blogs to love

Who doesn't love stumbling upon a new blog? The ones that you can barely peel your eyes away from?? Here are some of my all time faves!

The Pepper Patch

My friend Katie is the bees knees. She is a beautiful woman, chef extraordinare, & mother of 4 boys under the age of 6. She is amazing and she inspires me and many of our mutual friends. She is hilarious and truthfully honest about life; some days she has it together cooking delicious gourmet meals, and other days she is taking her rowdy boys to a pizza shop. You will love her blog as much as I do!

Barefoot Childhood

Madeline was my freshman college roommate. She recently got married and had a baby girl at home, Sophia Mae, which made her adorable son Levi a big brother. She is a crafty mama, whipping up scarves, hats and cute animals. Her blog is full of cute stories, cuter pictures and great DIY projects.

Swonderland

I found Erin's blog through Madeline about two years ago and I would say she 'had me at hello'. She writes candidly and creatively about being a stay at home mother of 3. I really, really love her blog, and I secretly wish we lived closer so that I could know her gem of a self in real life and not just be a blogger stalker. [did I just say that out loud?]

If the Lamp Shade Fits

Oh the snark! Raina is my all time favorite decor blogger, full of wit, charm, sass, & inappropriate comments. La Lampshade is adorned with the prettiest and fugliest designs out there. You will not be disappointed. Promise.

Casablanca

Not unlike like the gravitational pull of the earth to the sun, I am drawn to sarcastic bloggers.

Enters Casablanca. A must read. True stories that are hilarious. Two beautiful daughters who are nearly just as witty as their mama.

There are more blogs I love, but that's enough to keep you going for a good while.

What are your favorite blogs??

Happy Reading Friends!

Good Mommy/Confessions of a new mom

The moment I found out I was pregnant I thought 'wow. I hope that I will be a good mom to this little baby!' I had a pretty strong idea of what a 'good' mom meant, and I had no idea I would be setting myself up for failure. 'Good' mom equated to = 'perfect'.

I had this idea that a good mom was: Effortless. Organic. Chic. On top her game. Co-slept. Wore her baby all the time. Cloth diapered. Breastfed. Never depressed. Never lost her temper. Made fresh home made baby food all the time. Stylish. Always showered, clean and wore makeup.

I quickly [and by quickly, I mean quickly] realized I had failed. It's easy to fail when you have unrealistic Mt. Kilimanjaro-sized expectations for yourself.

Yet I still struggled with myself. "Am I still a good mom if I run out of grace and lose my temper? Am I a bad mom if I leave Rue to cry in his crib after my bag of tricks to entertain/feed/clothe/distract gets emptied? Am totally lame that he has most likely eaten a cup of dirt/leaves/grass while I wasn't looking? Do good mom's let their kids suck all the ink off the tags from toys made in China???

The answer that I have come to 8 months later ? OF COURSE I'M A GOOD MOM. I'm a great mom. Webster's definition of good is : of a favorable character or tendency. Virtuous. Right. Commendable. Adequate. Suitable.

Some days I: lose my temper, forget deodorant, don't start dinner until 8 pm, leave dirty clothes to roast and stew for a week, let Rue eat grass, cry when I'm exasperated and wish someone would hold me and rock me to sleep.... but, I'm a good mom because I love good. I love hard. I adore my son. I do the best that I can and that's enough. I don't strive for perfection anymore, just the best version of myself. And who knows maybe someday Rue will adore me and think that I'm perfect, just like they way I looked at my mom when I was little. I don't think he's going to care that about any of the petty things that I beat myself up with.

If you are reading this and you can relate in any way, take heart. Go easy on yourself. I have read so many blogs that impacted me and really changed my view point, and I hope that I have done that for someone else today. Learn from my mistakes! Know that you are a GREAT mom no matter what. And for heaven's sake, let's omit the term 'good' mom and adopt being 'great', shall we??

it's 7:51 am.

baby woke up at 5:30 [2 hours] earlier than usual.

then, he threw up an entire meal on me and my pretty wool anthropologie rug.

it's only 7:54 am, and I am working on coffee cup #2.

so instead on dwelling on how bad I smell and how $ it will be to clean my rug, I'm going to stare at the mega watt smile above and think happy thoughts.

good morning motherhood!

7 months old

sitting like a pro.

crawling like mad.

squealing with delight.

scaling the coffee table.

standing up in his crib.

getting his fair share in bumps and bruises.

fearless.

happy 7 months little dude!

seriously, I'm crawling

Look at the seriousness on his face!

Crawl Face from Yana Banova-Brink on Vimeo.

my house is a giant choking hazard

the coffee table has been cleared.

the rocks from the fake fireplace have been removed.

the pretty breakable things have been moved higher up...

...'cause this boy is cra-cra-crawling! The skooch-along army-crawl has been in the works for about 3 weeks, but yesterday he finally got the real crawl. The 'one uncertain arm followed by one uncertain knee, followed by a more certain arm'....and voila. I'm so proud.

And I'm also paranoid. Now that he can get places, I realize my house is one great big giant choking hazard. So the official baby-proofing began yesterday. Because, I am tryyying, but I don't know when kids begin to understand the word NO. Or NO-NO, as I say it. So I'd rather just move the chemicals and small inedible objects. We can learn the meaning of No-No later.

What he lacks in speed [at the moment] he makes up for in passion. He crawls with PURPOSE people. His determination makes me laugh. Goodbye knees of milky skin, hello rug burn red! Speaking of rug burn knees - his only pair of leg warmers were dirty, and I needed a quick fix. So I took some old socks and cut the toe parts off. I reincarnated my hole-in-the-toes Wonder Woman socks into crawlers for Rue. I'm so crafty & cheap it kills me.

He's also standing up in his crib, pulling himself up onto the coffee table and attempting to climb the couch. Like it's a rock climbing wall and he's been doing it for years. Is this normal at his tender age of 6 months 3 weeks??

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{and now onto some thoughts that have nothing to do with this post, but are gnawing away at my brain nonetheless}

I don't know how long it takes for one's hormones and feelings to go back to normal [whatever 'normal' is, or was] but I'm still not feeling 100% myself yet. Seems like mom's who had 'postpartum' or barely scraped by the first few months take longer to adjust emotionally. Baby boy is 7 months old next week, and I am shedding no tears. I love him more than anything, but wow....what a RIDE it's been. I am hoping my next child doesn't do me in the same way. [Wow, did I actually just say 'my next child' out loud?? I must be farther along in my recovery than I thought] haha. What are your thoughts moms? Am I normal in still feeling 'out of it'?

Looking to the future with hope in my heart,

Yana