Family Life

I got this great gadget called a Lil Rinser that works as a shampoo shield to keep water out of baby’s face and ears during hair washing, undoubtedly every kid’s least favorite part of bath time. We tried it out on our son during his Sunday morning bath and it worked beautifully! I was thinking […]

Paper is one of the best toys for babies 9-18 months and even older. You have to make sure they don’t eat it, but little kids love to tear paper! When we are in the car and Joel is miserable, all I have to do is give him a piece of paper, and he’ll be […]

When I am working on something, Joel seems to get exceptionally clingy. If I sit on the couch and do nothing, he’ll play by himself all day, but as soon as I start working on something, he wants me to pay attention to him. I have found that if I stop what I’m doing for […]

Isn’t bath time supposed to be fun? It used to be. Around the time that Joel turned 1 he started to hate bath time. I couldn’t figure it out! He never really did like to get his hair washed, but being in the water didn’t bother him until one day he screamed and cried through […]

My son turned 1 on Easter and since then I’ve been thinking about all the things I’ve learned in my first year of motherhood. My life has totally changed. The things I think about are different, the things I worry about are different; my focus has changed from myself to my family. Being married with […]

In order for hand washing to do any good, you have to wash them for more than 5 seconds. A fun idea is to teach kids to wash their hands to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Sing that song in your head, and when you’re done you know your hands have been sufficiently sanitized. Teaching kids […]

So over the last few days I’ve decided that I would like each member of our family to have a name that starts with a different letter of the alphabet. We already have Boyd (my husband), Kelsey (me), and Joel (baby boy) and we have three more names picked out that begin with R, I, […]

We have really struggled with our son’s night time sleep routine. Recently he has been waking up in the middle of the night for hours at a time, refusing to go back to sleep. Since he was born I have nursed and rocked him to sleep, which worked fine until he learned to sit and […]

My husband read a parenting book written for fathers and the best thing he learned from that book was how to help your children grow up to be secure and independent people. Contrary to intuition, the more attention and love you give your child during their infancy, the more independent they will be as children, […]

I recently listened in on a lecture about infant attachment in a sociology class where I learned that secure attachment is developed during the first 6 months of life and happens when a child receives consistent love and care. Responding to your infant’s cry is a very important part of creating secure parent/baby attachment. I’ve […]