I have always hesitated to write on this topic that is such a huge portion of my life…that of being a mom.  It is my very favorite role in life, and also the very hardest. I think I struggle to write about it here for 2 reasons…the first being that I am just so not an authority on the subject!! I am learning as I go, make a million mistakes a day, and feel like I fail more than I succeed.  But in the 3.5 years I have been a mom, I have come to realize that is probably how most mothers feel, so sharing that and knowing I am not alone in that feeling is actually quite freeing! And the second reason is because I know a lot of my audience is brides, and high schoolers, who aren’t at that stage in their lives now.  But even before I was, I would have enjoyed an occasional post about “mamahood” and all of it’s glories and pitfalls…so I am going to hope my blog community feels the same! 🙂

Here is the thing about being a mom, is that it is such a beautiful chaos of emotions and feelings.  Elation, guilt, happiness, fear, anxiety, joy, and all before 7:00 AM in our house.  It takes a young woman who already had enough emotions (trust me, just ask Michael!!) and really messes with things!  But I am working on taking each moment for what it is.  Giggle and love the joyful ones, and squeeze on tight hoping that we remember them forever.  Take deep breaths and have another sip of our coffees while sending a frustrated message to our husbands during the difficult ones.  So I’m just planning to share little bits of the journey here, little stories, lessons learned, tidbits from being each a stay at home, working, and work from home mom, and definitely some of my “mother of the year” moments (meant in TOTAL sarcasm!!) to help spread the love and reminders to the other mamas and future mamas that you are not alone…in the lows and highs, the difficulties and the joys.  My two babies are 3.5 and 15 months right now, and I will refer to them as E1 and E2, just for reference!

One of our favorite TV shows for the kids (really, just E1 at this point) is Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.  It is loosely based off of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and uses songs to teach all sorts of small behaviors (and involves mostly non-attitudey kids and I love that).  E1 sings them in real life when needed sometimes!  The main character, Daniel, and his dad do this thing called “ugga-mugga” (that is the technical spelling for sure…;-)) where they rub their noses together…I think the rest of the world calls that an eskimo kiss.  E1 thinks it is hilarious, and will run up to be screeching “mugga mugga” (he hasn’t caught the technicality there!), out both hands on my cheeks, pull be close, and rub his nose to mine.  It is the highlight of every day for me with him that I remember during the tantrums, and “I don’t want to share”s, and little spats with his baby sister, and I adore it. I can’t wait until E2 can do it too!