Category: Mamahood
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Paper airplane
Last night I took Jakey for a walk around our neighborhood. The sun was setting, the breeze was cool, and he had a paper airplane he wanted to test. We checked the direction of the wind. We noted the plane’s patterns of flight. We laughed. Over and over again he repeated, “Mama! Watch this! Watch…
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Remember This
The bunk beds arrive this week. I whisper this in the darkness as I haul myself out of bed, once again, at the sound of my three-year-old’s cry. We’re past the days of Mama, hold you! but we are still in the realm of Please change my diaper and sing me a song. The light…
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Shadow Puppets
I leave the door open because I know it is only a matter of seconds before I’ll hear the pitter patter of his tiny feet on the tile. “Mama!” Henry calls out. He rounds the corner, spots me, and exclaims, “Oh! Poop!” he claps his hands, overjoyed to witness the magic of the toilet, which…
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Growing Hope
The afternoon before Jacob is born, I trudge up the stairs to my bedroom to lay myself down. September sun filters through the window, casting shadows from the orange leaves of the tree onto my bed. As I crawl under the covers, I think, this is what hope feels like, and I exhale. I’ve been…
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We’re Good
It’s animal print day, but too warm to wear the entire Paw Patrol Marshall pajama ensemble, so we go with the pj pants only. Which means everyone keeps complimenting him on his cow pants—which is confusing to him because he’s not a cow! But also Marshall isn’t his favorite pup—Chase is. And blue is his…
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On Ice and Fire and Goose Poop
We are chasing wild geese in the early morning light. The sun slants through the trees and it is so bright I must squint to see. My feet, bare and cold, are also covered in goose poop. These are the sacrifices one makes as the mother to a boy who is almost three. Jacob runs…
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Exciting News – The Unofficial Guide to Surviving Life with Boys
One night last spring, I received a Facebook message from Tiffany, a writer and editor (#lifewithboys) I had occasionally bumped into in several blogger Facebook groups. Thanks to my brief stint as editor of the Good Mother Project, I’ve been fortunate enough to lurk perpetually in many writers’ circles, dreaming of one day adding my…
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Nourished
At the end of Jacob’s first week, I hobbled into my midwife’s office, bleeding and crying and snotting all over the place. She asked me how we were doing. “I’m bruised,” I said. “I’m bleeding. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Tell me I don’t have to do this, I begged her with my eyes.…
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Splinter
Jacob ran out the front screen door, exclaiming, “Christmas wreath!” in his two-year-old toddlerese. It was early December in Hawaii and the wreath I had picked up at the local Target was our lone Christmas decoration. With a deployed husband, two small children, and an upcoming holiday trip to my parents’ house on the mainland,…
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The Miracle of (im)Perfect Timing
Two kids under two was never part of my plan. My husband, whose sister is a mere 14 months his senior, assured me having kids close together would be not only good planning (get those hard years out of the way) but also a good investment in their friendship (he counts his sister and her…
Erin Curlett 