This book is wonderful. It explains and delineates the phases through which babies and toddlers go as they develop, using Margaret Mahler's theories, but making them accessible to the layperson. If you ever tried to read Mahler's "The Psychological Birth of the Infant", you know how scholarly and intellectually dense a work it is (I tried, but couldn't). Further, the loving and lyrical style makes it engaging and joyous to read. I wish that fathers (I am one, to a toddler girl) would read it, too.