Is our second child still a “little sister” if our first child passed away?
I am about to have my second daughter. Most people will look at my daughter and see her as an only child, but I cannot help but think of her as a little sister. Her big sister passed away almost a year ago. Because most people won’t know the story of how our eldest child passed away, is it wrong to present my second daughter to the world as a “little sister?”
17 things The Princess Bride taught me about parenting children with autism
Fans of The Princess Bride will love this list of 17 ways the film has helped her parent children with autism from Bec, author of the blog Snagglebox. Bec has a fifteen-year-old and a twelve-year-old son who both have autism, and has been able to use lessons from the family fave in her favor.
Ambivalence: in which I pay $270 a year to avoid making a decision about our leftover embryos
The aforementioned pregnancy with the thousands of dollars and drugs started in a lab, with the creation of five embryos, made from donor sperm and eggs collected from my wonderful wife. Two embryos had 8-cells (the ideal), and were squirted into my uterus, and one of those grew and grew and was born a day before her due date but the day after the Pixies show we had tickets for (thanks kid! It was a good show!). The remaining three were put in the deep freeze in case the first try didn’t work. And there they remain. Three embryos, conceived the same day as my daughter, frozen in time.
How baby sign language is giving my toddler a sense of confidence and independence
Every time Lio signs for the dog, or puts two signs together — like “dog” and “water,” then points at the dog’s dish to indicate it’s time to complete his chore for the day — I just melt. Or when he signs “please” and “shoes,” then sits down so I can take his shoes off before hopping up to scuttle off to try on a pair of dad’s sneakers? That’s baby gold, right there.
Connecting as a community over pie
I watched my neighbors connect. It’s something I don’t think we get the chance to do that often anymore. During this age of social media, many of us spend more time updating statuses or tweeting than we do sitting down and having a conversation. Even better, a conversation over a slice of pie. There is something inherently neighborly and folksy about ruminating over pie.
Do you know of any toddler-friendly books that talk about breastfeeding a baby?
I’m hoping for something simple enough for a toddler, that shows the basic baby stuff — baby sleeping, crying, breastfeeding, having a nappy change and so on. I keep coming across books where the baby has a bottle — and while that’s a valid choice, I’d really like my son to see pictures of a baby breastfeeding, as that’s what we hope our new baby will do!
Our child’s medical condition led us to unexpectedly become Attachment Parents
I went in to parenthood prepared. I had a decent amount of baby experience and figured I was as ready as someone can be to have your life up-ended by a tiny human. My husband and I discussed cloth diapering (we wanted to try it), sleeping arrangements (pack-n-play and crib only) and birth plans (unmedicated hospital birth with a doula). I knew that all of our plans needed some degree of flexibility as we figured out what worked best for us. Then our fuss-a-saurus, E, was born.
On figuring out when a kid is old enough to be left alone
I saw my son with a mug of hot cocoa, piled high with marshmallows of course, concentrating furiously over his newest level of Angry Birds. As if in a mental split screen, I also saw him running around the ski lodge, frantically calling for my husband while nearby adults tried to help.