When Penny was diagnosed with Down syndrome, the doctors told us that she would have "mental retardation." I didn't really know what those words meant, but I imagined them as a shadow that would hover over every aspect of her development from there on. I assumed she would have ...

A Good and Perfect Gift came out in September. It hasn't come close to best seller status, but it is trucking right along. I had a chance to talk with a book group about it (on the phone–we were technologically incompetent enough that we couldn't figure out Iphone's Face Time ...

Long time readers of this blog may remember that I used to run a weekly guest post called "Perfectly Human." The purpose of the posts was to offer first-hand experience of the common humanity of people with disabilities. I ran out of obvious contacts for a while, but ...

I meant to share the link to this great post by my friend Karen Swallow Prior a while back when she wrote it. Thankfully, the truths it contains are timeless. Although they boil down to "get enough sleep, it's good for your soul," the post is very worth reading in full: Want ...

Penny had surgery a few weeks back. It all went well. But in the recovery room, as Penny slept, with her hair matted to her head, an IV dripping fluid into her arm, her nurse started telling us about how the doctors often give different instructions to parents than they do to ...

As those of you with young children already know, last week was Dr. Seuss' birthday. Penny's teachers celebrated by inviting all the parents in her class to sign up to read. I was slated for Thursday and Horton Hatches an Egg.

William soon picked up on this development, so he ...

Lisa Belkin posted a really interesting piece about how having money relates to being a good parent: "Money is the Root of all Parenting." It's a great summary of a recent study that explains how difficult it is to try to raise kids in poverty.

In the same news cycle, I learned ...

I'm working on an essay about recent developments in the national conversation about prenatal testing. I'm not quite done yet, but I thought you all would appreciate reading the conclusion of Joe Klein's essay in Time Magazine this week. Joe Klein is a political moderate who ...

It might seem odd, but I don't read very many blogs. I read magazines in the good old-fashioned way, and I read articles from the New York Times on my phone, but blogs kind of overwhelm me. There are too many out there, and I just can't keep up. So I generally stick to Time, ...

I should begin by explaining that our kids have initiated a new bedtime ritual. It started at Christmastime. We differentiated between Christmas songs like "Santa Claus is coming to town" and Christmas hymns, which my kids named "Christmas church songs." And William began to ...