New Releases by Cynthia L Copeland

It's instant fun. Activities to do in minutes. Super-quick games to roll out at a moment's notice. Filling a need that every parent of young children has, 324 Anytime, Anywhere Activities! for Kids is a perfect antidote to those "booooring" car rides, endless waits in the doctor's office, restaurant fidgetiness, and assorted child-unfriendly chores. And you don't need to bring along any special props.

Several years ago, Cynthia Copeland shared the wisdom of her three children in Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me, which has 356,000 copies in print. Now she's written a parents' survival guide for those times when kids seem more at wit's end than wise. In the car? Try Red Car, Blue Car, Old Car, New Car; How Far, How Fast?; Raindrop Race; or I Heard It!, where the first one to hear the secret word on the radio wins. While waiting for the pediatrician, try Sock' Em, Cents of Hearing, or Body Double--draw the outline of your child lying on the examination table paper, then let him or her fill it in. Stuck at the bus stop? Gather the kids to play Simon Does, Knot Happening, or Blind Man Walking. There are mind benders, story-telling games (including It Was a Dark and Stormy Night)--in all, hundreds of ways guaranteed to engage their imagination and lift their spirits. Not to mention yours.

She's hilarious. She's also wise and full of empathy. And she helps new mothers maintain the one thing they can't survive without-a sense of humor. Cynthia Copeland, a mother of three (and author of Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me, with 325,000 copies in print), knows the real poop-figuratively and literally-on being a new mother, and she has the wit, skill, and generosity to share it.

Illustrated throughout with the author's wonderful cartoons, The Diaper Diaries chronicles the first year of motherhood, from the hospital stay (nominees for the world's worst labor coach anyone?) to baby's first birthday and contemplating the unimaginable-having another. There are lists, quizzes, timelines, charts, and real-life stories. Birth announcement faux pas. Names and nicknames and what they really mean. Pacifier tales. A guide to Nana-speak. How a 4-mile car trip can take 2 hours. Why it's impossible to get to work without finding spit-up or rice cereal somewhere on your clothing. Ten reasons to be happy you're up at 3:15 a.m.

And, with Mr. Phrenology-like illustrations, a section on the new mother's brain before and after baby, featuring: The Travel Section (Then: How to flirt your way into first class. Now: How to sweet talk your jogging stroller onto the plane), The Television Section (Then: How to tell Carrie from Samantha from Miranda from Charlotte. Now: How to tell Laa-Laa from Po from Dipsy from Tinky Winky), and The Sex Section (Then: Exact location of G-spot. Now: ________).