Dear Clothing Manufacturers

Please sync your sizes!

Why must a Gerber 9-12 equate to a Gap 3-6 which is the same as a Carter 6 month or 9 month, depending?

It should only take a cloth ruler and not a PhD to figure this out.

Thank you,

Kyra's stylist

Happiness versus Fulfillment

A friend recently told me of a survey conducted between adults with kids and adults without kids. Adults without kids consistently ranked happier than adults with kids. So why do we want kids?

If I were to rank my happiness before and after having Kyra, I would align with the masses. What I realized is the decline in pure happiness is made up for by the extreme sense of fulfillment. Watching my daughter learn and grow is the most satisfying reward a person can experience.

Sitting on the couch watching reruns from the week and drinking an IPA on a Friday night does not sound like a night worth looking forward to. Yet as a parent, I sit there and know my child is sleeping soundly in her crib and am extremely satisfied. I now look forward to an early Saturday morning wake up call. While getting up at 6am does not make me happy, I'm completely fulfilled hearing her giggle with her dad.

Is it a cliche if it's true?

Parenting is the hardest and most rewarding experience....Your life completely changes....Priorities shift....Sleep is a luxury....You will do anything for your child. These cliches are the best way to describe parenthood but somehow don't even begin to describe it or prepare you.

Maternity leave would be just like summer vacation. We would take walks every day, visit friends, go shopping, do yoga, be BWE, read! I had a very idealistic view of my time off. It's amazing how little you can accomplish in day with a newborn. That was probably the hardest lesson. Every day I had to remind myself of my new priorities: Kyra, eat, sleep, Cheddar, then everything else. Now and again something, usually sleep, would be set aside to indulge in my fanciful version of life in order to maintain my own sanity.

Now that the time is almost over, I feel satisfied with where we are and what we've achieved. But mostly I feel sad and terrified that I don't get to be bothered every three hours for a feeding and diaper change. How am I going to live without seeing Kyra smile as she falls asleep or pout when she gets hungry or struggle through her developing digestive system? We'll have to wait and see...