Danielle of Honest:Status Update is going to open up the week for us with her contribution to the The Monday Snapshot – an evolution of the MMM feature, meant to bring the PAIL blogroll to life by giving its members a chance to feature themselves and make new connections.
If you would like to be featured on The Monday Snapshot, please sign-up here!
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The very nature of spending much of one’s time with a toddler is to focus on what they don’t yet know. We spend our days helping them to gain skills and knowledge: counting to 10, what hands are for (gentle petting) and are not for (hitting), selective attention, building a tower, kicking a ball. We remind ourselves that the less pleasant aspects of their behaviours are typical and will pass, and that there is usually a pretty good underlying physiological rationale.
But there some – lots – of pretty perfect things about toddlers too, things that we would all do well to emulate. The one that comes to mind when I look at this photo of my son S in the ball pit at our local YMCA is the idea of being fully immersed in the present moment. Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it 100%. He’s not worried about what will happen next and he is already over what just happened. I try to remember this as much as I can, but I was struck by it as I stood over him the other day and took his picture before covering him with multicoloured balls and listening to his giggles. Especially now, in the first trimester of another much-wanted pregnancy, I confess that my biggest wish is often for the days and weeks to pass quickly. I’m always thinking about what I’ve got to do next, in the next hour, tomorrow, next week, or I’m working hard not to think about past first trimesters.
I’m going to use this picture as a reminder to try to remember to be fully present in the moment I am in, because it’s the only one that I am guaranteed.
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Now, get to know a little more about Waterbelle44 with her answers to the Monday Snapshot “5 Questions”:
1) How long have you been blogging and how did you get started?
I’ve made many bumpy forays into blogging over the past few years, but none have stuck around. However, I’ve been reading IF blogs for what feels like forever, and have gleaned so much vicarious support and wisdom from this amazing community. I’ve stuck to the shadows because of my own lack of blogging mojo, but resolved this year to start again and keep to it, and try to jump up and down a bit out here on the sidelines.
2) Tell us a little about your ALI journey and your family (3-4 sentences):
I have endometriosis and my husband and I were TTC for about a year before I first became pregnant, which led to my first miscarriage. We were pursuing IF investigations with an RE when I became pregnant with my son about six months after the miscarriage – he is now 2. I had a second miscarriage in November of 2012. We are on the bumpy road of TTC #2, while once again pursuing IF treatment options.
3) What makes you unique in the blogging world? (e.g. special talent, rare diagnosis, life experience)?
I can juggle, but I highly doubt I will blog about that. I feel like the only unique thing about me with respect to blogging is the fact that now I actually have one, so my enthusiasm for comments and commenting is so high, it’s like I just discovered the internets.
4) One word to describe yourself:
compassionate
5) What blog or website (IF or not) would you recommend to others? Why?
I would absolutely recommend Jen Dziura’s advice column ‘Bullish’ on the website The Gloss. She gives excellent, funny, kick-ass, solid advice targeted at women to promote development of professional, fiscal and just plain ol’ life skills. She recently had a column about miscarriages that I loved.
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As always, we want to see your Monday Snapshot as well, so please comment below with a link to your post– and of course, go visit Danielle at Honest:Status Update!
If you would like to be featured on The Monday Snapshot, please sign-up here!
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