If these two decided to be a wrestling team (or a rock band) I would call them Perpetual Motion and the Wall of Noise.  One never stops moving.  The other never stops talking.  Together, they are a force to be reckoned with.  They make me tired.  Oh, so tired.   But they also make me laugh . . . and lucky for them I’m a sucker for cute boys with a good sense of humor. . . .

Today is Karis’s 2nd birthday.  I am trying not to think about it too much, because if I think about it too much, I will have to acknowledge that being TWO definitely catapults her out of the baby stage, and I am in total and complete denial about that fact.  We celebrated her birthday on Sunday, when the grandparents were here. For reasons that are beyond my comprehension, I admitted to Jafta that Sunday was not her real birthday, and today he has been very, very concerned about how . . .

`On Saturday, I attended a read-through for a show I am doing next Sunday afternoon. There was a time in my life when terms like “read-through” and “doing a show” did not make me feel like a giant phoney.  There was a time when the passions that are now dormant had regular and tangible outlets.  So I’m a little giddy to be “doing a show”.  Next week I’ll be taking part in the LA version of Listen To Your Mother – a national show that highlights personal stories of motherhood, . . .

I was going through photos on my computer this morning, editing out the mass amounts of dud pictures I’ve taken.  I was just about to delete this photo I captured at Jafta’s jog-a-thon a few weeks ago, because before I cropped it, it was just a random crowd shot without a real focus.  But then I squinted and noticed that Jafta and Karis were in the middle of the shot.   Karis had insisted on wearing a princess costume that morning.  She was very excited to cheer Jafta . . .

What I Want You to Know is a series of reader submissions.  It is an attempt to allow people to tell their personal stories, in the hopes of bringing greater compassion to the unique issues each of us face. If you would like to submit a story to this series, click here. Today’s guest post is by LeAnn. What I want you to know about being a birthmother? It hurts. Not the physical kind of pain, although that can happen if I stress out to much, but it hurts mentally and emotionally.  . . .

The last couple weeks have been in full-on crisis mode for our family.  It seems like every single day, I think, “Oh, this will just be a regular day”, and then, BAM!  Some new chaos is thrown in my lap.  It doesn’t help that our last babysitter gave her notice a few weeks ago and our new gal can’t do full-time until next month, so I am trying to do 20+ hours of work every week with 10 hours of childcare. And then, we’ve been hit with health issues, insurance drama, tax mayhem . . . . .