Parenting Perspectives

This summer, I gave birth to my second child beginning a summer that lined up with maternity leave! Now by "maternity leave" I don't actually mean someone paid me to stay home and heal from birth and bond with...

The 70/30 Rule My husband and I have a few rules that we both greatly agree on. One of them is what we refer to as the 70/30 rule. Most days have a normal predictable routine for our toddlers. My...

When we had our second child, just one month ago, I knew that it would be hard for our older one to share attention after she had gotten all of ours for the past two and a half years....

One thing that I actually like about being an adult versus being a kid is getting to make my own decisions like where I go, what I do, where I work, where I hang out... you get the picture....

We consistently sit in the same pew at church every week. Lately, my toddler has noticed someone else who sits near us every week. He is a young man, in high school, severely disabled and hooked up to several...

My child sometimes says please and thank you. If he really wants something, he yells, "Peeeaaaassss." I call that progress. I try to always say please and thank you if we are out to eat or checking out a...

Confessions of a bilingual mom without a bilingual child. I have been speaking Spanish my whole life. My parents, being from Mexico, spoke Spanish. I learned to pray in Spanish, and my lullabies, cartoons, stories….all in Spanish. My older siblings...

Oh summer in Flagstaff! Are you ready for the warm days, cool nights and all around amazingness that Flagstaff has to offer in the summer? I know I am! I love the lazy days, the pool time, and just...

As parents, we often are faced with life-altering decisions to make for our children. Our latest query was whether or not to send our oldest to kindergarten next fall. She is a summer baby, born at the end of...

Parenting is hard. Calming your erratic and emotionally explosive offspring without losing your own temper can be even harder. When a warning doesn't work, it can be very frustrating and perplexing to reason with a hopped-up toddler. Obviously, we...

My breastfeeding journey started out ahead of the curve.  My husband and I met with an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) one-on-one weeks before giving birth.  We took a prenatal breastfeeding class, practiced feeding holds, learned about latches,...

2020 was a blur. It was hard enough being a mom of three young kids and juggling a full-time job while being married to a husband who is out of town half of the month. Then the pandemic hit. I went...

To my husband, Not only am I so thankful for you, I really understand what an important influence you have on our family.  Dads approach parenting completely different than moms do.  I think that children receive a completely different set of lenses...