About Me

maybe a little too much

Hello! I'm Kate, mom to the two greatest tiny humans. Until 2022, I was a full-time working mom in a high stress, face-paced corporate job; I felt like a full-time headless chicken. Working outside the home, I found myself looking forward to 5 o'clock, the weekend, daycare drop-off or pickup, the Scary Sundays: you're constantly waiting for, or dreading, that next activity. When I left my job, the biggest adjustment for me was having nothing next. Meaning, each day, I woke up with "nowhere" to go and "nothing" to do unless I planned it. Suddenly, a fast-paced headless chicken life was calm. Too calm...

The first hurdle was settling in and finding my head. It took months for my body to recover from the fast pace, to stop checking my phone for that next e-mail, to be more present and stop looking for that next activity. I remember the day I felt settled. I was giving my oldest a hug, and I sat there hugging him, completely at peace. I wasn't late for work or rushing to make dinner; I was hugging my son. I cried during that hug (I cry during a lot of hugs, he tells me). I never felt consciously rushed before this, but you know that feeling where you pull away from a hug to move on? This time, I could have sat in that hug forever.

My second hurdle was feeling adequate. Searching for toddler activities on the web and never feeling like it was enough. But finally, I saw that to my beautiful tinies, everything is new. It started the day I really let them make their own muffins. We may have lost half our batter to the floor, but they'd done it! They took out all of the ingredients, followed the recipe and worked together taking turns to get those muffins ready for the oven (where mom took over...safety first!). I think it took over an hour but they were so proud of their process, they're both learning so many new skills and it filled half our morning. That muffin morning changed my life. We were home together with "nothing next"! We had all the time to make messy muffins and clean it up: all tough work and great learning for littles. My tinies were independent before, but now, they're thriving.

If you grab an idea here, remember to really live it. Don't just "have a dance party" from a checklist of activities, get up and groove with those tinies. Let them scoop the sugar for cookies and then sweep up the spill. Let them be the one to pull away from that hug. Try to do life on their timeline, through their eyes. It takes longer, it's way messier, and it's completely worth it.