I feel compelled to tell you that I’m writing this in my iPhone notes while wearing my baby in a sling outside in the sunshine. The purpose is twofold: It’s an attempt to get her to take a much-resisted nap, and it’s vitamin-D exposure (plus a chance to drink the glass of wine in my […]
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Hermione Roux birth story!
Our second child came into this world after much, (much) anticipation on January 11, 2021 weighing 7 lbs 6 oz; 19.5 inches long. Her name is Hermione Roux Mapes – and she is a dream! This is her entrance story: We had been preparing Goldie for months and months; I’d had false labor contractions intermittently […]
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My thoughts on toddlerhood
The other day, I realized I’ve never really written specifically about my daughter, Goldie, but rather have reflected on my own experiences and sort of just mentioned her as I mused on motherhood. But the thing I’ve felt most acutely about transitioning from having a baby to living with a toddler (Goldie is 19 months) […]
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Hello, second pregnancy
Hello, third trimester! Hello pumpkin-sized pregnant belly! Hello again, belly button (*waves good naturedly*). This will also serve as a hello again to my blog, which I’ve once more neglected as life moved briskly and I failed to run along beside it recording the details like my own personal paparazzi. And I am sad about […]
Recent Posts
Travel Notes: Maui at the Four Seasons
Sometimes, I imagine what it would be like if we could literally bottle up certain emotions or feelings. I would line my shelves with little glass bottles full of delirious happiness, sweet nostalgia, first-kiss butterflies, the pure joy of hysterical laughter, intense comfort/relief of canceling plans for a day; warm fuzzies from a blossoming friendship. […]
13 things I’ve learned in 13 months of motherhood
I have to just start this out by saying that this post almost wrote itself while I was rocking my baby to sleep for her first nap of the day in the semi-darkness of the early morning beside the thrumming space heater we use to keep her room warm in the winter. (Yes, winter: keep […]
Goldie’s Georgia nursery
Goldie’s nursery is by far and away my favorite room in our apartment. That might be mostly because I spent 9 months of pregnancy dreaming of all things baby, and a nursery is a huge part of that vision. However, due to some small (ahem) space constraints in our apartment in Hawaii, her “room” was […]
Life Update – Moved to Georgia!
When I last wrote you (you being, perhaps, a loyal reader or a new-to-this-space friend), I described a scene of messy chaos, as my husband and I were in the final stages of packing up our island life to move across the sea to follow his career to the Ranger Regiment in Georgia. As I […]
Farewell, Hawaii
Farewell, Hawaii. *Insert mental image of glistening tear rolling down cheek* </3 With Christian being selected for the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, we have a PCS move on the horizon. As I sit here writing this, our apartment is in complete disarray: we have postal service boxes on the floor that we’ll use to mail […]
Postpartum – Part 2
I know everyone’s postpartum and parenthood experience is different, and it could be that what I’ve described as mine in this series won’t resonate with anyone else. But I am so curious how it’s felt to other moms – because it is just so big and difficult to delineate. As for what postpartum looks like […]
My postpartum experience
Sitting down to publish a blog post about my postpartum experience as a first-time mom has taken me 12 weeks (nearly a fourth trimester!), and has coincided precisely and unsurprisingly with the first morning that I’ve awoken from a true full-night’s sleep since my daughter was born. She slept ‘through the night’ for the very […]
Birth Story!
Our baby girl is HERE! Marigold “Goldie” Lennox Mapes was born on April 17 at 10:39 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs, 2 oz and was 19 inches long. It was the most special, miraculous event of our lives, and a complete blur of overwhelming emotion. Here is Goldie’s story: I woke up around midnight on […]
Maternity photos and third-trimester diary
My wonderful friend Brittany Evans recently captured another chapter in our pregnancy journey with these maternity photos! As promised in my last post, I am sharing them here along with another quick update on pregnancy and life to fulfill my ever-present need to ramble. She also featured a few of her favorites on her own […]
Life Update – 32 weeks pregnant!
Hi, hey, hello – remember me? Me, who said I’d be better at blogging for the remainder of my pregnancy? (Peeks at reader with guilty eyes through the gaps of fingers partially shielding my face from view). Yeah, hi. My bad. For whatever reason, I seem to love to sabotage my own writing goals. I’ve […]
Pregnancy Update – 21 weeks
I can’t believe I am already halfway through my pregnancy! That fact is crazy to me, because it means our baby girl will be here before we know it, and it means that in just the same amount of months that I’ve been pregnant (feels like a blink) our entire lives will change. I had […]
The Closet Mermaid 