Mothership Confessional

I started this blog after an important shift in my life. Many of my friends know of this shift, but I realized today that I have not ever written about it. A dear, dear friend of mine is walking the path that I was on many years ago. I pray everyday that hers does not end where mine did. I wrote her a letter today, and then I decided to share a little of my story with you. My mom had cancer. Had. My mom is free from cancer because now she walks with Jesus. My mom's battle with cancer was so random and unexpected. She was diagnosed in the summer of 2005. She had a canker sore that wouldn't go away. She feared she would lose her tongue, but she didn't. They found cancer in her neck so she had multiple lymph nodes removed and some surrounding tissue. She did radiation treatments and lost some hair at the top of her neck. After that, things were fine for awhile. Her doctor said this type of cancer was slow growing and would only appear in her neck and head areas. A

So I've been thinking a lot lately. About "swim suit season". And this new "mom body" that I have. Has anybody else been thinking about this?! Grab your 2nd cup of coffee, surround your kid(s) with all the toys they have, and attempt to sneak away to reflect with me for a few minutes. I delivered Ava 9 months ago. On paper, 9 months seems like such  a long time! But the reality is, is that it has flown by faster than I ever thought it would! I had planned on getting into a workout routine once I was feeling normal (hahaha normal... what is that?!) so that I could lose all my gained weight during pregnancy and get some muscle tone back. Well, that didn't pan out like I had hoped. Most of my weight simply fell off. I think I sweated and peed half of the weight off in the first week! But now I still have this extra 10 pounds on me with my muscles buried somewhere underneath. Boo. And it really frustrates and annoys me. B

This last month with Ava has been...different! I have felt like she has already hit the 9 month mark a long time ago - she has seemed so grown up to me lately! She eats so  much table food it's ridiculous! Just this morning she ate an egg - scrambled, a piece of french toast, almost a whole banana, and a sprinkling of blueberries. And she might have even had some yogurt; I can't remember now. I mean, how can she only be in the 19th percentile for weight when that's what she eats?! And not to be gross, but now that I'm a mom I talk about this stuff all the time...her poop has almost no visible pieces of food in it anymore so I know her body is doing a better job of breaking it down and absorbing it! She still refuses to crawl. She can get to hands and knees from sitting and she'll reach out for things, but then she flops to the floor no matter how much bribing we do. She gets around on her belly by turning in circles or rolling around.  She is much b