I've felt it every time. The week before my wedding as I packed up my room at my parents' house. The night before I was induced with my first baby. The morning we left for the hospital, in labor with our second. Every time a new member was about to be added to my family, I've spiraled into ...
Why New Moms REALLY Need Social Media
It's lonely. You didn't realize how lonely adding a new family member could make you feel, but it does. Sometime after the brand newness wears off--when husband goes back to work and helpful relatives go home and the church meals come to a halt--it's just you and your baby for hours and hours ...
Our go-to trick for calming upset kids
I have a threenager. He has every kind of emotion every single day. Like, today he got a little overzealous with his craft time and colored on his bed sheets. Although I was not in the room to see it, I suspect that he knew what he did was wrong and regretted it, and then came out of his ...
Stop Taking the Fun Hostage, Mom
"Bike ride at the bayou this Sunday?" My husband texted me from work on Friday. "YES," I replied. Our family loves bike rides, and this is the time of year for it in Texas. Soon, it'll be miserably hot and we would rather be swimming than biking. But, while I always love the idea of biking, ...
Mess-Free Crafts for Toddlers
There are days when staying at home can feel like they last forever. Maybe you and your toddler are getting bored with your normal activities. You see the crafts on Pinterest, they look like fun but let’s be honest, they look like a lot of work. Not only do they look like a lot of work, but they are ...
An open letter to my baby who doesn’t have time for me anymore
Hey Baby, I hate to bother you. But could you pencil in a feeding with me today? I know you lead a busy baby life. You've got places to go with all of this mobility that sprang up in the past few months. You have so many non-food items that need to go into your mouth, so many objects to ...
Our Love Made this Chaos
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 ...