Return to work after maternity leave, take two. Today is the first day of my first full week back at work. The emotion and difficulty of returning to work caught me off guard the first time around with Dashiell. It wasn't terrible but it was harder than I expected. For several months I questioned whether I wanted to be working full time and what was best for Dashiell. I hated feeling uncertain and it was hard to focus at work. Plus I was waking up so many times (so! many! times!) on most nights. Big transitions do not pair well... Read more →

I am now of the opinion that late December is the best time to welcome a baby. Cedric arrived exactly in between the cheer of Christmas and the celebration of a new year, heaping happiness upon an already festive time of year. When he was teeny tiny (as much as a nine and a half pound baby can be) there were twinkling Christmas lights still strung up around our neighborhood and town and wreaths on doors. We had some rainy, chilly days (my favorite) and we dressed him warmly and then wrapped him snuggly in blankets, just what your instinct... Read more →

Cedric and I spent last week in Austin. It was his first pilgrimage to Austin, the first of many. Chris was back to work last week and I didn't feel ready to travel alone with an infant and a toddler and so Team Wharton was two and two last week. I love going home in March, when the live oak trees are just beginning to leaf out and the city feels heavy with green, so different than the bright desert where I find myself squinting all the time. For the past two years during March trips to Austin I've been... Read more →

Winning meals around here are healthy, protein-filled and quick to whip up. With an added bonus, and nod to our budget, if they are also inexpensive. Enter the lentil quesadilla. Not two foods that I considered combining until recently but trust me. We always stock our fridge with the steamed lentils from Trader Joe's (healthy! versatile! keeps forever!) and recently a friend mentioned that she puts them in quesadillas as a reliable meal for her toddler. My ears instantly perked up at the mention that her two year old will eat them. When we made one at home it was... Read more →

When I started reading The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up I didn't think I had much to learn from the book. After all, we had already gone through our entire house with the aim of only keeping what is functional or beautiful and work to have every item in the house have a "home". But I was wrong! I ended up loving The Life Changing Magic and it spurred a second wave of minimizing in our house after I told Chris about what I learned. We went through lots of our stuff - again - and we were both... Read more →

While you certainly don't need anything special to breastfeed your baby I've found some favorite items that make breastfeeding easier and more enjoyable. Some of these are favorites that I used with Dashiell and continue to use with Cedric. Others I've only found recently and wish I had known about earlier. 1 My Brest Friend. I used this pillow every single time I nursed Dashiell and still use it every time with Cedric. When I travel I love to bring the travel version. It provides back support and places the baby snuggly at the right height to comfortably nurse. I... Read more →

Last summer, Chris and I embarked on a house-wide minimizing inventory that we dubbed "the minima". We went through every room, every cabinet and every drawer in our house, including our garage, evaluated each item and asked, "Do we really need or want this?" For many, many, many items that answer was "no". We took carloads of stuff to Goodwill. With every pound of unneeded stuff that we banished from our house I felt lighter. After finishing our household purge I kept remarking to Chris how happy I felt; it was surprising to me how much a change in our... Read more →

Although I turned a new page on our refrigerator calendar, I completely forgot about monthly goals! Being on maternity leave has left me, for the most part, blissfully unaware of the month and sometimes even the day of the week. The only difference in my days is really whether it's a day that Dashiell is at home or at daycare. Or if it's Friday because then I go to breastfeeding group. If Dashiell is at home then I know the days will be a bit more full but fun and we'll probably find an adventure somewhere, like story time at... Read more →