Mary McBride
My Favorite Time of Day to Spend With Elvie
I am not a morning person. Elvie is still up two to three times a night, and sometimes her big sister needs a little mama love in the middle of the night, too, so morning comes all to quickly. Zinashi is a champion at sleeping in, but Elvie consistently wakes around 8am. I love using the time between Elvie’s waking and Zinashi’s to have a little one on one time with Elvie, right where we are, in the big bed in the master bedroom. I hand Elvie some books and toys while I quickly make coffee, and then we hang out together until Zinashi wakes up. And even though I am not a morning person? I have come to treasure this time of day. It’s no grand adventure, and I haven’t swapped out the bedside toys in ages, but with Elvie, it is always a good time. Here are eight photos of our simple morning fun.
Thoughts for Elvie's Ethiopian Mother, On Mother's Day
Rarely a day goes by that I don’t think about my children’s first mothers, but on Mother’s Day, they are even closer to my heart. Because while I celebrate a holiday they’ve never heard of the children I share with them, they are far away. It is not lost on me that I am the lucky one. I am so grateful to both mothers for the choices they made and the deep love they carry for their children.
We are in touch with Elvie’s family only via letter and progress report. If I could call her mother today, these are the things I would want to tell her. These are the images I would want her to see. Today, I honor her.
The Mom Life: What I Really Do With My Time
Mother’s Day is coming right up, and the whole internet is abuzz with thoughts on what it is like to be a mother. Each of us makes our own choices for how we will mother and what is best for our children and our families as a whole. For our family, we have chosen to have one stay-at-home parent, and that’s me. I care for the needs of our family and home during the day and do my writing work at night, after my littles are in bed. It’s working well for us, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to have this choice for our family. It’s not always easy, but it is always worth it.
When I was a kid, I remember thinking that being a stay at home mom couldn’t possibly that hard. Didn’t moms just get to read magazines and tell their kids what to do all day? Judging by my stack of magazines, many months high, that I’ve yet to even glance at, the answer is no. Fellow stay at home moms, this one’s for you and the hard work you do. Here’s a little glance at where all my time goes. Where does yours go? Is it dinnertime before you realize it?
Telling My First Story Using the Disney Story App
This post is sponsored by Disney Story. To find out more about this brand-new story-creation app – and how it puts the power of storytelling in your hands - click here.
Today there is a brand new app being released that is perfect for telling and sharing the little stories that happen every day in our lives. It’s called Story, and I’ve been playing with it for a little over a week now. With simple taps on my iPhone screen, I’ve been able to put photos from my phone together to tell about the moments in our days and the progress in our lives. The means I’ve been using to do that before Story are good, but this does a little bit extra, making it look like a little book that I can share with friends and family via email or post to Facebook.
Right now, my favorite progress to document is the growth of Elvie’s hair, and that is what I decided to do first with Story. It’s such a silly little thing, I know, but I adore how it started out a perfect little mohawk and has grown into a wild tangle with a mind of its own. I’ve written about it here on the Disney Baby blog before, but now I’ve been able to put it together into a story, complete with captions. I hope you enjoy, and that you give Story a try for yourself.
An Afternoon at the Beach
It has been unseasonably warm here in San Francisco, and it would be a shame to waste the sunshine. So on Friday when a friend asked if we’d like to meet up for lunch and go to the beach, I said yes. We live quite close to the beach, but life often gets so busy that I forget that we could just walk down the street and be there. Even if we want to go for a short time, it’s no big deal, but it’s hard to remember that or make time for it. So it had been awhile since Elvie had been to the beach, and I’m not sure if she remembered it. She did, however, engage in her favorite beach activity once again, so some things must have seemed familiar. Flip through the photos to find out what Elvie loves to do at the beach that makes me cringe.
