New parent/kiddie friendly write-in?

I love this idea! I have a pretty young baby, though, and I'm not sure how long he'd let me write -- but I'm willing to give it a try if we can think of a good location. My little one, Dylan, is 4.5 months old and (obviously) not yet potty-trained, so a location with a good diaper changing area is a necessity. What about one of the public libraries (the ones that have cafes) in the middle of the day? Maybe we could reserve a community or group-study room...

Oh, this sounds fantastic. I never make it to write-ins anymore, i'd totally sign up for this. My boy'll be 10-11 months old during NaNo.

(Though i'll only be a SoBaNaNoer for the second half of the month, so i could only attend such a write-in between the 17th and 30th.)

Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

The cafeteria at De Anza College has free wireless and so does Foothill College in Los Altos Hills. You don't have to eat or drink anything and I think they are open until 9PM. There are always kids running around - and nobody bothers.

NaNoWriMo Winner 2004: Silicon Relationships
NaNoWriMo Winner 2005: A Day in the Life of Alien XYZ
NaNoWriMo Winner 2006: The Day After the Oil Crashed
2007: abducted by aliens without wifi, sorry.

Hmm, the De Anza cafeteria sounds intriguing. Another suggestion was Barefoot Cafe, but that place is small and it seems a screaming baby or two would annoy a lot of people. Anyone have a preference for time and day of the week?

I'll get the ball rolling and suggest Wednesday morning from 10-12 (this would fill a gap in the schedule of write-ins). I am assuming (and we all know what happens when you do that!) that the parents in question are NOT working during the day. If I am wrong, let me know and nominate a time that works for you.

Thanks,
Ian

idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

That would be AWESOME though I wonder how well it'd work in practice... I have a 20 month old kiddo and while he's getting more independent and thus not needing me to hover, I'd still feel nervous unless we;re in a place that's pretty kid-friendly and unescapable from (like an enclosed playground).

One idea would be to make it more like a playdate write-in, like hosted at someone's house? I wouldn't mind offering my place up for a meet-up, we have a pretty large and open living room area and also an enclosed patio right outside that are both kid-friendly and plenty of toys, along with a dining table that seats 6 and has clear views of both living and patio areas. And I can make coffee... maybe others could bring a few munchies, too?

I'm down at the San Jose/Campbell border (Winchester & Hamilton, BTW)

Marcy
http://mightymarce.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/mightymarce

Wow! That would be great for me, as it sounds like I live within walking distance of you.

I suppose we should poll the ages of the kids. I have two twins who will be 4 months old during nano. Other have mentioned a 10-11 month old and a 4.5 month old. Can you handle that many strollers at your place?

Ian

idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

The playdate style get together sounds perfect to me -- I'm not too far away either (in Willow Glen). If it helps, I can leave my stroller at home.

Wednesday mornings are hard for me, though, because my moms' group meets then. I could come maybe every other week then, though, without feeling too guilty about abandoning that group.

Ian, I have no clue how you're going to manage writing and MLing with such young twins -- it's very inspirational! If you can do it, I can manage my short YA novel, right?

Wednesday morning would be just fine by me. I'm a stay-at-home-mom even when i'm at home. I'd be driving down from Los Altos/Palo Alto, so i could also leave the stroller at home.

I'll be in CA for the 18th and 25th.

And i'm pretty impressed by anyone who can parents twins, even without all the ML stuff. One kid was almost more than i could handle.

Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

Great! Should be fun to get those ages together, too. =P Strollers should be no problem, if needed we can stow them away in our garage. Wednesday mornings from 10-12 works fine for us.

One thing I forgot to mention is I do have 2 cats, so hopefully no one's allergic. One will probably hide away in our bedroom anyway, the other is a kitten about 5 months old who so far has been VERY gentle with our son, but if it makes anyone nervous to have cats around I can also shut them off in a room while everyone's here.

BTW I thought I was crazy to sign up for NaNo with a toddler... I am in awe of anyone doing it with infants let alone TWINS!

Marcy
http://mightymarce.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/mightymarce

Marcy, I had an administrator remove your personal information from this post as a safety precaution. Especially with kids involved, it's better not to have your address and phone number displayed online in a forum that's visible to anyone. We can ask people to RSVP for this write-in to receive your address. Thanks again so much for offering your home up as a venue for people with kids! I will send you a NaNoMail with more details.

Lisa
South Bay co-ML

So it looks like we're having the kiddie write-in/play date on Wednesdays from 10 to 12 at mightymarce's place. If you plan to attend, please RSVP here or by sending me a PM (Private Message), and I will send you her address. (mightymarce, can you please send me your address in the reply to the message I sent you?).

And just FYI, I am VERY allergic to cats. If you're willing to lock them away for the write-in, that would be much appreciated.

idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

Woops, thanks for the precaution. I forgot these forums are totally public.

Ian, I'll lock the cats away and also try to vacuum Tuesday night (if I remember...).

