Browsing all posts in "development".

And the Mother Said, “Let Them Eat Dirt!”

And it was good. [Although she does expect an angry mob with pitchforks to appear at any second and send her to the Conciergerie. Which is fine, because she loves Paris.] What kid doesn’t enjoy a good mudpie? It’s a staple of childhood. Playing in the dirt is what defines childhood. Or at least it [...]

If I Hadn’t Spanked my Kids, They Might be Geniuses

Oh, wait. They are. Nevermind. You just knew I’d be all over this one, right? In case you have missed it (like, you’ve been up to your eyeballs in kids and laundry and work and haven’t read the paper or the internet this weekend),  a guy named Dr. Murray Straus has just published one article, [...]

Kids and Phone Etiquette

If you ever want to find out the age of a child in a household, make a phone call. You can peg a child’s age by how he deals with a phone. Really. Here is my guide: Newborn to fifteen months: Every time the phone rings, the child wakes up. Mother dashes to phone, answers [...]

Baby’s First Words….Umh…

Designed to tug at the heartstrings of every new parent, the first words out of a baby’s mouth (and I mean words, not screeches) are eagerly anticipated by the entire household.

Somewhere around a year, the new child learns that he can attach sounds to items.

Moms and dads lean close, and wait to hear that magic word, “Lawnmower.”