideas to the page, and I found myself working more deliberately. The easy pace and ability to commit myself wholly to the letter was relaxing and joyful. Ranger and I added a few thumbprint embellishments a la Ed Emberley and I even doodled an ocean scene on the back of the envelope. It was the most luxurious way I have passed an hour in months. My life felt so much less harried because I had the available time to put pen to paper.

I mailed her letter a week ago. Yesterday, in a modern postal miracle, there were three handwritten pieces of mail for me. With the gladness of those special notes, I sat down last night and penned a letter to someone who can makes me laugh so hard my ribs hurt. Knowing my friend's insanely busy life, I don't expect a reply. I want her to know that I miss her and she still makes me smile all the time.

This could turn out to be addictive.

Who could you write today?

***Baby Toolkit is the sometimes slapdash answer to what happens when a couple of tragically unhip geeks have kids. We are Amazon affiliates, so a small portion of purchases through our Amazon links does power the Baby Toolkit industrial complex (domain names and DSL service).

Potty Positivity: Even Firefighters Go to the Potty

When I asked my friends how they potty trained their kids, more than one responded that her child wanted to be like their older underpants-wearing friends.

Peer pressure seems to hold some sway with young kids. While underpants may motivate the fashionable, how can parents with fashion-indifferent kids make the move out of diapers more alluring?

Wendy Wax and her sister Naomi Wax offer an ingenious lift-a-flap book that makes kids proud to potty.

Even Firefighters Go To The Potty observes that all kinds of people answer Nature's call. Through Stephen Gilpin's colorful and funny illustrations readers wonder where important figures (a police officer, a doctor, a baseball player, a *gasp* waiter, a train engineer, and an astronaut- among others) have gone.

The child can lift a door shaped flap on the page to reveal the missing cool person in the bathroom. The modest pictures keep everything G-rated while still showing urinals and other non-household bathroom features.

The book made me laugh pretty hard. Just as I was acclimating to the rhythm "But an astronaut is missing. Where could he have gone? [life flap] To the potty. Even astronauts go to the potty," I found myself squirming to read "It's a busy day at the restaurant. The Sutton family is ready to order. But where did the waiter go?"

Noooo! Waiters never go to the potty during their shifts. No! No! No!

When Ranger lifted the flap to show a picture of a handsome fellow thoroughly washing his hands, I laughed with delight (and no small measure of relief). Ranger always laughs especially hard at the page because of my initial reaction.

The book is charming and well-drawn and received far more interest than the classic Everyone Poops. Because it's a household comedy hit, I've had the slightly awkward pleasure of reading it to at least one visiting child. The preschool kids all proudly declared that they too go to the potty. I think that kind of enthusiasm would inspire early potter trainers to desire membership in the secret society of the commode.

The book's pages are made of a heavily laminated cardstock. They're really durable. We let the Raptor (15 months) brutally drag the book all over the house and it shows no notable wear after weeks of unchecked abuse.

For $8, this hardcover book is a steal. I wish we had owned it years ago.

Update 3/12:
Wendy reports that Even Ballerinas Go To The Potty is currently being developed. I'd like to note that preschool girls and boys seem equally delighted by Even Firefighters Go To The Potty when we've read it with them.

Parents who think about books and writers thinking about children's books will like Wendy's new blog. Learn more about her other titles at her website.

***Baby Toolkit is the from the trenches communique of two geek parents in the Midwestern United States. Wendy Wax sent us a free copy of Even Firefighters Go To The Potty ($8). We have no financial relationship with the book's authors or publishers. We are Amazon affiliates, so a small percentage of purchases made through our Amazon links help pay for our domain name and DSL service. Thanks for reading Baby Toolkit!