1. Never wake a sleeping baby, no matter what the book about food schedules says.

2. There is no such thing as laughing too hard.

3. There is a certain amount of chaos everyone needs in their lives; artificially restricting manageable chaos when kids are young only heightens the amount of chaos they need to jam into their later years. This is why I’m anti-baby gates, and why I didn’t say “No!” flat out to Elle’s hair request. I already know what to expect from her as a teen; at least this way, she’ll still talk to me while she’s going through that phase.

I hope.