As I find a blogging rhythm, I feel conflicted between reflecting upon my life — right now, as it is — and doing a little get-to-know-you bit. I guess it depends partially upon my purpose in blogging. Because I am hopeful that I am blogging to build relationships and conversations, I suppose that I will do some get-to-know-you sort of stuff.

[cue rousing rendition of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Getting to Know You” from The King & I]

If you are to understand who I am, it is important to know that I am a mother — mother of 3, in fact. Today, my children are 12, 10 and 7. I’m sure that they will debut in this blog some time soon. Today is not the day, though.

For today, I would like to offer a resource, my very favorite resource for parenting. I am a different person today because I became a mother. And this book, along with my mother and several influential friendships, informed my transformation into motherhood in ways that I could never have imagined.

The Baby Book, by Bill & Martha Sears (http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Book-Everything-Revised-Updated/dp/0316778001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265243465&sr=8-1) was my middle-of-the-night reference, my inspire-me-to-tears commentary, my struggle-through-the-issues resource during the first few years of each of my children’s lives.

The funnest thing about this book, for me, was that I discovered it and embraced it for many months before discovering that the authors share a similar faith to mine. That wouldn’t have been critical to my appreciating their parenting and medical advice, but it was a wonderful little epiphany when I figured that out!

The bottom line of the book is that babies and parents do better when they’re attached — emotionally, physically, spiritually. I’m not sure who coined the term, “attachment parenting.” It might have been the Searses. Not sure. Not going to take the time to research it right now. But that’s their approach to parenting. And to me, it makes sense. It is how babies grow best. And it’s how parents learn who their babies are and how to, well, be parents.

So, in a way, I guess this is a quick shout-out to Bill Sears, MD and his wife, Martha Sears, RN, for deeply informing my mothering and helping my children grow into the lovely little people they are becoming.