Becoming a good mom, one hour at a time
The other day I was looking for a particular photo when I stumbled upon one that made me gasp—no exaggeration. The family resemblance was striking.
I found an image of my older sister as a toddler, and Peeper’s resemblance is uncanny. See for yourself:
Planning travel to Oregon with kids this spring? You don’t want to miss a visit to the Woodburn Tulip Festival near Portland. Check out the tips to visit the tulip festival with a toddler below—and have fun!
The combination of Peeper’s interest in nature, our daily trips outside and her gift of gab have made for an ever-expanding botanical vocabulary.
While we were in Mexico, she talked about the three distinct varieties of cacti near our hotel. And now that spring is in full swing, she calls out dandelions, daisies and daffodils by their names. We’re still working on the Latin names, though. (Kidding!)
After two visits to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm’s Tulip Fest outside Woodburn, though, she definitely knows tulips. 
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Taking Peeper to the Tulip Fest outside Woodburn earlier this week was wonderful (more on that later!), but it carried a very unwelcome realization: I’m getting too pregnant to continue doing everything I want to.
When lifting my 20-some-pound toddler off a swing at the festival, I pulled some of the round ligaments in my belly, the muscles that stretch to accommodate my soccer ball-sized uterus. On top of that discomfort, I felt crummy and overextended the rest of the day—a condition not helped by Peeper’s skipped nap. (Ugh, why won’t this child sleep in the car like a normal kid?)
I was utterly spent. The exhaustion I felt by the end of the day plus recalling that I’m mere weeks away from my third trimester overwhelmed me. What’s more, a good friend was recently put on bed rest when her baby tried to make a very early appearance, which pushed me to consider the possibility we could have an early bird, too.
So though I’m still rocking the ease of the second trimester, I need to scale back a bit. That is not easy. Read more