Q:  What do wood glue, Darth Vader, and bowling have in common? A:  My son’s 9th birthday! All he asked for were some Lego sets, and if we could afford it, specifically the Darth Vader TIE Fighter set. We could – in fact – afford it (though I thought it was so sweet of him [...]

As my children have gotten older, I’ve been surprised at how difficult it is for me to follow one of the golden rules of parenting:  don’t do for them what they can do for themselves. It’s not that I don’t want them to learn responsibility, I just have the hardest time letting them deal with [...]

Our toddler son didn’t go down for a nap until very late this afternoon.  We listened to him chat and chuckle and make funny noises to himself for about 20 minutes before it was clear that he was having none of it in terms of sleeping.  When he started actually shrieking “MAMA MAMA MAMA,” I [...]

My toddler is a pod person. He must be – what else can account for the strange and incredibly rapid growth in his speech and his sudden embrace of sleep rituals? This is not my child! For many months I have been concerned about his speech; for some reason, he seemed late in picking up [...]