Ever since I became a mother six years ago, I've wanted to write about it. Motherhood is the kind of experience that changes everything about you. It is amazing and wonderful. It is wild and unexpected. It is so incredible and life-changing that it is truly beyond explanation. Before you experience yourself, descriptions of motherhood sound like simple cliché.

I remember as a child asking my mother what she was like before my sister and I were born. She said, "Honestly, I really don't remember much about my life before you."

I don't think I feel the same way, because truthfully, I remember a lot about what my life was like before my children. Mostly, it was relaxing. And filled with quite a bit of adult conversation. And I don't think I remember ever having to clean smeared banana off my furniture. But I do understand what she meant. Becoming a mother changes you so completely that certain things that once seemed so important become completely irrelevant (for example...going out dancing all night long, getting a manicure, eating in nice restaurants, eating in restaurants at all, eating while sitting down, daily showers, deodorant, ironing one's clothes, wearing high heels, wearing make-up, wearing anything but stained sweat pants...the list goes on.)



This blog is dedicated to my mother. And all mothers, past and present, who have given the better part of themselves to their children. This blog is dedicated to the invention of spandex pants and T-shirts. This blog is dedicated to Chick-Fil-A and all other restaurants with play areas, where mothers can congregate and have (somewhat) uninterrupted adult conversation while their children go wild with chicken in their bellies. This blog is dedicated to Barney and Elmo and Sponge Bob, who are (more often than we want to admit) the daily babysitters of our children, when we need a 24 minute break to cook dinner or check email or clean up a gang of play dough off the carpet.

This blog is dedicated to love, the kind of love that gets you up in the middle of the night. The kind of love that throws up on you and needs its pamper changed and wets the bed. The kind of love that leaves you breathless when it runs out into the street. The kind of love that makes you buy organic smashed peas and animal crackers. The kind of love that changes you forever, for better or for worse, and you are thrilled about it.

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Naomi de la Torre is a stay-at-home-mom with two delightful boys, ages three and six. Naomi has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona, is a self-proclaimed salsa diva and can make a killer octopus out of a single hot dog.