Welcome Weary ICLW Travelers!

Happy ICLW everyone. Thanks for stopping by.

For those of you visiting for the first time – Welcome! For those of you who read me every day – Can I hear a What! What!

My name (in this space) is Esperanza. It means hope in Spanish. I had it engraved on a bracelet when I was TTC my first child. During that year I suffered an ectopic. I also got pregnant, and gave birth to, my rainbow baby. Her name is Isadora, or Isa (pronounced EEsa) and she is 9.5 months old.

She’s also screaming inconsolably in her nursery as I type this. Before you judge me please know that “inconsolable” is an accurate description of her state at the moment. I’ve tried to hold her, sing to her, cuddle her and she just bucks away from me, arching her back like a thing possessed. And she is possessed, with the exquisite pain of cutting her second tooth. Teething is one of my least favorite things, after famine, dictators and people who tell you the end of books or movies.

Teething (or it’s effects) also bother my cat, who’s mewing plaintively for me to PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE INTERLOPER! At least that is what I think she’s saying.

Luckily my partner is not around to experience any of this. He’s staying late at the office tonight and frankly I’m a little jealous.

But where was I before the incessant crying led me astray. Oh right. Back to me. And my blog.

I’ve been writing this blog for exactly 1.5 years. It has led me to an amazing ginger bread house of caring, validation and support. Luckily no one’s trying to consume me for supper in this ginger-bread house/blog community metaphor, instead the lovely ladies want to pull up a chair and drink a steaming cup of tea and wax philosophical about all the insane shit this life has in store for us. And I’m always down for a cup of tea and a good bitch session. No one can vent like this girl.

I started writing this blog a few months after my ectopic. It quickly transformed from a TTC-after-loss to a pregnancy-crippled-by-anxiety-(and-grad-school-obligations) blog. On June 7th it became a parenting blog and after some initial growing pains I found a nice rhythm to my days. I think in the chaos that was life with a new baby I needed some structure somewhere. The end result is called Paint-By-Weekdays and it takes the form of the following mind-blowingly awesome series:

Mindful Mondays : In which I try my hand at incorporating the Buddhist teachings of acceptance, loving-kindness and mindfulness into my life with mixed results.

Working Mama Mondays : Reflections on how I’m attempting to master the working mother thing and failing miserably at it.

Useful Tuesdays : Recommendations for products and ideas that I can’t live without.

Tootin’ My Own Horn Tuesdays : No denying what this is, one I-AM-A-ROCKING-MOTHER-DESPITE-MY-SHORTCOMINGS sports montage, complete with 80’s theme music, brought to you most Tuesdays by this arrogant bastard.

Wordless Wednesdays : In which I single handedly (and without the consent of the company) try to convince you to get My Hipstamatic Prints for your iPhone.

Look at this print and tell me you don’t want to get it. I dare you.

So What Wednesdays : I “borrowed” this from another blogger. Basically I ADORE calling myself out. In front over EVERYONE. And linking to another blog when I do it.

Thoughtful Thursdays : In which I subject you to a thousand word diatribe on whatever topic currently intrigues me.

Confessional Fridays : Where we play truth or dare and I always pick truth and you wish that I would just accept a stupid dare already.

I also keep track of my goals and talk about how my children’s book is coming along and commiserate about how it sucks to have to lose those last 15 pounds (without dredging up past food/body image issues). Finally, I’m excited to announce my new blog, which will be launching April 1st. So far I’ve been keeping it under lock and key but there will be a big unveiling of the theme this Friday if you want to stop on by. It should be a decent way to kill five minutes, at the very least.

So, that is me and this blog. My jumbled little corner of the World Wide Interweb. I heart it. I hope you do to.

Oh, and I was recently Twitterpated. If you want to experience me in all my 140 character glory, you can do so at @StumblingGrace (or you can just press that Twitter button on the right).