Welcome to the Friday Five! I’ve been meaning to tell you guys: every time I write my little tagline for this feature (“HOT recommendations from this luke-warm Mom”) – it auto corrects to “puke-warm mom“. Puke-warm is a disgusting descriptor, no? I don’t want to be a puke-warm mom!
Anyway, it is JUST NOW occurring to me that lukewarm has no hyphen! Mystery solved. It only took auto correct regulating me for nine weeks straight before I figured this out. Ok, onto my “puke hot recommendations.” Giddyup!
“Hey, it’s looking pretty overcast outside. Whaddaya say we put on our wool sweaters and rain boots and play a quick game of soccer in the ocean?” #whimsicalwool
If you aren’t yet following It’s Like They Know Us you should be. This Tumblr BLEW UP in its first few weeks, and for good reason. It’s a simple concept: take a bunch of lifestyle magazine photos of families doing wholesome and completely asinine activities and pair them with captions mocking them. It’s genius! A new mom named Sara started it, and I want to befriend her. More specifically, I want to dress in white from head to toe, toss on a breast pump, and chat with Sara while I feed my baby a carrot puree on our all white couch. Because that’s what new friends do.
“Ellie’s favorite toy, besides my hair (she has a future as a stylist I’m sure), is the Fisher-Price Piano Gym, Kick and Play. We LOVE this because it brings her so much joy. Ellie first loved it because there were cool things to see and babble at. Now she loves to roll all around, kick the keys, and try to wrestle the hanging animals off. It holds her interest for a long time while I make dinner or do other chores. This play mat has been a wonderful addition to our house. I didn’t register for it, thinking that I wasn’t going to overload our daughter with toys. She could just play on a blanket with some toys around her, right? Silly me! She LOVES to grab the hanging animals and kick the piano keys. So much so that I am constantly humming one of the fine tunes from the tiny keyboard. Itsy Bitsy Spider, much? Anyway, whoever designed this is a genius because I can set Ellie down to play and go clean a bathroom or make dinner. Plus, the music has two levels – mommy has a headache quiet and LET’S ALL SING PETER COTTONTAIL! We love it!”
I presume this is Ellie. I have never met Ellie, but I think it would be strange if reader Jen rented a baby to pose as Ellie. Thanks for the suggestion, Ellie and Jen!
3. Jennifer Garner’s “Baby Bump”
So apparently there’s been some talk in Hollywood (or in your local CVS checkout line, from the tabloids) about Jennifer Garner and her alleged “baby bump.” Thank God I’m not a Hollywood elite, I can only imagine the headlines about my year-long use of maternity pants:
“Faria Pregnant Again? Blogger Allegedly Due with Baby No. 2!”
“Liz Denies Pregnancy Rumors Amidst Firestorm of Speculation After She’s Spotted in Maternity Pants AGAIN”
Anyway, Garner was on Ellen this week and told an excited studio audience that yes, she does indeed have a baby bump!! (Live audience goes wild). But is she having a baby? Um, no. She just has the residual bump. Boom! Way to keep it real Jennifer.
After three kids, she says, the bump is here to stay. Watch Garner handle the situation like a boss here and read about her “every mom” ways here.
If Jennifer is keeping her bump, then I’m definitely keeping mine.
Jumping is Nolan’s passion. It’s his gift, what he was born to do. This kid can barely hobble a few assisted steps on those tiny doll-like feet of his, and he still doesn’t crawl with his stomach off the floor, preferring the army style crawl popular with lazy babies everywhere. But jumping? Yes sir! Nolan tries to jump all day every day, and this Jumperoo from Fisher Price is far and away his most coveted possession. And want to know a little secret? We got it at a second hand shop! Don’t tell Nolan, we passed it off to him as new. I even like the music on this bad boy! I think Nolan does too, because the ENTIRE TIME he’s jumping he is “singing” along with it like a small bird that’s being squeezed in a vice. It’s soothing for everyone.
5. Cousin Luke Singing Happy Birthday to Nolan
This is the cutest video ever from our little nephew Luke, who is always looking out for his baby cousin “NoNo.” Love it!
Happy Friday Everyone! Feel free to keep sending along your suggestions for the Friday Five to amothershipdown@gmail.com.
Amen to Jennifer Garner! I’ve never really had an opinion about her but now I feel she’s my celebrity representative (is that a thing?)! Great post Liz! I especially love your headlines 🙂
And thank you to Mer for this suggestion! She pointed me right toward Jennifer’s baby bump for my consideration, and I liked what I saw.
Amazing as always! I love Jennifer Garner’s honesty- so refreshing! Thank you for posting Luke’s birthday song! He loves his cousin so much!!!
For some reason FB today has been messing with me. It won’t let me post photos on any of my FB groups. I guess one of my moth photos violated their policy! Apparently, it won’t let me share your post today either, which is a bummer, because I share it all the time and people like it. I’ll try later…..
Betsy, I can’t believe that a moth photo could violate any policy! Ha! Well I hope you are un-banned from FB posting as of now 🙂
The piano gym is amazing!!!! My little boy loves that thing and goes crazy kicking and swinging his arms . We are getting the jumparoo used for 25 dollars! Love the Friday Five and A Mothership Down!
Thanks Sarah! Nolan never had the piano gym but I think he would have been really into it. He loves kicking things, and this would have been a productive way to get his kicks in!