Riding home from dropping A- off at school this morning, G- and I were biking along quite happily when he suddenly and without warning stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. I was riding along closely and smacked into the back of his bike, to my horror. His bike was pushed out from under him and he flipped backwards over his bike, ending up tangled in the bike and quite shocked by the sudden turn…Read More

This is an exciting week for us. G-, our 3yo, started preschool this week, an in-house Waldorf-inspired program from a teacher who lives just around the corner. It’s only two days a week, but that’s alright, we can start slowly. He’s been doing really great and I can’t help remembering how when A- (who is now 6) went into preschool one of us needed to be physically on school property for almost that entire first…Read More

James Twyman is a fascinating fellow who has been spending years looking at what he calls “Indigo Children”, and now they’re making a film about these extraordinary children called Indigo. One of the young actresses in the film, Angelina Marie Hess, who plays five-year-old Grace, recently shared the following question with James: “Do you know that God loves you no matter what choice you make, because if you really, really knew that God loves you,…Read More

We’ve been having a pretty hard time with the little guy, G- (3), with his kicking, hitting, and general bursts of explosive energy when things are going just how he wants (or when he’s tired). Our strategies over the last month or two haven’t worked at all, though, we’ve been mad sometimes, gentle and loving sometimes, permissive, weak, you-name-it. It was driving us all crazy! About two weeks ago I’d had it with his craziness,…Read More

When I was a kid, I never realized how difficult summer holidays were for my parents. I figured “hey, nothing to do, I can hang out, eat, play, and generally be a full-time nuisance!” and likely was just that for 2.5 months every summer. Now I’m a parent and, well, it’s clear why structure and rhythm are so important to a kid’s life, that’s all I can say. After the first week or two of…Read More

It’s summer vacation and all, but in the last fortnight we’ve really had a chance to see just how incredibly important a consistent schedule and keeping the rhythm of the school year are for our family. About two weeks ago we drove about 500 miles or so to get to our summer retreat in Missouri. Not horribly far, but with lots of stops for restrooms and runaround time (a great way to deal with cranky…Read More

It’s an odd title, but that’s a common expression in the venture capital industry, referring to the fact that most successful companies service themselves as customers: they eat their own dogfood, quite literally. Think of it this way: would you want to eat at a restaurant where the staff sneaks down the road for dinner every night? So I was thinking about this after talking with a midwife this afternoon who commented “I really knew…Read More

Over the last few months, we’ve had a real challenge with our 3yo son, G-, who is a very sensitive fellow. When he gets frustrated, he gets quiet, then he finds a little core of energy inside and thrashes out. He’ll hit, punch, kick, whatever. Not in a flailing maniac sort of way, but just a single act to convey to whomever upset him that he’s not a happy fellow at that moment. He’s scratched…Read More

Tomorrow night should be an interesting experience; our daughter’s best pal, who is also six years old, is spending the night. A- is already primed and excited to share her bunk bed with her pal, who gets the top bunk, the place of honor because that’s where our cat sleeps! We’re expecting late night giggling and random thunks and sneaking into the kitchen late into the night (at least 9pm, which is very late to…Read More

Tonight was pretty frustrating: I took care of G- while Linda went out for the evening, and he’d had a nap, so wanted to stay up late. Well, there’s little point reasoning with a three year old, but by about 10pm I’d had enough of reading books and waiting for him to stop yawning long enough to tell me he wasn’t ready to go to bed. So, I took him to bed. The little nipper…Read More

I don’t know what’s been going on lately, but I have been getting less and less sleep over the last few weeks. Part of it is that I have so many different projects and ideas buzzing around in my head, but much of it is little folk issues. Last night, 4am, G- was pestering Linda to nurse and she wanted to sleep, so I groggily said “no worries, I’ll get him something to drink”. The…Read More

Welcome to the APparenting web site and web log. If you’re not familiar with attachment parenting, then one excellent place to start learning more about this loving, fun, and instinctive approach to parenting is to check out Attachment Parenting International. There are also a number of books on the subject, with two primary references that we recommend: Dr. William Sears’ succinct book The Attachment Parenting Book : A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your…Read More