Mama in the City

Between my husband and myself we don't have much extended family nearby. In fact, we only have one family member near us, that would be Auntie Glynis, and she still lives about an hour away. To see the rest of our family it requires various modes of transportation to get to them. Plus it always involves at minimum of an overnight trip or a planned vacation out of the country.

In our daily life we juggle parenting around our full time work schedules. For the most part, it has been working out really well, but from time to time the stress creeps up and the heaviness is felt and we start feel stretched during busy moments. This is when I catch myself feeling a little bit envious of people who have extended family members around the corner to help out with every day moments.

Luckily for us, we happen to have a few good friends that have taken on the role of our 'local' family for us. We get together regularly and support each other with daily parenting and celebrate life's milestones together. I know that in a pinch they'd help me out by watching Ben or picking me up if I was stranded someplace.

Recently one of my girlfriends, who has a similar family situation to us, gave birth to her first bambino. This provided a good opportunity for me to step up and be her 'family in the city'. As soon as we heard the news, my husband started cooking and I started to check in and drop by to see how things were going. It was just as if my sister was around the corner from me.


Getting some new baby love!

I think that support for a growing family is vital and I do miss having the involvement of our extended family on a daily or weekly basis. However, I'm quite smitten with being auntie Andrea to this precious new babe and I do love having friends become important parts of our family life.


Proud new mama snuggling her little bundle.



Sweet baby girl Tatum