• Last updated 3/5/13 by mamazee

• Continues her study of physics (velocity, matter) by hurling food and other objects on the floor. Last night it was the glass top to the butter dish, which broke into a thousand jagged pieces. • Puts small objects in her mouth, and stumbles around the house drooling. Favorite choking hazards: pennies, buttons, big brother’s marbles. • Talks all the time. In Navaho? Vulcan? “Gaygo. Dis. Ducka ducka ducka! Umm. Dee doo. Aw-woo.” • Is affronted by the very thought of wearing clothes. Takes hers off all the time. Woe to the parent who dares to try... read more

• Last updated 11/2/12 by Melanie Mayo

One of my daughter’s favorite books is Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney. She loves playing along with little Nutbrown Hare as he stretches his arms out wide and proclaims his love for big Nutbrown Hare. It’s such a sweet story, and those last two pages are the best: “I love you right up to the moon – and back.” Recently, she’s learned how to sign I LOVE… ”Mama”, “Dada” or whomever it is that she’s expressing her affection for. It’s the sweetest thing to not only hear, but to see her sign the sentiment. And following the lead of little... read more

• Last updated 3/14/13 by SmilinMomma

By Colleen Lowe Smith   I know that children, especially toddlers, are literal, but it still catches me by surprise sometimes.  Cassidy and I were reading a book the other night: “... and the cat jumped out of his skin!”   “Mommy.” Cassidy says.  “Where his skin?”   We started Montessori toddler class together, which is a whole other story.  I’d been a Montessori pre-school teacher for twelve years and the toddler curriculum is familiar to me, and though there are challenges as mommy/teacher I will expound on another time, there are also surprises.  We don’t... read more

• Last updated 8/30/10 by Jennifer Margulis

We started using elimination communication (EC) with Leone, who’s almost ten months old, when she was just seven weeks old. I’d never known anyone who had a diaper-free baby or who practiced elimination communication until my friend Lizzy loaned me Ingrid Bauer’s Diaper Free! The Gentle Wisdom of Natural Infant Hygiene and told me about some of her friends who successfully raised their children without using diapers. At the same time, I discovered that the nation’s expert on elimination communication, Christine Gross-Loh (author of The Diaper-Free Baby: The Natural... read more

• Last updated 4/18/13 by Melanie Mayo

My daughter, Lucy, is almost three years old, and has Rett Syndrome. It is a debilitating condition that has robbed her of speech, the ability to walk, control her hands, and talk. This makes it difficult to figure out how to let her explore the world as every other child does. When I was a little girl, I spent most of my time outside, playing with my cousins. We did all of the things little kids do: rode bikes, caught tadpoles, made forts, pretended we were getting married with bouquets of ferns, played in the mud and in brush piles, rode four-wheelers, swam...you get... read more

• Last updated 1/15/13 by Cynthia Mosher

A mother wrote in to Mothering.com’s Ask An Expert with an 16-month old son who is biting her, screaming, not listening, hitting, and intimidating his cousin.  My reply: Baby Mine Letter: I certainly understand the frustration you are experiencing with some of you son’s recent behaviors. Emerging from a blissed-out infant stage into an unruly toddler stage can be downright shocking, especially, for an attachment-parenting momma. The first L.O.V.E. Parenting exercise I would recommend is to write a letter to “Baby X.” Write about your experience with him in... read more

• Last updated 1/17/10 by Jennifer Margulis

Today Baby Leone, who will be twelve weeks old on Wednesday, only wet one diaper all day. She wasn’t dehydrated. She didn’t pee (or poop) on me. She went in her chamber pot while were at home, and in the toilet at the yoga studio while we were out. Before I tell you more about this, I should confess that I have no idea what I am doing. Enthusiastic readers and cyber friends notwithstanding, I still don’t know anyone in real life who has raised a diaper-free baby. And James and I haven’t decided in any definitive way that Leone will be diaper free. But I have read another... read more

• Last updated 4/12/13 by SmilinMomma

By Colleen Lowe Smith   I’d made the mistake of practically bragging to a friend how Cassidy had never been sick before and that she’s “such a healthy kid.”  Naturally, two days later she was feverish after napping twice the time that she usually naps.  The day after that, still peaking temperatures at 103, I took her to the doctor just in case.  Not much they could do, viral, rest and fluids blah blah blah, come back if she wasn’t better in a few days. Which she wasn’t.   Saturday her breathing was visibly short, and she was still feverish when the tylenol... read more

• Last updated 1/15/13 by Cynthia Mosher

Girls Hi Friends, A mother wrote into Mothering.com’s Ask An Expert about losing her patience by the day’s end and struggling to tend to both children’s needs. Here is the answer: * My godmother loves to tell me the story about her mother, walking down the sidewalk with her three children under six-years old who were pulling on her, whining, competing with each other, tired, and hungry and as she passed an elderly lady sitting on her porch the neighbor called, “these are the best days of your life.” I have so much compassion... read more

• Last updated 3/8/13 by juliemarie13

     Before I was even pregnant, years before really, I began to develop some beliefs about what parenting was going to be like. I felt strongly (and still do) about the value and importance of toys without lights and whistles and ones that don't do all of the playing for a child. I felt passionately certain that I would have the most amazing breast feeding experiences of anyone, ever. I believed that cloth diapers would rock my world and that my precious little son or daughter would never watch television and instead we would frolic happily through the yard;... read more