parenting

On motherhood: the ultimate vulnerability.

April 22, 2013
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On motherhood: the ultimate vulnerability.

I had coffee with a friend the other day. A pregnant friend who is in that “second-trimester, starting to feel uncomfortable in her own changing body, slightly grumpy about the restrictions it is placing on her” friend. We are relatively new friends (and yes, we did “meet” via social media), but our stories are quite similar. She could be me seven years ago. A woman in her mid-30′s with a burgeoning career, life experiences and accomplishments that she is proud of and someone who is pretty sure of who she is in this world. And she is afraid. Afraid of what becoming a mother means. Afraid of losing herself to this new role in her life. Afraid of following in the footsteps of the mothers in her life, who became wholly consumed by motherhood and whom she feels lost all of who they were before then. So I told...

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Cookies before dinner.

April 11, 2013
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Cookies before dinner.

You tell yourself you are just going to try it. To see what all the fuss is about. I mean its free, right? So there is no harm done there and besides, all your friends are trying it too. It’s pretty fun actually. You have a good time, play some silly vampire vs werewolf games, find out your stripper name, poke some people, catch up with old friends and even find some new ones. You start doing it more and more. You start adding pictures of your life. What you made for dinner, what you did that day, funny shots of the kids. You like more of your friend’s stuff and your ‘friends’ like your stuff too. Soon you are sharing all kinds of things with all of these friends. Things that you like and things that you think they will like too. And they do, they really, really...

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The ultimate {according to me} babywearing resource post. (with links)

March 16, 2013
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The ultimate {according to me} babywearing resource post. (with links)

It has been a while since I wrote anything about babywearing. To be honest, I really miss picking out a carrier for the day and wearing one of my babies. The problem is that at 6 and 4.5 years old, they really are not babies anymore. The tables have turned and they are the ones doing any kind of baby doll/stuffie/dinosaur wearing around here lately, and to this I say, Huzzah!! My work here is done! I have spawned a new generation of babywearers! And since I am no longer in the business of selling baby carriers, I thought I would pull together some of my favourite and most trusted babywearing resources, retailers and information. All for you to bookmark for future reference, to forward to your expecting friends, and to peruse at your leisure.  Please know that none of this post is sponsored in any way and all...

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The gift of giving

February 14, 2013
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The gift of giving

Kids {and pets too} have this wonderful way of helping us see the silver linings all around us. I just asked my four year old daughter what her favourite part of today was and her answer was, “Colouring pictures.” Simple. Easy. Fun! Today she drew me a picture of a stick me holding her (a stick baby) in my arms under a purple sun. It is beautiful, almost as beautiful as the one of her stick brother sitting on a toilet, complete with yellow pee and brown poop colouring too. She’s into realism it seems. My favourite part of today? When my little family piled on me in bed this morning to present me with my Valentine’s present. We don’t usually do anything too elaborate on V-Day, but for some reason this year called for presents. As I admired the dragon artwork on the homemade wrapping paper, complete with...

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five reasons to become a parent

November 27, 2012
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five reasons to become a parent

There is a pretty hilarious video circulating on the interwebs these days called “The Parent Rap”. Seriously, go watch it here, it is worth a few giggles. What is interesting is the reaction of the singletons to this video. There seems to be this feeling of “way to convince us to NEVER have kids” that is accompanying said video. Dad trading in his sports car for a more practical sedan. Yup, that happens. Mom doing most of the cooking, cleaning and kid wrangling. It’s the truth, even for the moms who work out of the home. Parenting is all THAT and a bag of chips folks. Really. It IS! BUT… Just in case you need more convincing, dear singletons of the universe, I have put together a list of 5 things that are so fantastic about being a new parent that you will all be clamouring to start the...

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not too late

November 26, 2012
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Last month, I took a writing course with Alice Bradley, aka @finslippy and this was one of our assignments. To write about family.  A lot of the ‘class’ (we were all online) said that the hardest thing or the most taboo thing to write about was family. This was my homework and is part of what I am dealing with and processing at the moment. Family. I don’t have a lot of childhood memories. I dont’ have the ‘big family Christmas dinner’ memories, the ‘super-fun camping in the mountains’ vacation memories, or the ‘mom and dad taking me to this or that sport or activity and cheering me on’ memories. I have ‘packing up a house full of four kids and leaving while daddy is at work’ memories. I have ‘watching my daddy crying in the doorway of our new house because he doesn’t understand why’ memories. I have ‘getting...

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I am the Tony Stark of parenting!

October 16, 2012
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I am the Tony Stark of parenting!

I am a goddamn parenting genius! . . . . OK, fine. Slight exaggeration. Maybe I just exude parental confidence. {While inwardly I am pulling my hair out strand by strand and sitting in a corner holding myself and rocking back and forth.} Whatever the case may be, people ask me for advice all the time. It ranges from prenatal questions all the way to potty training and back again. And for the record, I am definitely not an expert in any of these things by any conventional definition. What I am is a mama. I have almost 6 years of seniority in this position and according to a recent personality test I took (more on that in a later post) I have an above average amount of behavioural adaptability. Which I think is just fancy talk for I just know how to go with the flow! I also...

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Moments…

October 14, 2012
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Being a mom is the most amazing job/vocation/calling/responsibility/LIFE in the entire world. Except when it isn’t. And then you just want to crawl into a hole or if you happen to be having a particularly awful mama moment in public, have the ground open and swallow  you up, right then and there! BUT… Then you read something that makes you sit up and think, THAT! That is the kind of mom, no… correction, the kind of PERSON, that I want to be. All the time. Every day. Earlier tonight I read a note on my friend Stefani’s Facebook page and with her permission, I am posting it here. To the parents of the autistic girl in the party store: Hi. It’s okay. No, really; it’s okay. I know your daughter swatted my baby, who was sleeping in my sling, but I’m not mad. Babies are fascinating. They’re people, but tiny....

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Winter {babywearing} is coming…

October 14, 2012
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Winter {babywearing} is coming…

I woke up to two very excited children earlier this week Why you ask? Because… “MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY, IT’S SNOWING!!!” And sure enough, it was October 10th, 2012 and big sticky snowflakes were blanketing our yard! {Too soon, Mother Nature, too soon!} With chillier weather on the way, the most common babywearing question I get is, “How do I continue to wear my baby in the winter months and keep us both warm and toasty?” The wonderful news is that with babywearing becoming more and more a part of every family’s parenting arsenal, babywearing manufacturers are picking up on the fact that there is a need for products that work in all kinds of weather. So, without further ado, here are some great outerwear options for your cold weather babywearing needs. Carrier Covers. These are simply covers that you can put over both the baby and the carrier to...

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beast of burden

September 18, 2012
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You know when you have more ideas than time? When your draft folder is starting to look as big as your actual posts folder? I am kind of at that point right now. September hit and it was back to school and board meetings and activities starting up and well, let’s just say that the kids have been napping every day for the past week and a half and more often than not, I feel like I should be too! And because when it rains it pours, I have also been dealing with a really wonderful RA flare that is just draining all kinds of energy from me like a VERY leaky faucet. So what I am saying here is, that I have been one very tired and sore mama lately and it is taking a tremendous amount of effort (and caffeine)  to keep both my brain and my...

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