Boobs and Poop

I laugh at myself every time I consider the fact that we live in Diamond Bar . It's not just that it's so suburban, or that we're living this totally boring family-focused life here. In my early twenties, I worked for a British curling iron operation. I worked for the heavily-scrutinized North American division, where under the guidance of an over-eager salesman-turned-CEO I drove to Diamond Bar from Westlake once a month to conduct sales meetings. It was one of those "many hats" situations wherein it mattered not that I was the marketing coordinator, I was convinced that the health of our business depended on my driving 120 miles round trip to deliver a sales presentation to a group of rowdy hairstylists each month. I was too young to question any of this then. Anyhow, each month as my coworker and I made the long trek to Diamond I'd joke about having to travel to "Bumble F**k Egypt" for irrelevant meetings. To my mind, Diamond Bar was not a pla...

Figuring out what I was going to do for "maternity leave" was so scary for me! I really felt lost. It took me a lot of research and talking through obstacles with friends before feeling confident that I'd filled out forms correctly and wouldn't somehow get penalized for taking time away from work for the baby. I was scared of being judged or perceived as lazy for taking too much time, or that I'd be an unfit mother if I didn't take enough time. And I worked for a company without a traditional HR department, so it was difficult to unearth the right information for me and hash out a plan. Actually, one of the main sources of stress for me was trying to create my plan for leave and ultimately returning to work. When I found out I was pregnant, I tried to wait until I'd made it through the first trimester before telling anyone at work that I was in the family way. But I can't keep my own secrets to save a life, so everyone in my department and a few o...

I am still processing all that happened and how much I (and everything around me) changed last year. 2015 was by far the craziest year of my life. It was so so so hard, but I was so excited about so much of it. I was miserable and elated at the same time for most of the year. I still don't think I'm ready to write about it... I'm not really ready to let the year go. But I'm also stoked to leave the discomfort and stress of pregnancy, family-full wedding events and actually giving birth far behind me. So with ambivalence I present this list of 20 major life events that occurred in 2015. Perhaps you'll instantly understand why I can't yet write about any of it... and why I have to acknowledge all of it, now. I started the year ~8 weeks pregnant. My Bachelorette Party weekend was in January (and I was obviously pregnant for it). In February, I backed my car into a parked truck and caused about $2,500 worth of damage to the trunk of my car.  My beautiful ...