You walk through the front door, exhausted. You trip over the toys strewn about, I hand you the fussy baby. The toddler has 18 things he wants to show you at once. I serve the dinner that burned while I changed a diaper and bandaged a bo-bo. We sit at our old kitchen table in our too-small home with ...
How Being a Parent Inevitably Makes You a Better Person
When babies become mobile, there is a slew of new chores added to a mom's day. One of those is hand washing. Babies crawl everywhere that we walk, so before they shovel food into their mouths with those grubby mitts, you've got to wash them. You know this. I'm not telling you anything new. But I ...
Here are your Labor Pains, Adoptive Mom
The pain wasn't what I expected. I thought if I could take a hard punch, I could endure a contraction. But the pain ran achey deep. The labor pain--it makes you feel sick, weak, powerless; there is nothing you can really do to relieve it. So instead, you have to learn to endure it, cope ...
How to Throw Inexpensive Indoor Birthday Parties for Kids
If you have a kiddo whose birthday falls in unfavorable weather, you're in the same boat as I am. I have a real problem with my son's early January birthday, because even in Texas, it's just about impossible to depend on the weather to be nice enough for a simple outdoor park or yard party. That ...
The essential thing to have when second baby comes
By the time second baby comes around, most moms have a drastically shorter list of must-haves than they did with first baby. I don't know about you, but I was pretttttty sure I had that list all figured out. "I've been through this before, I know what I'm doing, no need for advice." As overconfident ...
The magic of finding an activity your baby and toddler enjoy together
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of KidLid! Moms of two or more know how rarely we get a moment of peace in a day. My kiddos have been awesome at tag teaming wakefulness. It's like they wait to sleep until they know the other is awake and demanding my attention... This ...
“Girls don’t work, Mommy.”
So we were at the park, and my almost three-year-old is playing on this rope ladder. He's calling it his "work," and I'm finding it adorable. "I go to work just like Daddy," he shouts to me over his shoulder, "and I work so hard! Watch me, Mommy, I'm just workin with ALL my muscles." He's ...
A Thank-You to Grandmas Everywhere
Hey Mom, Or "Grandma" as the kids have trained me to call you for these past few years. I know I roll my eyes a lot-- like when you put bandaids on their nonexistent bo-bos. or when you bring over your latest haul of new clothes for them. when you let them destroy your house and then ...
How the NICU changed a never-been-in-a-NICU mom forever
On a walk through the NICU to visit my precious niece, I pass maybe twenty rooms. They're all filled. I see so few parents. "Some babies are here for six months," the desk lady tells me, "Their parents have to go back to work to keep insurance and pay for all of the medical expenses." My eyes well ...
Cloth diapering: what I wish we’d known before we started
We've been cloth diapering for nearly three years now. I've even had a toddler AND newborn in cloth diapers at the same time for a few months (it made for cute photos but a not-so-cute reality.) Thank goodness, my older son decided he was potty-trained by the time his brother was three months. We ...