Crowdsourced Kindergarten Advice + Encouragement

Crowdsourced Kindergarten Advice + Encouragement

My beautiful, sunshine-filled, energetic, sensitive and brave five-year-old daughter is starting kindergarten next week. WHAT?!?! HOW?!?! You’ve probably heard the (paraphrased) Elizabeth Stone quote, but I  feel it so tangibly right now: “[To have a child is to] forever have your heart go walking around outside your body.” I feel like I’m growing up alongside Lucy — the same person I’ve always been, but also a different version of myself now as a mother. The same me, but evolved and refined. continuously learning and growing and adjusting. Gosh – this is a new and very bittersweet season for our family. I know my IG community […]

Lucy and Winnie’s Puppy Party!

Lucy and Winnie’s Puppy Party!

I’m so excited to share the details Lucy and Winnie’s joint puppy party with you today! Lucy and Winnie are exactly two years and three weeks apart, so we decided to host a joint birthday party this year! Lucy turned four on January 25, and Winnie will turn 2 on February 13, so we hosted a birthday party right in the middle of their two birthdays! We haven’t thrown a proper birthday party (outside of our family) since Lucy’s 1st birthday and I  was SO excited to go all out for their party! After the overwhelming and weird last couple of years, I  was ready […]

Reflections: Ending My Breastfeeding Journey with Winnie

Reflections: Ending My Breastfeeding Journey with Winnie

This was originally shared on Instagram in March, but wanted to re-share it here, too. I took this photo several weeks ago, knowing that one of these times nursing would be one of the last times. Not sure when exactly and not having a set “stop date”, but having this sense we’d be wrapping up soon. You never really know or feel the depth of something being the last time until it’s already passed. But now I know: my 15 month chapter of nursing Winnie has come to an end. And it’s bittersweet, but also I’m very okay about it because I know she was […]

Our Experience with ISR

Our Experience with ISR

I can’t believe it’s almost summer! Today, I  wanted to share about our experience with ISR Self-Rescue swim lessons. We first learned about ISR a few years ago, and decided that we would enroll Lucy. She did her first ISR session at the age of 17 months and her second session around two and a half years old. This summer will be Lucy’s third summer of ISR lessons (about 3.5) and Winnie’s first summer — she will be 16 months when the lessons begin. I’ve shared more about our ISR experience in this saved Instagram story highlight, but wanted to keep here on my blog […]

reflections: the loss of autonomy

reflections: the loss of autonomy

I’ve raised my voice at my kids. I’ve had adult temper tantrums. I’ve blamed my kids for my bad attitude and for sometimes just…doing things children do. I’ve had days where I didn’t like the way I showed up as a mom. I’m not as patient as I want to be. I’ve been so frustrated and annoyed and OVER IT. I was telling my therapist about a particularly bad day — one where I blew it as a mom. I cried as I told her I don’t want to be like this — an angry “bad mom.” She gently said, “you’re not a bad mom. […]

some thoughts on jeans

some thoughts on jeans

I’m wearing the jeans I bought a couple weeks postpartum after having Lucy a couple years ago. My pre-pregnancy jeans didn’t fit; these were two sizes up from my “normal” size. They have since been coined my “postpartum jeans.” Except now, one year after having my second child, these fit me better than my “normal” jeans. Normal being what I used to fit into pre-babies. And what I fit into after babies at one point or another. But now – I think these jeans are my new normal. And that’s okay. It’s okay if your body fluctuates and changes. It’s okay if you don’t fit […]