Andy Rowell

Author: Andy Rowell

  • Miracle Blanket helps babies birth to 4 months to sleep

    The Miracle Blanket is definitely worth trying.  In the hospital, the baby is swaddled when going to sleep.  This is serious swaddling but helps the kid not jerk and wake themselves up.  It is definitely worth trying if your baby is not sleeping well.  We used it with Jacob and now Allie.   

    Miracle Blanket – Baby Swaddlin…

    miracle blanket

    Best Price $29.99 
    or Buy New $29.99

    See also:

    Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

    Marc Weissbluth

    Best Price $14.50 
    or Buy New $16.47



    and 

    The Happiest Baby on the Block

    Harvey Karp

    Best Price $2.71 
    or Buy New $10.20

    and there are lots of other options if you search for baby sleep on Amazon.

  • My new book review of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas is posted online at Books & Culture

    My new book review of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas is posted online at Books & Culture this morning.   Below are the first two paragraphs.

    ANDY ROWELL

    Bonhoeffer

    The evangelical hero.

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    JUNE 2010

    A decade ago, Christianity Today published a list of the ten best religious books of the 20th century. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship came in second, behind only C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity—a measure of Bonhoeffer's standing among contemporary Christians, and evangelicals in particular. And yet until now, American readers have lacked an account of Bonhoeffer's life that is both thorough and engagingly readable, a book that captures the full sweep of his remarkable story and highlights its meaning for us today. In Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas has given us just such a book.

    Library shelves are already loaded with studies of Bonhoeffer from every conceivable angle. In The Bonhoeffer Phenomenon: Portraits of a Protestant Saint, Stephen Haynes argues that Bonhoeffer fits the criteria for a saint, while Craig Slane has written a monograph entitled Bonhoeffer as Martyr. But for the television and movie-soaked American evangelical, perhaps Bonhoeffer's appeal can be explained best with the term "hero," in the "Entertainment Weekly All-time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture" sense: James Bond, Superman, Spider-Man, Jack Bauer, Batman, etc. An intelligent, courageous, romantic figure faces stark choices as the world is threatened by a ruthless evil that perhaps only he has the power to stop.

    Continue reading at Books & Culture.

  • Suggestions for Potty Training

    • Aim to have it down by the time they are three.  
    • Start talking about how cool it is when they are two.  
    • Tell them they will get a toy if they go poop on the potty.  
    • Stick them on there in the morning right after they wake up.  Often they will pee.  
    • Go with them and get them new underwear from Target or Wal-Mart and talk about how cool it is.  (Wash it and pull off the tags in the back so it is ready).  
    • When they pee and poop on the potty, cheer like crazy.  Immediately go out and get a toy.  Matchbox car (99 cents) for younger boy.  It was an action figure for the older one.  
    • We don't mess with the little potties but that is another option.  
    • Get a stool so they can climb up and get on the potty and so they can wash their hands.  
    • If they are a boy, they really need not touch their penis.  That is counterproductive to peeing.  
    • If they don't pee within 30 seconds, let them get off.  Make them feel like this is no big deal.  "I sit, I pee, I get off, I wash my hands, I'm back playing with my toys."