When my youngest cousin was little,* he called me Ballerina. My name is Valerie, and that initial V sound can be tricky for some really young kids. So, you know, Balerie…Ballerina–it was a logical jump for a toddler to make. I spent the summer after my junior year of college working as a nanny for a little boy** who was
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If motherhood has taught me anything it’s to not assume. Ever. That old adage of what happens when you assume became an old adage for a reason: it’s true. For whatever reason, when mothers (myself very much included) spot other mothers out “in the wild”, we tend to give each other a once over. Whether that assessing gaze comes from
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My husband and I decided to start “trying” in February of 2008. And we did. For three days, I think. But then we reconsidered. We were putting our house on the market that spring, and I’d only been at my job as a copywriter for a few months. Why add something else to our already very full plates? It just
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Life is tricky sometimes, and I feel like its even trickier when you’re a mom. Most days it’s like I’m running at a million miles an hour, thinking about everything and everyone other than myself. But sometimes things stop us in our tracks and remind us that we need to be a priority, too. Last February, I received my first
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Last weekend, I sat on your back deck as our three kids played. We laughed, chatted, and discussed the very imminent arrival of your third baby. When we married brothers, I honestly had no idea that I would enjoy your company so much. I am so happy that I get to navigate motherhood with you. The differences in our kids
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I’d like to say before I had kids I was “normal”. I went to work. I wore cute clothes. I ate at restaurants. I went out with friends. I was a pretty typical almost 30 year old. And then I had my first son. He came flying out in the car on the way to the birth center. In the
Read moreI can’t believe that I’m doing this, but these are my boobs. And these are my boobs in “nursing” shirts. The other day someone asked me if there was really a need for what I was hoping to create. I was sitting on my couch waiting for my toddler to empty his toy chest for the tenth time of the
Read moreMy son was born in early December. I had a wonderful home birth followed by a two week lying in period. It wasn’t my plan to lay low for two weeks, but I found that I really needed it. I was sore, grumpy, the weather was nasty, and in all honesty I wanted to go nowhere. Around the middle
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