When I was pregnant, my husband and I learned how to swaddle a baby by practicing on our teddy bear.  It was funny to stumble across this cozy bear in different rooms… sleeping happily… just like our baby would be before too long.

However, within 12 hours of returning home with our son we quickly realized swaddling a teddy bear is nothing like a baby.  Our son could squirm, kick his legs and wiggle like nobody’s business.  I think it took us three days of practicing before we learned how to do it.  (Making sure the swaddle was over his shoulder helped… and it also stayed on better when he wore a onesie — baby skin is so soft that the swaddle just slid around next to his skin).

So if you have learned how to swaddle on a doll, don’t get too cocky…. I don’t think there is anything you can do to guarantee a good night’s sleep the first few days :)

As a kid, I couldn’t imagine anything more magical than picking out a real Christmas tree with my parents.  I loved everything about it from watching them try to fit it on the roof of our car to sweeping up the pine needles at home.

Now, as an adult I just think about the tremendous amount of work a real pine tree brings with it.  I don’t want to pick up the tree, dispose of it, water it or sweep its needles.  Part of me feels guilty for putting up a plastic tree — am I depriving my kid of a time honored tradition?

After thinking about this for a few years, I think I’m okay with our plastic tree.  The magic of Christmas isn’t with the tree — it’s about sharing the holiday with loved ones.  There’s no shame in spending an afternoon putting up decorations, singing Christmas carols (and yes, eating a few cookies :) with your husband and son!

How about you…. have you come to terms with your fake tree or do you still make the trip down to the tree lot?

When I was studying music therapy, we did a course on listening. It was fascinating to discuss a skill you should be doing all the time, but rarely do well.

I remember an exercise where we had to listen to a classmate without thinking of what we were going to say next. No advice. No comments. No jokes. It made me realize I didn’t truly listen to people…. and if you don’t listen, you can’t be there for others.

Since that course, I’ve tried to listen better and let people to come to their own conclusions — that’s often more helpful than blabbing whatever advice was at the top of your head. When was the last time you tried listening?

I always hated pacifiers and judged parents if they used them. I told my husband I never wanted a pacifier near our kid’s mouth.

Then I gave birth. Two days later our little angel (and everyone else!!) wanted to sleep. I couldn’t feed him to sleep because my breasts were sore, so we broke down and got a pacifier. (Thankfully, our kid was very good at breastfeeding, so we weren’t worried about this interfering with his meals).

This whole incident made me think about judging others: it’s never helpful. Everyone has their reasons for doing what they’re doing, and unless you understand all of them, you’re simply not seeing the whole picture. My sister used to say she stopped looking down on parents whose kids were throwing a wobbly in the supermarket after she had to deal with her kids melting down — I get that now.