Development First

You are meant to be in relationships that bring joy and connection—that help you know soul-deep peace and leave you feeling loved instead of lonely. Instead, surface-level friendships, filtered social media feeds, unresolved conflicts, and unhealthy relationships can often seem to harm our self-worth, spiritual growth, and mental health—and keep us from the very relationships that could bring that true connection.

Even if you feel like you're stumbling in the dark, even if the toddler years seem like a maze with no way out, you're not alone. With real-life stories, empathetic advice, and practical wisdom, this guide lights your path ahead. It's not just a book; it's a companion, a mentor, a friend–tailored specifically for new dads like you–cheering you on every step of the way. Transform the challenging toddler years into a journey of joy and unforgettable memories and be the dad you always wanted to be.

Born into a political dynasty, Jenna and Barbara Bush grew up in the public eye. As small children, they watched their grandfather become president; just 12 years later they stood by their father's side when he took the same oath. They spent their college years being trailed by the Secret Service and chased by the paparazzi, with every teenage mistake making national headlines. But the tabloids didn't tell the whole story of these two young women forging their own identities under extraordinary circumstances.

Whitney English breaks down the essence of thoughtful design and organization as tools not just for a prettier space but for a better life—one that smoothly adapts to the inevitable shifts we all face. She shares how balancing a neat look with functional living isn't always a walk in the park, but the payoff is a space that works just as hard as it charms. Whitney gets into the nitty-gritty with actionable strategies for putting the house in order. She walks listeners through evaluating their spaces, marrying storage with style, and zoning rooms for peak performance.

On Instagram, the private work of mothering has been turned into a public performance that’s generating billions of dollars, and the message is simple: that we’re all just a couple of clicks away from a better, more beautiful experience of motherhood. Momfluenced examines the performance of motherhood—producers of it and consumers of it—through the multilayered phenomenon of the mommy influencer.

Messy code is a nuisance. "Tidying" code, to make it more readable, requires breaking it up into manageable sections. In this practical guide, author Kent Beck, creator of Extreme Programming and pioneer of software patterns, suggests when and where you might apply tidyings to improve your code while keeping the overall structure of the system in mind. Instead of trying to master tidying all at once, this book lets you try out a few examples that make sense for your problem. If you have a big function containing many lines of code, you'll learn how to logically divide it into smaller chunks.

At age 34 Jo Piazza got her romantic-comedy ending when she met the man of her dreams on a boat in the Galápagos Islands and was engaged three months later. But before long Jo found herself riddled with questions. How do you make a marriage work in a world where you no longer need to be married? How does an independent, strong-willed feminist become someone's partner - all the time?

The parenthood chapter of life is one that many people feel unprepared for. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Boudreaux’s Butt Paste (a diaper rash company), only 12 percent of first-time parents feel prepared to welcome their newborn. First-time parents often face scrutiny, uncertainty, and challenges in sorting through conflicting information.

People don’t open restaurants just because they want to start a business. People open restaurants because they are building a dream. You can create the restaurant of your dreams. You can also be profitable, pay your vendors, your staff, and yourself, and savor the joys of hospitality without stress and uncertainty.

We live in a world drenched in shame. Shame is the core belief not that I did something wrong, but that I am wrong. It severs us from the inherent goodness of our desire, our body, our Eros. This split disconnects us from the beauty of our Unique Selves and fuels many of today's personal and cultural pathologies. Wilhelm Reich called it "the murder of Eros"-and it is not metaphorical, but civilizational.

Saying the right thing the right way can make the difference between sealing the deal or losing the account, getting a promotion, or getting a pink slip. It's essential to be pitch perfect - to get the right message across to the right person at the right time. In Pitch Perfect, Bill McGowan shows you how to craft the right message and deliver it using the right language - both verbal and nonverbal.

The first three months of a newborn baby’s life offer new parents a unique opportunity to lay a solid and loving foundation that will last a lifetime. It is also when parents - whether first-time or not - need unfailing support to help them deal with the countless decisions they face every day.

As a manager, you are prepared to face any challenge when it comes to the work at hand, but you may not be ready to overcome a hostile work environment, a catastrophic disruption in workflow, or any other of a multitude to challenges that can arise, seemingly from nowhere.

For years, Amy Thunig thought she knew all the details about the day she was born, often demanding that the story of her birth be retold. Years later, heavily pregnant with her own first child, she learns what really happened that day. It’s a tale that exemplifies many of the events of her early life, where circumstances sometimes dictated that things be slightly different from how they might seem–including what is meant by her dad being away for ‘work’ and why her legal last name differs from her family’s.

Baby's First Year Milestones is a month-by-month guide filled with activities designed to support your baby's development during their first year of life. In 12 months, your newborn will transform into a child. To celebrate each new development, Baby's First Year Milestones offers a practical month-by-month guide to understanding the major milestones in your child's life. In Baby's First Year Milestones, child development expert Aubrey Hargis offers knowledgeable insight into the changes you can expect during the first year.

This book is an excellent resource for discovering your inner child. Not only that, but it also explains how to reclaim your inner child following any major or minor trauma, and how to do so in order to reach your full potential. If you want to live a fulfilling life, you must not abandon this part of yourself.

The qualities that men love and look for in a woman while on a date will be very, very different from the qualities women want and desire most in a man. Unfortunately, it's this lack of knowledge regarding these differences that tends to confuse and trip many women up during those first few dates. If you don't know what men want and what makes them feel love-smitten on a date, then you might find yourself struggling to connect with quality men and unable to keep them interested in you.

Author Deborah Roth Ledley is a mother of two and a clinical psychologist who specializes in anxiety disorders and works with new mothers. In this book she introduces six simple strategies to handle the inevitable stress we all experience during the first year of motherhood.

This extra large book explains things in a clear and concise manner. There is no reason for you to struggle with understanding what is happening during your pregnancy, labor, and delivery or care of your baby.

It’s not like she’s the only woman to ever have a baby. At 35. On her own. But Anne Lamott makes it all fresh in her now-classic account of how she and her son and numerous friends and neighbors and some strangers survived and thrived in that all-important first year. From finding out her baby is a boy (and getting used to the idea) to finding out her best friend and greatest supporter, Pam, will die of cancer (and not getting used to that idea), with a generous amount of wit and faith (but little piousness), Lamott narrates the great and small events making up a woman’s life.