The Rachel

Grace decided that she needed to get the big sister haircut. Much like the new mommy haircut where you chop off your locks in favor of not having them pulled out one by one by your baby. Not only did she cut off several inches, she did so with her Papa at his favorite barber shop. Rob described the haircut we wanted to the barber as "the Rachel." Rachel is our neighbor's adorable daughter and she gets her hair cut at the same place. They nailed it and now Grace is saying good-bye to crawl-by hair snags and rubberbands.

Before & After

I can't remember where I found these images. I saved them a long time ago. I can tell you I stumbled onto them via a Swedish woman's website. This woman had purchased gymnastics hand rings from IKEA and attached them to the ceiling directly above her daughter's bed. I actually considered buying them. They look like a lot of fun. A visit to the emergency room didn't. I thought I'd share these. I'd like to do one of Grace and Ally. Anyone have an idea for a before pic?

Feliz Navidad (Thanks, Aunt Daphne!)

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Might Come in Handy in Switzerland if Switzerland were in Mexico

Rob and Grace are well on their way to being proficient in German while I, on the other hand, have had to put learning on hold. I look forward to starting back up with my nightly lessons using Rosetta Stone but how amazing is this app?! I would love to spend a day perusing all of the apps offered with the iPhone. So much fun.Too much fun?



Found via Designmom

Our First Christmas Tree

Can you believe Rob and I have never put up a Christmas tree before now? Shameful, right? It's not that we didn't want to but we were always visiting family for the holidays and enjoying their beautiful trees. This year we're staying put and I decided to use all that felt I'd been saving for the right craft. I saw this idea on sayyestohoboken and decided to make the entire alphabet. They're baby safe (no sharp edges) and colorful. Grace helped me stuff the shells and now we're set for Christmases to come.

Nutureshock: New Thinking About Children

I recently purchased a book called Nurtureshock: New Thinking About Children. Rob was recently relaying an excerpt from the book and I was intrigued. The book discusses ways in which traditional parenting methods can actually have the opposite effect of what we're trying to accomplish. For example, praising children by telling them they are so smart and calling them clever does not create more confident kids. It has the opposite effect. Praising a child's efforts will do more to increase their self esteem.

According to one thorough review, "Telling a kid he or she is smart rather than specifically praising them for their efforts will eventually backfire. The child will have a tendency to not put out a lot of effort when they are challenged because they are stymied by the feeling that they have to stay smart, or that they must NOT be smart if they can't solve a problem or puzzle. Telling a kid (s)he is smart is praising an innate feature that is out of the child's control. Praising them for each genuine effort (whether they solved a problem or not) will have a better outcome."

Sounds interesting enough to make me want to read more. I'm just glad to be able to stay awake at night long enough to read.Life certainly springs anew when your child is sleep trained. Ally is sleeping through the night [inset angels singing] and now we have time to read books that are not all about sleep training your child. Minor setback last night. Can anyone recommend a good book on sleep training?