As a mom, foster mom, writer, and librarian, I do a lot of reading — both kids’ books, and adult books. In 2019, I read a bunch, and thought I’d share my favorites with you all, seeing as how you’re all mamas who, by virtue of reading this blog post, probably also like reading words! 1.The Book of the Unnamed

It’s that time of year when everyone is posting about treating their bodies differently from the year before, finally going to the gym, and all the weight talk that surrounds January. It can be a really hard time of year when your body has grown a baby and you are feeding that baby with your body, because so many people

I think we can all unanimously agree: the holiday season is one of the most chaotic times of the year. We spend weeks rushing around in preparation: planning meals, perfecting decorations, and promptly cleaning once-neglected areas of the house before guests arrive. We willingly tidy, trim, and toil in anticipation of the magic that the month of December tends to

Spouses, partners, parents, and friends of breastfeeding women often have a hard time supporting her in the way that she needs. Not due to a lack of desire to help, but due to a lack of knowing how. She might not even know what she needs, in fact! After breastfeeding 4 kids and supporting dozens of breastfeeding women as a

There are blissfully wonderful moments in the breastfeeding relationship. The chubby little hand that reaches up to touch your face. The rolls and rolls of healthy tubbiness that are all due to your body’s hard work. The ability to calm down and comfort your baby like no one else can. All of that is wonderful. This post is not about

Breastfeeding is so many things. It can be emotional and challenging. Or even soft and blissful. But when you throw other people’s opinions into the mix of boobs and babies, it can become downright polarizing. During my first six months of breastfeeding, people were supportive, almost congratulatory, about my decision to breastfeed. “That’s great!” they would say, eager to share

Ah yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year —  a time of breathless wonder, if by breathless we mean staggering heaving breathless through the airport in hopes of making it through TSA with the kids and baby and then breathlessly taking off into the air while hoping and praying and crossing your fingers that putting that baby on

Anxiety. It’s incredible how something so widespread and common can also be so elusive and misunderstood. I know I’m not alone in the fact that I suffer from this sometimes debilitating mental disorder, and yet when I look at the many faces that surround me, I can’t help but feel like an outlier. It’s as if everyone has it figured

My first experience with mom-shaming came from a family friend who had invited us over for dinner when I was pregnant with my first child. We didn’t realize we were walking into a (well-intentioned) trap of unwanted advice and horror stories of pregnancy and birth. When she heard I was planning on having an unmedicated birth, she laughed dismissively and

I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret. My daughter doesn’t really play with her toys. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes she’ll pull them out of her toy basket, one by one, and spew them around the living room, but she doesn’t actually play with them. Now maybe my daughter is just a specific breed of human-child