This little sweetie… (pictured below) made me a mommy on January 27th. I read parenting books and blogs. I made schedules and followed them to a ‘T.’ I asked my mom, sisters, and in-laws for all of their best parenting advice. Everything was going well into my first few months of motherhood.
The moment I left the hospital after having my baby girl, I distinctly remember thinking… “Well here we go. 6 more weeks ‘till I go back to work”. The more I thought about returning to the everyday grind, the more elephants stacked on my chest. I was stressed and wasn’t sure how I was going to go back to work and miss entire days with a tiny baby.
My dog loves to travel. Brad and I take him everywhere. As P2M’s resident “Dog Mom,” I wanted to showcase some of Caesar’s adventures, and share a few of the must-have items we’ve found worthwhile as we raise this on-the-go German Shepard.
Okay – you’re 4-6 months into this baby-raising thing. You’re starting to feel like a pro with diapers, naps, bottles and/or breastfeeding. But at your 6-month appointment (or maybe sooner) your pediatrician tells you it’s time to start solids. Baby food. Lovely.
On my 21st birthday, my mom handed me a large stack of papers in a pretty box, all neatly stapled together. She said, “This is something that I have wanted to give you for a long time.” As I started looking at the pages, my mom explained to me that every year on my birthday she would sit down and write a letter to my birth mom… (I was adopted, and I’ll share more on this in a different post). She made a copy of every single letter and kept it; waiting for the right time to give them to me.
It’s important to me to include my kids in the everyday things I do. Whether it’s baking a cake, cooking dinner, decorating or even checking my emails, I want to teach them how to do “real life” tasks. It gives us more time together plus it makes doing those monotonous tasks much more fun. It could even spark a passion inside them…you never know, I may be raising the next Bobby Flay or Joanna Gaines.
Our story began at App State where I was a cheerleader and he played football. When we first met, I thought he was cute but hated his outfit. I never thought twice about meeting him but boy did God have a plan.
Long distance is a familiar term to the Marren family.
Brad and I lived in separate cities for approximately 3 of our 7 married years. Frankly, it was frustrating and painful at times – but surprisingly, there were huge benefits too.
For those families facing geographic separation, today I wanted to share 1.) the surprising perks to a LDR, as well as 2.) tips on how to manage.