Just a quick post to express my (Erin’s) love of the Usborne touch & feel range. We have five now and I would highly recommend them for children of Erin’s age (14 mths). She happily sits and ‘reads’ these books alone and loves the touchy feely aspect, we also bought one for a [...]

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Balancing Priorities

The fact we approach parenthood with such high expectations is not surprising. We are the first generation in human history where ‘having it all’ was not only possible, but what we expected.
This final chapter encourages us to lower our standards and expectations a little and focus more on the proverbial houseplant that is [...]

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Getting More and Giving In: More kids, more chaos

With each child, the love and joy in our homes increases a thousandfold, but so does the general mayhem.
This chapter focusses on the addition of a second, third or plus (!) child/ren, and how you can expect it to affect your marriage.
I particularly enjoyed the [...]

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In-laws and Outlaws
“This chapter is about how profoundly our family relationships are altered by a baby and how, in turn, these changes impact on our marriages.”
My own experiences in this area have been very positive. Expectations were discussed well before Erin’s arrival and so far there haven’t been any major issues. I think [...]

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The ’sex life’ of new parents
Billed as ‘The Most Important Chapter in This Book’, did it live up to the hype?
Well, in a way yes. It was certainly an eye opener, however, it was also the chapter that caused one of my gripes - too much stereotyping. Don’t let that stop you reading [...]

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What’s the score?
The author/s say this chapter is about ‘the collision of expectation and reality’. Simply put, it’s about the constant scorekeeping and bickering that creeps into a marriage post-partum.
Later on, the chapter turns it’s attention to fixing the problem ‘ripping up the scorcard’. Part of the solution being the ‘divide and conquer’ [...]

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Chapter two covers the ’shock and awe’ factor that I mentioned in my last post, how men and women feel, and, how to survive the first few months (survive being the operative word!). The byline of the title is ‘Welcome to the Trenches’ - sound familiar?
“It’s been said that having a baby is like [...]

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How did we get here?
The first chapter covers (briefly) the various changes (and problems!) new parents face, usually unexpectedly!
It promises to take a balanced viewpoint, which it does throughout

we love our husbands and they love us
This is not a girls’ bitching session
Chapter Quote
An iron curtain of secrecy hides the reality…This Global [...]

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I have been asked to review Baby-Proofing Your Marriage written by Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O’Neill & Julia Stone.
Baby-proofing your marriage is a warts and all look at how the arrival of kids affects a marriage (and what you can do to prevent the negative effects!). The book combines humour and practical advice in equal [...]

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We bought ‘A Year Full of Stories’ for Erin’s first birthday. It caught my eye as it had so much content, 366 stories and poems, one for each day of the year. Each story and poem is dated so you never lose track of which story you’re up too, but, like the amazon [...]

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