Have you seen You Are My Wild? 14 phenomenal photographers showcase a photo of their children every week. The images are raw and poignant and exactly the way I want my own children to remember their childhood. A few weeks of reading their blog and I knew that I wanted to try to do the same for my kids.

I used some birthday money to buy myself a new camera strap that makes toting my camera+two kids a lot easier and started keeping my dSLR close-at-hand. I love my iPhone, but it’s just not the same. The last image in this post? That is pure magic to me, and my iPhone never could have done that moment justice.

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Last week I revealed on Instagram that we’ve had a nanny since T2 was born. She works part-time in the mornings and when she is here I do all of the things that are infinitely harder (or impossible) with two children. Grocery shopping, haircuts, blogging, wasting time on Facebook, working out, errands, making myself lunch. On Wednesdays I pack up the kids and we go on adventures around the Bay because I’m not stressing about the mountain of things on my to-do list.

Having help makes me a better parent.

We talk frequently about how hiring her is one of the best investments we’ve ever made. When That Husband comes home on the weekends he can go to work on Saturday (without me feeling overwhelmed at the thought of managing the kids all by myself for yet another day) and we can spend time together as a family on Sunday. Otherwise I’d constantly be handing the kids over to him and declaring that it was his turn. There would be little to no couple-time or family-time. It has been the best possible thing we could do for our marriage and stress levels after having another baby.

I don’t reflect on the experience without constantly thinking about how lucky we are. There are plenty of families who do much more than we are without any help at all. I know having any paid childcare help is a great luxury, and I am very grateful for that. Read more →

I finally made my debut on Good Morning America (me and T1 and my fridge!). Someone was kind enough to send me the online link.

Extreme Birthday Cakes: Birthday Cake Battle Opens New Front in Super-Mom Wars | Video – ABC News

3 Months

Nicknames: Mah-ree-ree, Fuzzy Lumpkin, Sweetie Pie, Principessa, Lovey, Chubba Wubba Bubba
Temperament: Every so often you have a rough day as you grow, but otherwise you are babbling and content 95% of the time that you are awake.
Thing(s) I Could Do Without: You want to nap at 5pm and stay up late into the night with me. I crave my alone time late in the evening and do everything I can to get you sleeping again.
Thing(s) You Could Do Without: You rarely get to nap and relax in the same place. Being the second child means we’re often out and about, and you sleep where and when you can.
Item/Toy We Love The Most: Dressing you in mama’s baby outfits.
Item/Toy You Love The Most:  Anything we set on your chest that you can bring up to your mouth and gum on.
Things I’m Loving Most Right Now: You started laughing! You are so fascinated by the world around you, and when we walk around I see you trying to take it all in. You wake up kicking and cooing and happy. The moments at night when brother is in bed and I get to drink you in.
Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: Peek-a-boo, talking, when I put your arms through your sleeves or take them out again.

M,

You are wearing 6 month sized clothing already. How did that happen? Read more →

This didn’t air today (Monday) and I’m not sure what happened. Maybe tomorrow? Maybe next week? Maybe never? I’ll keep waiting and if it’s available online anywhere I will definitely let you know.

Tuesday update: Still nothing.

Thursday update: I emailed the reporter and she said it should air next week. Keeping my fingers crossed for Monday! In the meantime, you can see me doing a webcam interview on the TV show The List offering up my three tips for avoiding Pinterest Stress.

I’ll tell you the whole story soon, but I (think I*) am going to be on Good Morning America on May 13th during the 8:00am time slot. They interviewed me alone, and then took some footage of me with the kids. I’ll put up a link to an online clip if I can find one!

*It is entirely possible that something else will come up and I will be on later in the week, or they will decide to kill the story, or they decide that nothing I said was interesting enough to use and so they decide to go a different route and cut me out entirely. Either way, it was an exciting experience to have a film crew in my home and talk to an Emmy award-winning journalist about Pinterest Fail!