Strollerderby : creative

The 10 Craziest—er, Most Creative—Twin Names

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:54:00 GMT

As Jeanne Sager recently pointed out in her essay, “Baby Names Gone Wild,” naming children after fruit, dance moves, and positive adjectives is all the rage these days. And with multiples births on the rise due to fertility treatments, I got to thinking about twins with, shall we say, unusual names.

I put out the call to my family and friends for the most interestingly christened twins they’d ever encountered. Here I present the winners. (Tyler and Tiara--pictured--did not make the cut, and no, I don't know why they're wearing shoulder pads.)

1.) Felton and Belton. Representing the great Southern tradition of rhyming names, these boys are my grandmother’s brothers from Alabama. (I also have a cousin named Jimmy Ray, after his parents, Ray and Jim. But I digress.)

2.) Unique and Uniqua. Each is a pretty enough name on its own. But put them together, and you kind of negate the merits of both.

3.) Otto and Gotto. Gotto clearly got the rough end of that deal.

4.) Dawun and Daottawun. Read them out loud phonetically and cringe.

5.) Dee and Zee. These names are cute when the babies are getting pushed around in a double stroller, wearing matching onesies. Now picture Zee alone at a job interview twenty years later.

6.) Twina and Twinba. Apparently, an indecisive mother liked the simplicity of the “Twin A” and “Twin B” on her babies’ hospital cribs a little too much….

7.) Lemon and Orange. Words fail.

8.) Duck and Chick. I can't decide which of these girls hates her parents more....

9.) LeWasher and LeDryer. French people are hilarious.

10.) Flutenoy and Bakusy. Naming ingenuity begins and ends with these boys’ parents. Sorry, creative namers, but it's time to throw in the towel. You'll never compete with a name like Flutenoy.

Photo: personalbaby.com

Lock Away the Kids and Try the "Wall Kiss" ... If You Dare

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:57:00 GMT

By now you've blackmailed an unsuspecting teenager into babysitting. You've made dinner reservations. Maybe you've bought some jewelry, some roses, a bottle of wine. You're ready to spend some quality time with your spouse while your kids get high on sugar and late-night TV. You're ready for Valentine's Day ... at least you thought so.

Mom blogger Susie J. recounts the so many ways I don't know how to say I love you. "Behind the Veil" -- a kiss that involves a sandbox. The wall kiss, movie star kiss, the hot breath kiss, cherry kiss, mafia kiss. I need to start renting better porn or go back to middle school, because none of these are ringing any bells.

That's not to say I don't know a few of my own. Parenting provides fertile ground, so to speak, for a wide range of kisses:

The middle-of-the-night feeding kiss -- which usually lands on the forehead or elbow, as your spouse rolls over for another hour of precious sleep while you trudge into the nursery.

The date night kiss -- a hurried, torrid coupling before you drive the $15-an-hour sitter home. (The coupling is with the spouse, by the way. Get your head out of the gutter -- sheesh.)

The hall pass kiss -- a very quick peck on the cheek before your sprint out the door for a few beers with the guys.

I'm sure I'm missing more than a few. Any others?

Too Cold for a Jog? Run in Circles to Burn Off Parenting Steam

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 14:48:00 GMT

What do you do when it's too cold outside to take a run, yet your treadmill is on the blink? Radioactive Girl has the answer. Head down to your basement, deposit your children on a trampoline mattress and run as fast as you can in circles. Some may simply call that parenthood, that feeling of running in endless circles -- but I call it awesome. After all, she did a 7-minute mile! In her basement.

She says: "Running laps around the basement has an extra bonus. There are hurdles ...or remote control dinosaurs and a bunch of crap laying around, but they worked like hurdles. Although you feel a little like a mouse on a wheel running around and around, but going nowhere." Again, that sounds a lot like parenthood, but whatever.

I think it's genius. I don't have a basement, but the living room looks big enough if I got all Martha Stewart on it and rearranged crap -- although a coffee table hurdle might do me some good. I saw on the news last night that rain is headed our way next weekend. Who knows? I may follow Radioactive Girl's lead and dump the kid on a mattress while I make like a mouse and sprint happily around the room.

Unless, of course, there are better ways to burn off steam after a long day with the kids? (Get your mind out of the gutter, people -- I'm talking about exercise here ....)

Low-tech Toys Inspire Creativity While Having Fun

Karen Murphy — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:54:00 GMT

Having four children, if there's anything I know about, it's toys. When my oldest daughter was born, I absolutely couldn't wait for her to get bigger. Know why? Legos. I so wanted to play Legos, but being, you know, a "grown-up", I figured they were off-limits to me unless I had the handy excuse of playing with them with my kid. So when she got big enough, she got not only the Legos, but also Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs. And I was so happy.

Turns out I'm not the only one who thinks low-tech toys are cool. The annual Oppenheim Toy Portfolio is chock-full of low-tech, open-ended, traditional toys like unit blocks, jumbo animals, and an easel. There's an entire catalog, Back to Basics Toys, devoted to all your childhood favorites. Other faves in our house have been a wooden train set, puzzles, board games, Breyer horses, stuffed animals, and wooden vehicles.

On a budget? Another extremely popular and much-used toy in my house has been a collection of colored silk cloths, which can be bought blank for next-to-nothing and easily dyed at home for a fun, creative, and eventually useful project, or they can be found in a rainbow of colors here and here.

Really on a budget? Our editor Jay Allen wrote an awesome piece awhile back at Blogging Baby, and his absolute #1 toy was (and I can attest to the popularity of these) an empty cardboard box. You can turn that (free! cheap!) box into a house, a vehicle, a puppet theater, a castle, you name it! Or rather, your children will. All you need is to wield the knife for them.

Don't want the children underfoot all day? Send them outside with a couple of old stumps they can roll around and a 2x4 or two, and a wagon. Be sure there are some rocks and sticks out there too. They'll know what to do with them.