Starting Anew

It has been a busy few months to say the least. Most of it has been spent with me trying to keep my head above water as I returned to teaching full-time. As you may have gathered from the cobwebs on this site that this is one of the things that suffered from my new schedule.

Now that I am feeling more comfortable with my new gig, I want to regularly post on this site again. I also want to take this opportunity to reorganize things a bit. Instead of writing certain types of posts on certain days (Wordless Wednesday, Mom Walk of Shame…), I am just going to focus on posting items that occur to me. It might be a New Mom or Toddler Tip, it might be a Must Have or Must Avoid Item or it might just be some random thoughts. I figure that the less rules I make for myself the easier it will be to maintain this site.

Looking forward to a new year!

Mary Kate

Another Addition!

I am proud to welcome, Linda, our latest contributor to Baby, Toddler and Beyond. Linda is a friend “in real life” who’s insight and opinion I really trust.  Linda’s first post gave me a lot to think about and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

Mary Kate

Expanding Baby, Toddler and Beyond

I am proud to announce that Baby, Toddler and Beyond will now include posts from Jen, our newest contributor. She will be sharing her experiences as a new mom and add another perspective to this site.

This means that this site is getting a little closer to my goal of Real Parents sharing Real Experiences, Right Now and that I have begun to fulfill one of my goals for the New Year.

I really enjoyed Jen’s post and think you will too!

Mary Kate

The Traveling Trio

Omar, Becca and I have been in travel mode since December 21st.  Since then we have either been preparing for a trip or recovering from a trip (currently we are in recovery mode).  During that time, we celebrated Christmas in Massachusetts with my family (Dec. 21st- Dec. 23rd), we celebrated Christmas and New Year’s Eve with Omar’s family in Mexico (Dec. 24th- Jan 1st) and  we  travelled to San Antonio, Tx for a training for me (Jan. 6th-Jan. 10th).

During this time, I have learned a lot about travelling with a toddler (in a car, on a plane, in another country and during a business trip) and I will have some posts pertaining to all of this.  I also have had a lot of time to reflect on Becca’s bi-cultural heritage and will have a few posts on this as well.  Most importantly, I am just trying to get back into the swing of everyday life and I want to post regularly on this blog.  My goal for the rest of this month is to post two-three posts a week.  I have a lot of great ideas and just need to get them typed up and posted.

Mary Kate

Goals for the New Year

We just returned from 10 days of family/holiday traveling.  My head is still spinning and we are still adjusting back to real life plus we are all sick!  Becca has pink eye (both eyes), an ear infection (both ears) and a pretty severe cold.  Both Omar and I have pretty major colds as well.  Each of us have visited our doctor this week.

Despite all of this, I have a lot of plans for this blog and have some really great post ideas.  I will start by sharing my plan for the new year.

One of my goals for the new year is to add other contributors to this blog. My ultimate plan is for this site to offer different points of view and be more interactive. I have a few potential other bloggers but just need to work out a few kinks before they start posting regularly.

In the meantime, I will be taking my antibiotics, giving Becca hers, watching Omar take his and getting some new posts written.

Mary Kate

Slight Name Change

Now that I have been posting more regularly to this blog, I would like to make some minor changes.  First of all, I am going to begin to sign my name Mary Kate rather than M. Kate.  When I first started this, it felt very cool and mysterious to sign using the initial.  However, it becomes confusing when people e-mail me or refer to me in theirblog.  In order to lessen the confusion, I am going to unveil the mystery: M. stands for Mary.  Tada!!!  Eventually, I may go back and edit my signature but in the meantime I am just going to move forward as Mary Kate.

Also, I will stop referring to my husband as Mr. O and instead will call him Omar.   I liked the idea of “Mr. O” but it started to feel cumbersome and stilted.

Without further ado, I will return to blogging.

Mary Kate (aka M. Kate)

Missing In Action

I know I have been MIA and I plan on getting back into posting regularly. I have recently had experience with attending a funeral with an infant and plan to post my experience doing that. I also plan on posting some tips for taking a car trip with an infant/toddler.

M. Kate

Typical Toddler Schedule

If you are one of the many poeple who have come to this site after googling “Typical Toddler Schedule”, please leave a comment to let me know what you are hoping to find. I don’t currently have any posts on this subject but could ask members of my “toddler network” to write one. Before doing that, I thought it might be helpful to survey my audience and see what question they would like answered.

M. Kate

Bienvenidos

Welcome to my site! On this site, you will find information provided by Real Parents with Real Experiences, Right Now!

As an expecting mom, I found myself overwhelmed with all there was to learn about being pregnant and being a parent. My response to this was to read everything I could get my hands on and to begin to ask friends and relatives lots and lots of questions.

As a result, I have gathered tons of information about a variety of pregnancy and parenting topics. I would like to share some of this information with you on this site.

I am also blessed with a fantastic support network that I have turned to day and night. I have asked them to share their expertise with you. Some of the people you will be hearing from include:

My Mom: Mother of five ( 27 yo to 38 yo) and Registered Nurse with 40+ years of experience. She currently works as an EMT and ER nurse at the local ER.

My Sis: Mother of two (5 yo and 2 yo) and Middle School teacher with 10+ years of experience. She currently teaches Instructional Technology to 7th and 8th graders.

My Cousin: Mother of three (5yo, 3yo and 11m0) , Office Manager and SAHM. Currently, she is transitioning from being a full-time SAHM mom to working two days a week.

My First Time Mom Friends: I have some amazing friends who have shared this FTM experience with me.
As the days and weeks go on, I will be adding a variety of items to this site including:

• Tips and Tricks
• Random Thoughts
  
• Day to Day Parenting Experiences

I hope you’ll continue to check back and see how the site is growing! Also, feel free to add your own parenting experiences!
M. Kate