The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley

Ok, this is not exactly a fiction read like our previous reviews, but I just have to share this one, The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers by Elizabeth Pantley is so awesome.
Lately I have had a lot of friends going through the same bedtime struggles that I experienced with my oldest just a couple of years ago. I ALWAYS, always, ALWAYS, recommend this book!

Making the transition from crib to bed was the hardest for us- figuring out how to get Kaden to stay in bed was driving us bonkers! So I picked up this book and followed its recommendations and he (well ALL of us) were sleeping peacefully within weeks. I have followed the guidelines with my subsequent children and so far we have not had any major problems!

Every parent has their own views and ideas on sleep training- some methods are more controversial than others- but this book takes a nice and gentle approach, and gives advice you can actually use. It is so practical and easy to follow; it is a cinch to just look up the problem you're having in the index and flip right to the point- thought it's not a bad read cover to cover either.
It deals with virtually every problem you could encounter from bed-wetting to nightmares or 3rd wheels (i.e. when you're sweet baby is NOT a baby anymore and WON'T stay out of your bed and your poor husband just wants a little action...yes I just said that, it's true!)

I really enjoy this author and will probably look into her other books on discipline and potty training and let you know how they are...

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

"One day in 1993, high up in the world's most inhospitable mountains, Greg Mortenson wandered lost and alone, broken in body and spirit, after a failed attempt to climb K2, the world's deadliest peak. When the people of an impoverished village in Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya took him in and nursed him back to health, Mortenson made an impulsive promise: He would return one day and build them a school. Although he was a homeless "climbing bum" living out of his aging Buick in Berkeley, California, Mortenson sold what few possessions he had to launch one of the most remarkable humanitarian campaigns of our time." "Three Cups of Tea traces Mortenson's decade-long odyssey to build schools, especially for girls, throughout the region that gave birth to the Taliban and sanctuary to Al Qaeda.

While he wages war with the root causes of terrorism - poverty and ignorance - by providing both girls and boys with a balanced, nonextremist education. Mortenson must survive a kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, death threats from Americans who consider him a traitor, and wrenching separations from his family." Today, as the director of the Central Asia Institute, Mortenson has built fifty-five schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan's poorest communities. And as this real-life Indiana Jones from Montana crisscrosses the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush fighting to keep these schools functioning, he provides not only hope to tens of thousands of children, but living proof that one passionately dedicated person truly can change the world.

I Loved this book. It made me grateful for the education I have. It also made me Appreciate the fact that we have so much, when others around the world have so little. Well worth the read.