Growing Up

My sweet son is tiny ... really tiny. He’ll be three in February and is just starting to outgrow his 12 month sized clothing that he’s been wearing for over a year. His height and weight measurements don’t even fall on the growth chart, but he his growing slowly but surely. Really his small stature should come as no shock. I’m only 5”2’ and have mostly shopped in the petite section my entire adult life. My husband is only 5’5” and still has to have his pants hemmed despite buying the shortest inseam available. There is no denying that my son isn’t genetically destined to be a large guy. People always ask if he was a preemie. Weighing 7lbs 1oz at...

Maxwell Gruver. That name kept me awake at night. Prior to becoming a mom, I would have heard Maxwell’s story, then brushed it aside with a shrug of the shoulder and a “oh, that’s sad” comment. My life now falls somewhere on the spectrum of remembering how easily it could have been to die at the hands of collegiate peer pressure mixed in with alcohol and bad decisions versus the mom in me feeling rage and sadness at this senseless death. Maxwell Gruver died one night at a fraternity party. The details are still unknown, but what we do know is that Maxwell was in his freshman year of college. I imagine that his parents delivered him to campus with high...

At dinner most nights, we play "The Question Game," where everyone takes turns asking a question that the entire table has to answer. One night, I asked, "What is one thing you would like for Mommy and Daddy to do more?" My four year old paused and then responded, "I want Daddy to read more books to me. And play more board games with me, too." Then she looked at me and said, "I want my mommy to get her haircut more."  I laughed, because I had just gotten my hair cut the weekend before on my birthday, for the first time in probably a year (and a half? 2 years? who knows). Clearly, it was just a recent activity. Then she made...

I am the proud mom of three. I have two boys and one girl. My boys are bookends, and my girl is sandwiched right in the middle. (Birth order struggles) No, seriously it's quite a perfect order for me.  I love all of my babies. They each bring something unique to our family, but it seems I favor hanging out with my daughter more. {gasp!}  I honestly wasn't aware until one day, I was looking through my Instagram and noticed my daughter and I had significantly more pictures than my boys and me. I became a little worried (the perfectionist mom that I am) that I wasn't giving the boys enough attention. I started to think of how the world must...

It seems all of us, parents and kids alike, are struggling with fatigue year-round. A common topic of conversation with other mothers is how there are never enough hours in a day to accomplish the busy schedules we have and it leads to fatigue or even exhaustion. As a working mom, this a struggle for me too. I work full time but also want my child to be involved in activities, prepare and share healthy family meals, and take care of the needs of my family, but it can be exhausting and often feel impossible to do it all. As a registered dietitian, I know there are some healthy habits my family can adopt to help fight fatigue. As...