Family Life

The boys have a fixed bedtime ritual, and part of it involves turning off the light. Such a simple step, so intrinsic to going to bed, and yet so fraught with conflict and formal negotiation. On the surface, the agreed-upon procedure is that the boys take turns: tonight Daniel turns off the light, tomorrow night [...]

These days Daniel flies into a fit of rage at the slightest provocation, usually when he doesn’t get his own way. The unusual thing is not that it happens, but that it’s so extreme. The cause can be the most innocuous thing imaginable, such as giving him an orange vitamin pill when he wanted a [...]

Last night Micah cried from 12:45am till 5:30am. About an hour of that he spent in our bed, and I spent another hour walking him. It made no difference, so he spent the rest of the time in his crib. He wasn’t sick, he wasn’t hungry, he didn’t need changing. Was he getting a new [...]

Micah is not sleeping well at night. He stays up till late, protests loudly and at length whenever he’s put in his bed, and generally keeps the rest of us up. He’s not getting enough sleep himself, and I know I’m not getting enough sleep. Of all parenting issues with small children, sleep problems can [...]

There’s no gentle way to explain this, and Debbie certainly didn’t hesitate to fill me in on all the gory details. She was in full blown rant mode before I even had a chance to take my coat off, when I walked in the door this evening. I asked if she wanted to tell the [...]