m. 🌹🦝

• Christian, wife, SAHM, former middle school teacher • books, knitting, baking, and being cozy •

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

my two moods

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

#kcwx

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

Really small hail (or graupel?) in Liberty #mowx @fox4wx @NWSKansasCity

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

That poor mother had to hand her baby to a STRANGER and walk through a separate line!
I obviously stayed as close as possible but this was still a crazy experience!

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@AskTSA Hey y’all I just had a WEIRD experience @Fly_KansasCity
There was a mom in front of me having trouble collapsing her stroller while simultaneously holding her infant, so I stepped up to try to help. We successfully got it folded and I put it up on the rollers for her.

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

The mom and I both said “we don’t know each other!” and I reiterated “I’m a stranger! I was just helping with the stroller” but the @TSA agent INSISTED this was the only way.

So I went through the screening holding a stranger’s baby!

This is COMPLETELY unacceptable.

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

Pinto Bean sized hail in Liberty @NWSKansasCity @fox4wx

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@er1enney0ung I started doing this and now my 3yo helps!! We had to throw a ball away because it broke so we gave it a hug and said thank you for letting us play with you, then my daughter asked to put it in the recycling bin so it can “turn in to something new like a butterfly” 😍😍

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@502lance @iJordanMoore Nahhh I grew up going to the Memphis one and it is sooo sketchy. parking is terrible, streets aren’t well lit, and there’s nothing around it unless you want to do Beale St (🤮). Plus KC wants to close local small businesses and tear down historic buildings to make theirs happen.

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

YES— this is how the entirety of pregnancy + breastfeeding feels for me.

But every moment and every pound is worth it for my amazing children!

[Abby Libby @abbythelibb_]

I'll say this for whoever needs to hear it:

I started my first pregnancy fit, lifting weights, swimming, and eating healthy. The first four months were miserable. I wanted so much to be able to continue doing those things I loved, but instead, my life slowed to a crawl, and I hated myself for my weakness. I had to eat every couple hours to keep from throwing up, and even then I could usually only manage bread. I had to eat bread throughout the night to not get too sick to sleep.

It's impossible to describe first trimester sickness to those who've never experienced it, and many women never do. Sometimes those women like to beat down others saying we only had the experiences we did because we ate badly and didn't exercise, but the truth is the opposite. They were able to continue their healthy habits and not gain much because they weren't sick.

Halfway through the second trimester of my first pregnancy I was able to get back to some exercise and eat a little better, but my body still forced me to eat so much and so often that by the end I found weight loss pretty easy just because I was so so sick of eating and not having a choice. Half the weight I gained that pregnancy was swelling from preeclampsia, and I delivered at 36 weeks. I recovered quickly, and was able to get back to weightlifting right away. I lost all the weight in 4 months of long baby-wearing walks at the park...

...and promptly got pregnant again. I went into my 2nd pregnancy even more determined and desperate to be as healthy as possible. That didn't stop the first trimester sickness from taking me down the first couple months, and it didn't stop my body from demanding food every couple hours. And when I say demanding, I don't mean normal hunger. I mean the insistent "you will throw up or pass out if you don't eat, you will not sleep, you cannot think, you will not function until you eat" demand that I've only experienced in pregnancy.

I continued lifting about half that pregnancy until even low-intensity sessions began making me light-headed. Things only went south from there into severe preeclampsia. I delivered at 33 weeks. It took me 7 weeks to stop having blood pressure and vision issues, and even longer until I fixed my nutrient deficiencies, stopped getting lightheaded with exercise, and was finally in a safe spot to start losing weight.

I lost at a reasonable pace, but I didn't manage to lose it all before I unintentionally got pregnant again. Missed it by 12 pounds. I can't tell you how demoralizing it is to start a pregnancy already feeling unacceptably fat and knowing you won't be able to do anything but get fatter until the baby comes. Especially in a world where this sort of cruel discourse is constant.

This pregnancy has been ok, but I started weaker all around, and it's been my most aggressively hungry. I exercise as often as I can, but the physical limit comes fast. It just is what it is.

There is a lot you can do to help your pregnancies be healthier and reduce weight gain, but at the end of the day, pregnancy is, in my experience, a near-complete loss of control of your body. I have had to sacrifice, at least for the time being, my health, my vitality, and whatever beauty I had (it was never much) to give my children life. I have been told so very many times in the past year that I am fat and ugly, that no man could possibly find me attractive, but nevertheless, my children are entirely worth it. I hope I can feel attractive again next year, but it's far, far more important right now that I give this baby every possible chance to live and thrive. Pressuring and shaming women to do otherwise is very wrong.

[Maria Made in Cosmos is taking a break✨ @made_in_cosmos]

me to my toddler every single day:

[Reed Timmer, PhD @ReedTimmerUSA]

A SHELTER IN PLACE order has been issued for Oxford, Mississippi as a crippling #icestorm continues. Hours of thunder freezing rain has accrued 1-2 inches of ice. Falling trees are a threat to life and property. #ice #winterstorm

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@fox4wx The party went great! 😂

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

I love that due to her age, the stuff she has around her house, and her shooting accuracy, you can kinda surmise the old lady at the beginning of Ratatouille was in the French Resistance.

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

We say constantly to each other as parents “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” (we don’t negotiate out of tantrums) and “don’t bargain with the fae” (be specific and think as far ahead as you can making requests/giving directions)

[HappySandyJ @maxxin_alll_J]

What was thing thing someone said about toddlers being like little fairytale gnomes you have to trick into doing things because if you ask them directly they’ll set a curse upon you

That’s all you have to remember as a parent

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@Nyct0phil3_x It just takes consistency!! We got a Hatch light and programmed it with different lights and sounds to help our 3yo know when is an appropriate to wake up other people (after 7am). 2 weeks of consistently reminding her to follow the lights and she’s doing it so well now!

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

“You can’t wear your tiara to church because Jesus is the only one allowed to wear crowns at church” -my husband trying to get our 3yo daughter ready 💖

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@eleonorasfalcon @iWomansplainer Ok? Is there a time limit to grief? And what’s does it matter how someone else deals with their grief? If someone’s beliefs help them, offer them a modicum of comfort, isn’t that a net positive?

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@eleonorasfalcon @iWomansplainer If you truly only believe that this reality is all there is, surely you would find some self-motivation to be kind no matter what someone else believes? 2/2

[m. 🌹🦝 @_maddi__rose]

@eleonorasfalcon @iWomansplainer Sue, even if you’re right—why are you choosing to argue with a bereaved mother? Does this really feel like an appropriate time and place? I feel like you have forgotten there are real people on the other side of these words. 1/2