S'mores Life

You know those moments that make you stop and think, "Holy $*&#! I'm really a mom?" (Yes, my thoughts are that eloquent...) Yes, some of these happen right away, when you see the clock read 2:00 a.m. and it's not because you're out partying...Or while you're doing something only a mom can do, like nursing your baby. But there are more "real" moments than even that, and I have a feeling it's only going to continue that way... When you're going pee and look around to realize that you didn't shut the door. Your baby is asleep...no need for you to pee with the door open, but you just can't remember the last time you peed alone. Aw, crap, this isn't your house.  It takes you 30 minutes to get the dirty laundry from upstairs, to downstairs in the washer...because you have a child tugging on your leg bringing your pants to the ground the entire time. It's the tugging on the shirt...pants...body parts...that makes me stop and ...

I can't be the only mom who thinks "If I only knew then, what I knew now..." and I know that's what all of our mothers and grandmothers are thinking as they are watching us raise these little ones. Which is probably why 75% (that's a conservative guess-timate) of them spout out unsolicited advice about whiskey on the gums and rice cereal in bottles at four weeks and other "good tips". But seriously, even just a year in, I think about what I wish I could tell myself before Clara turned one, before she was born, before I even got pregnant...what would I tell myself? What do I try to remind myself of now? What would I tell other women who aren't yet mothers? Heck, I already do tell them plenty - pretty sure if the population drops off it will be my fault (credit?!) because of all my talk about vag tears and placentas and breastfeeding horror stories. YOU'RE WELCOME, WORLD! Everything negative is a phase. Everything. It might be two days or two we...