My mother advised me that you should always give a child a choice so that they feel they have some autonomy and control in their largely-dictated life. Little did she know what she was setting me up for. Or maybe she did, she has an ironic sense of humor.

So, when Jack was old enough to understand, I started offering him choices such as, "Do you want to wear the red shirt or the blue shirt?" Sometimes the choices were binary,… Read More

There are probably people who would give me a lot of static if they found out that my 3 year old is still sleeping in a crib. Such as, all my friends who give me a lot of static for putting my 3 year old in a crib. Despite this, I would have no real objections to leaving him there until he leaves for college, if only I didn’t need the crib soon for his little brother (still a 'work… Read More

I have recently unearthed a fascinating phenomenon in relation to the nuclear center of a preschooler's life, by which I mean of course, Dora the Explorer. I had always carefully controlled my son's excessive television watching by limiting it to educational DVD's, such as Baby Einstein or Leapfrog. I'm sure there are those who would debate the "educational" in the last sentence, but I actually think some of those products do a great job in helping children with the basics… Read More

I had a fetal echocardiogram last week as a routine double check since the doctors found a slight hole in my heart during my first pregnancy. This particular heart defect usually causes no symptoms and indeed I never knew I had it, but during pregnancy it has this itsy bitsy complication of possibly causing maternal heart failure and death. The drama! Now I'm going to end up in everyone's death pools.

I actually was worried about this during my first pregnancy,… Read More

There was a time when I thought Jack would be a potty training prodigy. At 19 months, he acted as if he wanted to potty train and I thought "gosh this is so easy!" and ran out and bought the paraphernalia. This intrigued him for approximately two days after which he wanted nothing to do with it.

Unconcerned, I figured, well, who needs a potty prodigy anyway- good move Jack, save your talent for something else! Still, I expected… Read More

With further evidence that the maternal brain shrinks during pregnancy, I have now expanded the pool of witnesses to my mental decline.

My college roommate is in town for a visit and it's a bit like a Three's Company reunion since she my husband and I spent so much time together in college. I'm not sure if the walk down memory lane is making me feel old or young again. In either case, it's a lot of fun. I… Read More