Rookie

For the past two months, I've had to learn a kind of 'mothering' I haven't been accustomed to for the past two years. The kind that doesn't rely on other people to raise my child while I spend 8 hours at work 5 days a week. The kind that strives to find the balance between being the good cop and the bad cop while daddy is away. The kind that fights for every ounce of patience after a long day of pleasing, nurturing, entertaining, teaching, and disciplining...

....quite a bit of the disciplining part lately.....

Must be what everyone calls the "terrible 2's".

It's a tough gig, but I think I'm getting the hang of it...

Poser

Borrowed Times: The beach

For the past couple of months, it seems like we are living on borrowed time. Being away from my husband, the uncertainty of how long we'll be apart, having to quit my job, and taking my son from everything he ever knew and moving him across the country to live with people he barely recognized -- well, you can say my life has somewhat felt like a whirlwind. Some good, some bad.

Then there are those borrowed times when nothing else matters, because we get to act like we're on this never-ending vacation... where the biggest worries are ridiculously over-inflated parking fees, finding a spot on a crowded stretch of the beach and keeping the sandcrabs from climbing up our shorts.