Category: Book Review

When it comes to baby board books, the best books are written by Sandra Boynton. She has a playful writing style, and her animal illustrations are adorable. These great titles are members of our permanent family library collection:

But Not The Hippopotamus, Pajama Time!, Doggies, The Going to Bed Book, and Moo, Baa, La La La!

These two have been frequent checkouts on our library card:

Her books are well-loved in our home, by all ages.

Who can resist those cute singing pigs?!

During my senior year at BYU, I enrolled in a wonderful class that shaped my persepective and gave me a lot to think about. The class was MFHD 480: Moral Foundations of Family Life, taught by Dr. Terrance Olson. Our class sessions were full of thought-provoking discussions centered on the concept of a moral way of being.

One of the key readings for the class was a book by The Arbinger Institute, entitled Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting out of the Box.

While this book is not directly about mothering, it is appropriate to mention here because it has everything to do with interpersonal relationships. I recently re-read the book and have been thinking alot about how I am “in the box” toward my children and my husband.

What does “in the box” mean? Read this great review of the book by my amazing husband, and then go put Leadership and Self-Deception on hold at your local library. Read it, it’s a book that will change how you think and help you strengthen your relationships.

Since the birth of my first child, sleep is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about. Sleep for my babies. Sleep for my toddler. Sleep for the child who thinks she is a big girl. And sleep for the tired mama.

Looking back, I sure wish I knew in those early days what I know now. The knowledge that you can put a baby in bed while she is still awake somehow escaped me in my first months of being a mother. I thought babies had to be held and rocked to sleep. Consequently, my baby and myself were set up for a rough sleeping situation, and many months of brief 30 minute naps.

I have read quite a few parenting books on the subject of sleep, and found some helpful tidbits of information in all of them (like The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley, or Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg). But the most helpful book by far has been Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth.

Dr. Weissbluth’s book is very thorough. Beginning with a discussion of healthy sleep and its importance, he covers sleep problems and solutions from birth all the way through to adolescence. While I haven’t followed his instructions religiously, I keep it handy on my bookshelf and find myself referring to it every few months.

A year ago, the Ant Bug was protesting the arrival of her baby sister by refusing to stay in her room at bedtime. Dr. Weissbluth’s solution was to establish a set of sleep rules. The Ant Bug and I decorated a poster (we made a big deal out of it with color and stickers) and wrote down the sleep rules:

With the right amount of motivation (yes, we did provide candy), she learned to stay in her bed and go to sleep. The poster is still on the wall for those occasions when she wants to test the limits, but now we have a plan that works.

The book has been a great coach for flowing with the changing sleep needs of the B. Everytime sleep has become an issue with her, I’ve found the exact problem and solution described in the book. I guess she must be a textbook baby. Recently we’ve been struggling a bit as she is making the transition from two naps a day down to one. On Sunday I opened the book and found a plan to get us through the transition time when one nap is not enough and two are nearly impossible. This week has been much better.

I also have to give a little link love to The Lazy Organizer. She posted her sleep plan in great detail, and it looks like a good one to me. Next time around, I’ll be incorporating some of her ideas into my sleep plan.

Will there ever be a full night of sleep without interruptions? Probably only in my dreams. But in the meantime, why don’t we all just take a nap at the computer?