My kids were medical kids. Seriously, Claire's first five years of life were peppered with diagnoses, doctors, specialists and surgeries.

After the stillborn loss of our first daughter, I worked hard to keep all her medical struggles in perspective, repeating this mantra daily: At least she’s he...

My three kids were born between 2000 and 2005. Their early years were filled with friends and family wanting to give them digital toys that talked, LeapPads, and hand-me-down Ipods. (remember those?)

And me, politely saying “No thank you. I don’t want them to think of technology as a toy.”

T...

My husband is terrible at sharing.  I am not throwing him under the bus. It's true and he’ll tell you as much.  He doesn't like sharing food off his plate.  He refuses to share his tools. And, although he will eventually hand over a sweatshirt when I ask to borrow it, he sends a pointed ‘you better ...

How often do you get caught in the trigger trap reaction cycle? It’s so easy to do and hard to break out of! 

Reactions are live-time, high emotion, frustration point solutions. They're short lived, and you have to repeat them over and over and over. And, they often lead to punitive discipline, ...

Toddlers cry. A lot. It’s their primary way of communicating, well – everything. 

How they feel. What they are thinking. Their opinions. And their preferences as their tiny-little belief systems develop. 

In fact, crying is a healthy sign of early development. Kids who never cry are likely not pro...

School wasn’t going well for my Kindergartener. Most spring mornings it was a battle to get out the door, followed by massive, puddle-on-the-floor meltdowns when she got home at the end of the day.

I knew something had to change for 1st grade, but how? 

I worked. My husband worked. And in...

I raised a challenging child with big, loud, audacious behaviors. Think puddle on the floor, screaming meltdowns that often went on for 30 or 40 minutes until she expelled her dysregulated energy, then – then popped right back up and reengaged with me, like nothing ever happened.

Big feelings have ...

Today we’re talking about physical behavior with our kids, how they come at us physically and how we are going to manage that.  One of my clients who's a Transforming the Toddler, Toddler Years course graduate, still works with me and we work very deeply together monthly. Here’s what’s happening wit...

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 of 12...

A conversation for context.

My husband: “What do you want for Christmas?”

Me: “Finish renovating my office?” 

Him: “Ok.” 

He's a contractor by trade so I trust him and he has This Old House type vision for our home updates so I trust him even more.

He also lives by this motto, “If you're going ...

You’ve heard this quip, right? It’s along the lines of, put your money where your mouth is and no pain - no gain.  

In plain speak, we tend to take action when we feel invested. 

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 radio. She’s that good...