Marcy
http://mightymarce.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/mightymarce

I love cats, and my boy loves chasing them. So far, though, he's only mastered the commando-crawl, so even the most lethargic cats can outrun him easily.

Looking forward to meeting y'all and your little young-writers-in-progress.

Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

silea, eraine, (and marcopolo),

I sent you PMs with mightymarce's address and phone #. Let me know if you don't get it (everything seems to be slow on the site today).

Also, if someone else wants to attend and hasn't indicated interest, let me know so I can send you the location info as well.

Thanks,
Ian

idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

HQ has indicated an interest in doing a Q&A feature about the kid-friendly write-in, including, if possible, a picture. So if you have a kid and want to contribute, come to tomorrow's kid-friendly write-in. If you haven't already RSVPed and gotten mightymarce's address, drop me a PM.

Thanks,
Ian

idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

Thanks for the reminder! I'm going to try to make it tomorrow -- we'll see how long Dylan lasts. Did you guys get much done last week? I do most of my writing late at night, after he goes to sleep.

Darn. I'm bummed that i'm going to miss that. A couple NYC people would have been tickled to see the NYC NaNo Baby get in on such publicity.

Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

Okay, other P.arents*10^-9, i have a confession.

I have a sore throat. I've had it for about four days, with absolutely no other symptoms. This is not the flu (are people as psychotically terrified about the flus here as they are in NYC?). No one has caught it from me, not even my husband and 10 month old baby.

However, if anyone attending (or hosting) the playdate tomorrow has any reservations whatsoever about me being in the same room as their child, let me know, and i'll abstain from attending.

Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

The missus and I and our two boys probably won't be there tomorrow as all four of us came down with colds Friday. Mild colds, and mommy and daddy are both over it, but the kids are still coughing. It's possible over the course of today we'll feel the kids are fully recovered, but unless I'm sure, I won't risk exposing anyone else.

Considering the regular attendance numbers, we may not have critical mass for tomorrow. Any other parents definitely planning to attend? Or should mightymarce plan on a lonely morning alone trapped, er, I mean, snuggling with her son?

(This sick business is one of the major drawbacks to nano in November. Ah well.)

idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency

Dylan and I won't be there tomorrow either. Dylan has an ear infection (diagnosed yesterday), and I have some evil cold from another dimension (experienced today). Even if we felt like venturing out into the world, we wouldn't inflict our contagion on the rest of you. You're welcome.

Will this be happening next week? I kinda assumed not, since it's the day before Thanksgiving, but you know what they say about assumptions...

I really hpoe it'll happen next week. I was really looking forward to hanging out with other NaNoParents.

Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

Sorry everyone's sick! Suddenly remembering that D had a slight cold last week and I really hope it wasn't us who spread it around. =(

I'm happy to still hold the playdate next week, since it'll be our last Wednesday in November and we're staying in town for turkey day this year. So anyone who wants to stop by next week feel free to do so!

Marcy
http://mightymarce.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/mightymarce

You can rest assured that, at the very least, you didn't get me sick.

I plan to attend next week. It'd be a shame if the Night of Writing Dangerously was the only write-in i made it to at all.

Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.

Ian rocks!

You have definetly put us on the map now! Well, by "us" I mean the South Bay and by "map" I mean the NaNo map, of course. I just read through your words on the FRONT PAGE (ok, so I don't know how to put the link in here) about the kid-friendly write-in and I just so appreciate you doing that! Getting the word out about what our own parents-of-young-ones have done this season by meeting up for a write-in that they can attend with their child/children is going to be invaluable to many other regions.

Years (ok...and years and years) ago, I belonged to a babysitting co-op and a group of us stay-at-home-parents were able to get together occasionally to do something fun together while we had others watch our children. That is the closest thing I can think of to what our own group of NaNoParents have done for one another this season.

Thanks to Ian for doing the piece and my congrats to all sobananos who have been able to take advantage of this unique opportunity to participate in the parent/kiddie friendly write-ins.

Yay! Link here for when it's gone from the front page:
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3457825

Excellent piece indeed! It would have been cool to see a picture of Ian with *both* twins and a laptop, but I don't know how you'd manage that short of juggling.

Lisa

Great article! I'm glad I could make it to one of the write-ins -- hopefully we can all meet up again next week, too.

I was really hoping I'd be able to make it today, but I'm still not 100%, and I don't want to risk it with your kiddos. It was great meeting you all a couple weeks ago, and good luck with your novels!

-Erin

The last scheduled baby write-in (hereby dubbed NaNoKiddo - damn I wish I'd thought of that earlier!) has just ended. I'd like to know your thoughts on how it worked out.

Were there enough write-ins?
Was the time/location convenient?
Was the turn out big enough for you?
What can we do to mitigate the impact of sick babies on attendance in the future? (I, for one, missed two of the four write-ins due to sick babies :/ )
Is there anything we can or should do to improve NaNoKiddo going forward?
Is there interest in write-ins beyond November?
What are your comments in general?

Feel free to reply here or PM me.

idunno, co-ML for California :: South Bay

2009 Novel: The Stephen Hawking Detective Agency