Merry, Messy, Managing Mom

Recently, a friend sent me an inspirational message about watering your own flowers. No not your flowers outside, I am in the midwest and its winter. But theoretical flowers you are given by others in the form of compliments.  This post hit me hard. It was about someone receiving a compliment and brushing it off. We have all done it, let's be real. However, when the person receiving the compliment began to deflect, the person giving the compliment stated "I'm gonna give you your flowers, you can water them or not." Now this person who sent me this is someone who can NEVER take a compliment. She truly thinks she does not deserve them and I'll admit, I often relate to her in this area. When people compliment me I always wonder if they really mean what they are saying or if they are saying it just to be nice. However when people compliment her and she deflects them, I don't understand. All I see is a badass mom, a genuinely good person, and one of the absolute be...

  If you pay attention to what you read on the internet or to the marketing geniuses, I am sure you think tummy time is the end all be all of good newborn parenting. Let me tell you a secret, I didn’t do it and my kids are just fine. No floppy necks, not late bloomers, they’re perfectly normal (physically lol) children. Tummy time was never easy for us. My first would just fall asleep if we tried tummy time and my second would scream. So I just didn’t do it.  Now obviously don’t take my advice over your pediatricians advice please, I am not a doctor. I’m just telling you that there are other ways of strengthening your babies neck and a lot of it I think they do on their own. Tummy time is a pretty recent thing parents have been told to do but you don’t see a whole lot of old people out their struggling to hold their heads up.  Let's talk ways to avoid tummy time but still ensure your baby is building those muscles. My personal favorite is sitting them on my lap facing me....

Let's talk about why we are all here. Why is it that no one actually talks about what happens to women when they grow a whole human, have that human, and then have to raise it. We talk about the glowing of pregnancy but we don't really talk about the nitty gritty. We talk about how labor is hard and painful but we don't talk about how vulnerable it is. We talk about how postpartum is exhausting but we don't talk about how lonely it can be even though you're surrounded by family and friends.  So let's talk. Here are the things I didn't know about pregnancy. Nothing held back here so be prepared.  -morning sickness sometimes isn't just morning sickness. Ever heard of hyperemsis gravidarum? Google it please. Us mommas who have it would love to stop hearing that "everyone gets a little sick, its normal." -body hair. I grew hair in places I never expected. Hello long chin hair I have never seen before. What on earth. I thought I was supposed to feel...

Laundry, everyone's least favorite chore. So how do we make it less painful for everyone involved. Pro tip: stop folding your kids laundry. You heard me. Just stop. I do not fold a single piece of my kids laundry. Nice clothes and shirts get hung up and everything else simply gets thrown into a drawer. Sure, I could spend time folding all of their tiny clothes and put them away nicely, but why? First off, I have a three year old who likes to empty out her drawers. Secondly, who is gonna know?  We spend so much time doing things because we think it's what we are supposed to do. Sure, in a perfect world maybe my kids rooms would be clean with pristinely folded and put away clothes.  But this is real life, not a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Please tell me what harm it is going to do if you don't fold your kids clothes. Go ahead, I'll wait. A little wrinkle here and there? Okay that will go perfectly with food stains and marker.  Don't worry about folding the damn...

 I'm not sure who I am writing to or why I seem to think that I can run a mom blog, but here we are. Welcome if you have somehow stumbled upon this page, I hope you stay awhile. Since you're here, I figure I should introduce myself. Hi, I'm Layla. I am 27 years old, a mom of two beautiful girls (Charlie 3 and Emma 4 months), and I'm married to a man I met when I was 11.  When I first became a mom it's safe to say I was, uhhhh, unprepared. My boyfriend and I had been together for over a year and had known each other for a long time but had no plans of starting our family at that point. Pro tip: if you don't want to start a family, take precautions. Who knew? But no surprise, I ended up very pregnant.  We lived in a rental home we could barely afford, I worked a job with excessive overtime, and my husband (boyfriend at the time) worked several different jobs trying to make ends meet. By the time we had Charlie, I was already certain I was failing at motherhood.  W...