Who Knew My Kid Was in Goodfellas?

Have you seen the movie "Goodfellas?" It's that classic 1990 crime movie about real-life mafia member Henry Hill. It's a film right up there with "The Godfather" (okay, a step below it), and there are some really memorable characters. One of them is this guy whom the narrator calls "Jimmy Two Times." Check out the short …

Baby Talk: Learning From the Pros

I wonder how many readers clicked on this post and expected to read about a fancy method I'm using to teach my baby (17mo) to talk. Maybe sign language. Maybe teaching specific sounds. (Is that even possible? I thought babies just learn how to make sounds randomly based on the frequency they hear them, hence …

We Should Be Experts at Charades By Now

I've got one kid who is an absolute motormouth, and one - just about 16m - who can say about 5 fully-formed words and maybe 15 half-formed words. Baby, who is heads above where her older sister was in the vocal department, is probably on the cusp of talking for real. Unlike her sister, she'll …

Top “Wish List” Inventions All Parents Need Now

We all have dreams, right? Some want to win the lottery, some want to move to a tropical island, some want to become famous. Me? I have much more immediate and domestic dreams. (Sure, I'd love to publish a book one day, but right now I have smaller dreams.) There are some things I'm dreaming about …

Is My Baby is a Pterodactyl?

I admit that I amuse myself sometimes by trying to figure out what animal my baby sounds most like (my mind wanders when nursing!). I thought my first baby girl sounded like the heir of Slytherin, but baby #2 has a bit of a different sound. When she was a newborn she squeaked, hence her …

Babies Are Really Like Foreign Travelers!

At 4 months old, I think a baby most resembles a foreign traveler... They babble to you in a foreign language you just can't understand. They're constantly ordering drinks from you. They're always peeing and pooping in places they think is the bathroom (but of course isn't). They come into your life but try to live …

Sweet Memories Friday: First Words

As my adorable baby girl, just 7m old (or rather, 7m old already!!), is starting to say her first words, it reminds me of what her darling - and now very talkative - older sister said first. She started sounding out "mama" and "dada" early on, of course, but her first very clear word was …

Sweet Memories Friday: Baby’s First Voice

My dear three-year-old still sounds, blessedly, like a baby. Despite speaking full, very articulate and generally well-pronounced sentences, her voice has that baby-ish lilt that makes her sound squishily cute even when she's saying things like, "I don't want to help set the table, momeeee!" But watching a video of her saying some of her …

My child, Yoda she is! #toddlertalk #babyyoda

I get it: learning to speak is difficult, and apparently learning English is quite hard. Nouns, verbs, subjects, predicates, adjectives ... a toddler must essentially navigate a Language Arts class without knowing any of the rules and just imitating her parents to the best of her ability. ... Which is curious, because neither my husband …

Das ist eine word, ja mama? #toddlertalk #babysfirstphrases

I've decided that babies should really learn German as their first language - you know, that language that mixes up the verb and noun order (from English's norm) and puts multiple nouns and adjectives together to form really big words ... because a great example of what comes out of my toddler's mouth is, "Anna …