First, let me assure all of you that I will not always refer to my daughter as baby #1. Her name is Leila Soleil. Sounds a little like her parents were hippies, but so much thought went into her name. First Leila is an Arabic name meaning “Night Beauty.” My grandfather is Lebanese, although the rest of my family was born and raised in Liberia. It was important to me to give my daughter a name ...
Snakes, Public Speaking, and Childbirth
All this talk about baby # 2 has me reminiscing about what used to be my biggest fear in the world. Worse than snakes or standing in front of a crowd naked was my fear of CHILDBIRTH! I have dreaded childbirth for as long as I could remember. In fact, when I found out I was pregnant, one of my very first thoughts were, “Oh my God. I am going to have to go through labor!” (After that, I was happy, ...
2 Babies, 1 Due Date!
Well on top of all of my angst about welcoming a second baby into our lives now, I discovered this week that babies #1 and 2 share the same exact due date. What are the odds of that? Believe me, I am aware that there are far more serious things going on in the world, but I literally just wanted to cry hearing this. I really couldn’t help but to feel this overwhelming sense of guilt. There, I said ...
Baby #2 is on the way…YIKES!
Yesterday, ironically Father's Day, we discovered that we were expecting baby # 2. While I know I should see that as none other than a blessing, I instead find myself overwhelmed with fear instead. Of course, pretty much a week after my daughter was born, people started asking when we were going to have another baby. (Seriously) I used to jokingly tell them, “As soon as they go on sale and I have ...
Kiss the what??
One of my favorite things to say (ok, to myself) is "Kiss the Frog." This is also in my email address and people always ask me where in the world did I come up with that and what does it mean? Well, really, up until now only a few people know where I came up with the idea. See, I was an awkward little girl. I was horribly bow-legged, poorly coordinated and I could never sit still. I wore the ...