I sat on the floor, face to face with an 18 month old little boy. He was trying to put a circle shaped toy into a square shaped hole.

He tried again and again and again, and it wouldn't fit.  

Frustration strained his face. His hands gripped tightly around the little...

“It's not very beautiful is it?” We were painting little plaster Halloween creatures and this little four year old’s was multi-colored and multi-layered, hues blending to create new and different shades. 

When I hesitated, he put down the paintbrush held it up to...

I looked at my toddler, smiled and said “It’s my job to keep you…” 

 “SAFE” she yelled with an ear to ear smile on her face.

From the moment my kids were born there was an inner shift. All of a sudden my only job was to keep them safe,...

When parents find out I have a degree in Linguistics they ask me one of two questions:

How do I talk to my baby when they can’t talk back yet? 

or

How do I help my late-talking toddler manage their communication frustration?

And my answer is always the same. 

Why your baby often crawls backwards before forwards.

Dirty Dancing is one of my favorite movies of all time. Seriously, I was ten years old when the movie came out, and spent two years begging my parents to let me watch it, primarily because I loved dancing so much. 

And at the ripe old age...

In the first article, Welcome to the World Little One, we explored your baby’s basic survival needs during the newborn phase. 

In the second, What is Self-Soothing, Really? We explored the process of calming ourselves and how it connects to our sense of self. We learned that...

In the first article of the series, Welcome to the World Little One, we explored your baby’s basic survival needs during the newborn phase. 

Today we tackle self-soothing. 

Google it and you get a lot about babies, kids, and the ability to fall asleep and calm down by themselves....

My daughter loves to sing and she’s blessed with a voice that, if she was willing to share it with the world, everyone would want to hear. 

Seriously, one day I yelled up the stairs and down the hall (as only the mother of a teenager can) Turn that radio down! 

It wasn’t the...

I just finished listening to Brene Brown's book, Daring Greatly, and promptly burst into tears.

I nearly made it too. But the last four minutes did me in.

You know when, back in the day, you went to a movie theatre and it was a tear jerker but you kept it together, so as not to blubber cry...

Welcome back, mamas. Today we're wrapping up a six part series. We started this five episodes ago, talking about the skills that your COVID babies, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers need to practice every day in order to have a breadth of skill sets to go be ready learners and ready people to...

Welcome back, mamas. We are nearly through our top five executive functioning skills series that will help your child grow into a kindergarten and world ready kid. Today's skill doesn't actually sound like one.  Today's executive functioning skill is sense of self. Let's sit with that for a...

Welcome back, mamas. I am thrilled that we are still in the middle of our five part series of executive functioning skills. We can practice with our kids every day that will set them up for success in the real world.  Today, we are talking about flexible thinking, skill number three out of...