Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

  • The less than exquisite view from our triage room. Baby will be coming in the next few hours!

  • [This is part four in a series on our favorite children’s stories and is being cross-posted on my new parenting blog.  Please visit the first post for instructions!] One aspect of children’s picture books is that they aren’t simply words, but picture books.  An intrinsic part of the storytelling is done through pictures, images, paintings, or illustrations.  More…

  • [This is part three in a series on our favorite children’s stories and is being cross-posted on my new parenting blog.  Please visit the first post for instructions!] Shortly after my daughter was born, her bilirubin level spiked and we had to take her into the hospital.  Our brave girl was taken through the ER up to…

  • [This is part one in a series on our favorite children’s stories.  Please visit the first post for instructions!] My current favorite children’s story is Itsy Mitsy Runs Away written and illustrated by Elanna Allen.  It was just published in June, and I was drawn to it because of its imaginative cover and fanciful title.  Boy, did I…

  • [This is part one in a series on our favorite children’s stories.  Please visit the previous post for instructions!] One of the favorite early responses to Tuesday’s call for favorite children’s stories was the family favorite Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. It has a simple rhyme scheme and repetetive pattern that children enjoy as the…

  • When Rose was pregnant with our daughter, we read to her.  We picked out a bunch of children’s books and we read to her in utero.  We felt pretty silly doing it, but we hoped that it would help her.  She would get used to our voices, the sound of our reading to her, and…