Momfluence

A friend of mine from high school writes a great blog about the joy of raising her twins and recently included a weekly post of "Mamas and their babies". I liked it SO much, that I asked her if I could steal it and tweak it for my own. How wonderful to have something definite to blog about each week, and even better it is about moms and their kids, and I spend a lot of time with those types of peeps. If ever there was a "snapshot" of my world it would be all the great mom friends I have. Much like the alleged snowflake, I find that no two mothers are a like. We all parent differently, have different strengths and weaknesses, but all the one's who I hang with and know are pretty impressive. So I thought I would start with myself and outline my momminess, as if this blog all about me and my kids weren't enough...

Q: How old were you when you became a mother?

A: 27

Q: How old are your children?

A: Six and almost three

Q: What is your favorite part of being a mom?

A: The best part of being a mom is having two little people who are learning to be whole people, loving and accepting everyone around them, and watching them grow to love things that I love.

Q:What is your least favorite part of being a mom?

A: The constant worrying and wondering and unknown of it all. And bath time.

Q: Stay at home or working out of home?

A: I'm a professional mom and that works for me and my family. I would consider part time work, but I don't think that I will ever return to something full time.

Q: What was the hardest part of becoming a mom?

A: I wasn't ready emotionally or mentally to be pregnant the first time around. It wasn't the plan I had set out for myself, so losing that time was hard for me to wrap my head around for nine months. But that all changed the minute Natalie was born.

Q: How did you chose your kids names?

A: Natalie was really supposed to be Naomi. That was the name Dan and I both liked from start to end, but Dan had liked Natalie. I fought him on it declaring that people would call her "Fatalie" or "Fat Nat", occupational hazard of a middle school teacher. But about two weeks before she was born, I just felt that her name should be Natalie. Her middle name is Gabrielle, like me. I wanted us to always have something in common. Joey is named after my dad and his middle name is Daniel because I thought Dan should have a piece of him attached to Joey.

Q: What is the best parenting advice you can give?

A: Find one and only one book you like, that suits your frame of mind. If you read too many, you will go nuts with all the different, contradicting ideas. But at the end, you know in your gut and will feel the "mommy alarm" going off. Trust yourself.

Q: Who are your mom role models?

A: June Cleaver, Lorelei Gilmore, and my friend, Elana. She makes raising three kids look pretty seamless. I am sure it isn't, but she makes it look that way.