emma_in_dream

Pearl has mixed feelings about Ruby. She draws pictures for her and constantly wants to look at her. On the other hand, she has bitten her multiple times and flipped her over once and whacked her head a couple of times. I think she is slowly getting a little better.

On the bright side, I think she has reached a new developmental stage - She asks 'why, why, why'.

And she told me her first pun/joke. I am so proud and actually kind of amused.

Me: 'We have to go. Quicksticks.'
Pearl: 'Quackstacks.'
Me (thinking): Nice vowel substitution.
Pearl: 'That's what birds say. Quack.'

I have only just begun it but I have to recommend Jo Jackson-King’s *Raising the Best Possible Child* (2010).

I would have recommended it anyway as the starving author is a friend of mine, but having begun it I am blown away. It is a parenting book for parents who want to know what lies behind the advice. Why are we told to this and encouraged to that – what does the research say. Jo’s emphasis is on gentle, caring attachment. Some parenting books (the sort I do *not* like) encourage you to think of yourself as a lion tamer and your child as a wild animal always locked in battle with you and wilfully testing your limits; Jo sees parents as the bigger, wiser, calmer half of a loving dyad.