***** This is a guest post by Aldo Torner *****

Sometimes it is easy to identify new parents just by looking at what they are carrying. Simply size up the baby bag. As the oldest of six siblings, I remember watching my own mom’s baby bag evolution over the years. It seemed that shopping for just the right diaper bag – and it had to be HUGE – was only important during the early years. Once it came to baby number six, my mom had packing baby’s stuff down to an art, and everything she needed fit into her oversized purse – no diaper bag needed. Of course, the prospect of being out and about with the little one and not having something you need can be quite stress-inducing. So, what do you REALLY need when leaving the house with baby? Here is a brief rundown:

Baby food and drink

Bring baby’s bottle, in an insulated bottle pack to maintain its temperature. Even if you don’t plan on being gone during meal time, bring a bottle with purified water and a travel-sized packet of formula. If you are breast-feeding, of course, you can skip the bottle altogether. Additionally, bring a sandwich baggy or small plastic container with a snack. You don’t need the whole pantry; just some simple finger foods – crackers, for example – will do. Bring a sippy cup of water or juice to wash it down.

When baby gets soiled

Bring a travel-sized pack of baby wipes, a couple of diapers, and a simple change of clothing, like a onesie. Don’t forget clean socks. Either a disposable, or a very compact, changing pad could come in handy . . . but is not necessary, if you absolutely must pack as lightly as possible. Pack a couple of zip-lock bags to store dirty or wet clothing in until you get home.

Comfort

If baby has a favorite blanket, stuffed animal or chew toy, or uses a pacifier, bring those.

Entertainment

Don’t pack the playroom. Remember that baby will most likely be stimulated and entertained by being in a new environment. Pack a small rattler or travel toy. If you really want to conserve space in your diaper bag, opt for toys that attach directly to your baby carrier.

Taking baby out and about doesn’t have to be a nerve-wracking prospect. Just make sure you have these basics packed, and you will be prepared to handle most any situation. Also, remember that just like everything associated with parenting, leaving the house with baby may be scary in the beginning, but you will get better at it and more comfortable with it over time . . . and with a little (or a lot) of trial and error.

*****

About the Author:

Aldo Torno is a career counselor for several phlebotomy schools and plans to pursue a career in nursing within the next year or two. He was inspired to write this article after seeing many young mothers visit his schools while caring for their children. Some of them looked like they were about to move in permanently! Take a deep breath and don’t stress out when you take your baby in public. Be realistic and things will go much smoother than anticipated. Please visit http://www.associationphlebotomytraining.com/ if you’d like more information about phlebotomy as a career.

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Didn’t say I was an expert. [At anything.] But these do the job.

Instructions:
Buy cheap gloves
Cut fingertip off the gloves for whichever fingers you use on your touchscreen.
Put gloves on.
Touch screen.
Gasp in technoshock and awe as your bare fingertip works just like a bare fingertip.

Malaria No More is a charity working to end the suffering and deaths caused by malaria – an illness that’s both easy to prevent and relatively easy to cure, as long as there is access to information, diagnosis and treatment. Malaria kills hundreds of thousands of people every year in Africa.

As part of the global Roll Back Malaria Partnership, Malaria No More aims to bring the death rate from malaria down to near-zero by 2015. There’s a vaccine being developed right now to help stop the spread of malaria. But they need our help.

Text DREAM to 85944 to donate $10 to Malaria No More. You’ll be entered in the competition to win a trip to Africa with Katharine McPhee. Make sure you  read the full details at http://www.malarianomore.org/Dream.

Image credit

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Check out the basic info on the Microsoft  Kinect for Windows website, if you’re curious.

We found little flowers blooming over the road on our long walk yesterday.

Despite the current cold snap [do you see how many layers Mini-MI's wrapped in?] the plants have decided it’s sunny enough to get growing. Spose they know best.

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Reblogged from NewsFeed:

When Beck Laxton and Kieran Cooper had their son, Sasha Laxton, five years ago, they decided that rather than make a big splashy “It’s A Boy!” announcement, they’d keep the news to themselves. Instead, they only told a select number of relatives that little Sasha was a he; to everyone else the child was referred to as “the infant” and described without gendered pronouns. “Stereotypes seem fundamentally stupid. Why would you want to slot people into boxes?” Laxton told her local news outlet, Cambridge …

This is one of the daftest things I’ve ever heard. As if having a yellow bedroom and wearing what you like could somehow psychologically damage a kid! In fact, the yellow bedroom was probably the most traumatic thing about it.

Here’s a little visual celebration of redundancy in action:

I'd prefer to prepay afterwards, by Andrew Sardone

Redundant Touch by JulianBleecker

Stating the Obvious by Hryck

Redundancy by mlcastle

Images via Flickr: Andrew Sardone, JulianBleecker, Hryck, mlcastle

Related resources

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Not Doing: Denim Boilersuits

I last wore one of these in 1987; you can’t make me go back there. I was only 10, I didn’t know what I was doing. I thought [wished] it made me look cool like Ripley in Alien, but I was a kid digging holes in the woods, and a jumpsuit wasn’t going to turn me into a hardcore grown-up heroine. Baggy but not comfortable, inconvenient to change or adjust layers, and there’s no way in hell I’d pay Wrangler or anyone else £135 for making me look like an extra from an archetypal sci-fi engineering room.

Not Doing: 7/8ths Length Jeans

Listen, my legs are long. If I wore jeans that stopped above my ankle bone, I’d have inches of exposed ankle getting hypothermia. Also, it’d look like I’d stolen them from a 12 year old. As it is, I usually wear boots that reach at least mid-calf, so the whole thing would be pointless because nobody would see my on-trend leg length anyway.

Not Doing: Feather Mini Skirts

Because my arse was not built to be a pom-pom. And because if I was going to wear a feather skirt, I’d want bloody great melodramatic peacock feathers rather than that fluffy fringy stuff.

On the upside, leopard print is cool still/again. Boy boots and brogues with big brothel-creeping workwear soles are a thing. And there are ads in there for new extra-big bottles of Aussie Miracle Moist, which is one of the few conditioners my hair will cooperate with.

Image credit: Steven Depolo

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***** 4nim4l *****

Want to Win Image of the Week?

Send me the URL to your image, or email me the file as an attachment if you must.  I’m on Facebook and Twitter and my email is mi@machiavelliid.com. Give me whatever info you like about you or your image.  That’s it.

[No guarantees that I'll ever publish it, or that I'll repeat what you say about it word-for-word.  But if I like your image or your thinking, it's in.]

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About 20 hours later, I saw the news that Mike Crawley has been named as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada….

What this essentially means is that a whole lot of people were doing a quick spot of internet research on Mike Crawley, maybe looking for a picture of him to include with their blog post or news story, when they crashed into a couple of my photos along the way and got, um, distracted. “Important stuff, politics… oh look, boobies!” and so on.

So, if you’re here looking for Mike Crawley, Canadian politician, you just missed him.

If you want Mike Crawley AKA Photofrenetic, erotic nude and artistic nude photographer, then check out the gallery or visit his website.

That is all.

Pervs.

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