Decoding Baby Vocals 3 Months In: A Nurse's Guide to Cooing
I was standing in the dark at three in the morning, holding a screaming potato of a human, trying to follow advice from a very expensive parenting app. The app told me that early language development requires measured, calm adult...
Why The Way We Do Baby Talk Actually Matters
Standing in the H-E-B checkout line back in 2019, I was balancing my oldest son on my hip while digging for my wallet, doing that incredibly high-pitched, brain-melting nonsense voice we all fall into. "Does my widdle smoosh-smoosh want his...
My Utterly Chaotic, Milk-Stained Guide To Sign Language For Babies
Itβs 5:43 AM on a Tuesday in November. I'm wearing my husband Daveβs stained gray sweatpants and a maternity tank top that Iβm pretty sure has been inside-out since Sunday. Maya is exactly eight months and two days old, and...
Debugging the Perfect New Baby Wish (Without Sounding Unhinged)
When my friend Dave's wife had a baby last month, I asked three different people what I should write in the card, which was my first mistake. My project manager told me to keep it strictly professional and focus on...
Talk To Me Baby: Why We Need To Stop Sounding Like Tax Attorneys
I was at a coffee shop in Lincoln Park yesterday when I heard a mother next to me explaining the concept of municipal bonds to her three-month-old. She was using a flat, monotone, deeply serious voice. The infant was staring...
When Should Babies Start Talking? A Real Mom's Messy Timeline
I was sitting cross-legged on my faded floral living room rug, aggressively thrusting a plastic cow at my nine-month-old son, Wyatt, and loudly mouthing the word "MOOO" like a deranged person. He just stared at me, blinking slowly, probably wondering...
Panic vs reality: exactly when do babies start to talk anyway
I was sitting on the beige rug in my living room, aggressively holding a wooden block in front of my ten-month-old's face, enunciating the word block like I was teaching a hostage how to defuse a bomb. He just stared...
When Do Babies Start Talking? My Meltdown And What I Learned
I was sitting on the sticky laminate floor of the community center at 10:45 AM, wearing black leggings that definitely had dried yogurt crusted on the left knee, while a 14-month-old named Brayden pointed at a plastic truck and clearly...
Why a baby jaguar book fixed our worst speech therapy meltdowns
We were sitting on the living room rug surrounded by flashcards when he just stopped trying. My toddler had his mouth open, a tiny little gasp of air caught in his throat, his face turning a blotchy red while he...