Category: Parenting

  • Exhaustion and Mommy Guilt

    Exhaustion and Mommy Guilt

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    In my 28 years, I have moved nearly 20 times.  I lived in nine different houses in three different states before graduating from high school.  Once I went to college, I did the traditional move every year, and in the six years Chris and I have been married, we have lived in four different states…

  • Building a Parenting Library — Recommended Reading

    Building a Parenting Library — Recommended Reading

    I mentioned awhile ago that I received a $500 grant to start our La Leche League library.  I had a lot of fun thinking about the books I would recommend to local moms and what was helpful to me the first or second time around.  Of course, there were significantly more books that I wanted…

  • Almost Three

    Almost Three

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    In some parts of the country, school has already started.  In less than four weeks, Nora will be headed off to preschool two mornings per week and I’ll be truly committed to homeschool preschool three more mornings.  In three weeks and two days, Nora will be three years old.  Before we know it, our baby…

  • Shyness Update

    Shyness Update

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    Not long ago, I asked for some advice about Nora’s shyness and if it was normal for a child her age or excessive.  I got a ton of comments, Facebook messages and emails, and I really appreciated all of them so much.  I think one of the things I most love about my online community…

  • Looking for Words of Wisdom

    Looking for Words of Wisdom

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    I’ve mentioned here and there that Nora is a shy and relatively slow to approach person, but I haven’t spent a huge amount of time talking about it aside from the post about feeling bad for not standing up for her.  Chris and I were hoping this would just be a phase that she would…

  • Film Friday: “That”

    Film Friday: “That”

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    When I was editing the videos for last week’s film, I was struck by how much Nora’s speech and communication has changed from last year.  Now she talks in full sentences, knows more words than I can count, and is understood by pretty much everyone; then she was using just single words (which were mostly understood…

  • Standing Up For Nora

    Standing Up For Nora

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    This week has been full of ups and downs.  I was sick, then I was better; Nora was sick, then better, and now, after an hour and a half of sobbing and her not even able to nurse, we’re concerned that she may have an ear infection. Today started out beautifully with nearly two hours…

  • Toddler-in-Tow…Or Not?

    Toddler-in-Tow…Or Not?

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    This evening on Motherlode, KJ Dell’Antonia asked her readers if children ever belong at an adult party.  The question was in reference to a situation where one family’s babysitter canceled, so they called the host to ask if they could bring along their 18 month old daughter.  Of the responses she’s received so far, not…

  • 30 Days of Thanks: Facebook

    Mark Zuckerberg will be so pleased: today the thing I am most thankful for is When Facebook came to my college (back in the day when it was only for college students), it took me a while to warm to the idea.  When they added Twitter-like statuses, it took months before I posted a single…

  • How It All Began

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    I’ve received quite a few questions about how we balance working and not-working in our family and why we’ve made the choices we’ve made regarding childcare and work. Many of our friends are currently going through the same process we did of trying to figure out how to best balance life and parenting, and I…

  • Spilled Milk

    Spilled Milk

    Every so often, not too frequently, I have a day when I wish I could completely check out as a parent; when I wonder, why am I staying at home with my still(!?!)-nursing toddler instead of putting her in daycare and going to work where I can interact with grown ups and go more than…

  • Getting Creative, Yep, Yep, Yep

    Getting Creative, Yep, Yep, Yep

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    Have you ever seen the Sesame Street martians? About a month ago, Nora watched a YouTube video with them in it, and she’s been talking about them ever since.  For the first couple of days she mostly just talked about how they say, “Yep, yep, yep” and “were being silly.”  Then she asked to watch…