Real Talk

There were so many things I looked forward to when I was pregnant with my first son. I'm not even embarrassed to admit that I daydreamed about making cute personalized items for him more than I wondered what he would look like. In fact, one of the ways I passed the time breastfeeding was designing his birth announcement, family stationery, and even play date cards. But even before Pinterest, I have always loved baking, designing, party-throwing, and crafting. So needless to say that two kids later, I am a full-fledged crafty mom. But I feel guilty about it most of the time. I blame Pinterest and social media for the pressure it has put on moms as a whole to send...

Our Son was Bullied :: Our Response When we saw our perfectionist son's face as he waited for us in the carpool line, we could already tell that he had a bad day. He's not accustomed to getting in trouble for bad behavior and absolutely dreads our reaction, especially if it's disappointment. All of this was written on his face, and I could barely tell him "Hey, bud!" before he interrupted with a confession that he had gotten a mark that day, an indicator of not meeting expectations.  He's gotten marks before, usually for talking out of turn. In typical Type-A fashion, he's even earned them by telling on himself. If the teacher asked "Who was talking in the cafeteria?" he...

I think that if you were to take a  peek inside of my head, you would see something that would much resemble Target after Black Friday: everything everywhere, in desperate need of organizing, and too much chaos. There are wheels constantly in motion, trying to get ahead of the game but never quite succeeding.  You would see the woman who tries to be a good wife, who tries to remain calm in those moments where she wants to throw her hands up and walk away. She can’t stand arguments with her husband and apologizes at the first chance she gets. The divorce rate is increasing. She would never want to be that statistic.  There is the mom who does way too...

We've been at this special needs parenting thing for 11 years now. It's intense, scary and overwhelming more days than we will tell you about. It's never ever getting to let your hair down, because somebody in your home is counting on you to do CPR, save their life, or monitor their vitals. Even nurses and doctors get time off, but as the parents, we don't. We sometimes get respite in the form of nurse or personal care attendant. And for the really lucky ones, sometimes a family member will step in and step up to help too. But this isn't an overwhelming majority of special needs households.  So how do you give a break to a parent who really can't...

We’ve all heard it before. “I hope you get one just like you.” It was usually said during a battle of wills or after a trip to the principal’s office and more than likely, muttered under their breath like a curse. You almost forgot about this hex placed upon your firstborn until your mom starts saying “just wait” when you find out you’re pregnant. Just wait for what? Super sweet baby snuggles? Adorable sleepy smiles? Nope. Revenge in the form of a tiny version of yourself. In one last attempt to drive my mom crazy, I vowed to see this curse as a blessing. It’s all in the interpretation, right? “I hope you get one just like you (because you were...