Allison Cooper

Yes, I said it. I’ll sing it from the rooftops and admit the one thing that many moms might feel ashamed to say out loud: I live for nap time.

Oh yes — you read correctly.

Who better to design something so avant-garde than an artist who exhibited their very first pieces of artwork next to Keith Haring and Basquiat?

Who is wearing heels or even wedge booties to the bus stop in the morning? Not I! And not to mention that a heel is typically way to dressy for anything I plan to wear to the bus stop. Hit up your local Target with $50 to spend and you will return home with 2-3 pairs of simple flats that you can mix and match for comfort in the morning and a little pop of color.

I think that before I actually became a mom, I dreamt of sick days to be filled with breakfasts in bed, handwritten notes with all the words spelled wrong, and misshapen pancakes — but the reality is far from that dream. I'm flustered just thinking about it.

One thing is for sure: it’s a heck of a lot easier to bank your child’s teeth that to deal with coordinating banking umbilical cord blood as soon as a baby is born.

Every single day of our lives, since the moment that we bring home our beautiful child from the hospital — well, actually, well before that — we are faced with a multitude of decisions that will impact their lives. Some decisions are more serious than others. Yet the constant need to rip parents apart for the decisions they make is so unnerving to me that I simply can’t take it anymore.

Disney can be exhausting if you don’t enter the parks with a plan, use your Fast Passes strategically, and always know where they nearest Starbucks is.

Finding yourself doing extra loads of laundry because your toddler’s favorite T-shirt is dirty and you know there will be the mother of all meltdowns tomorrow if it’s not clean?

There are days when you look in the mirror at yourself, nights when you looks at your husband, and moments when you squeeze your son that you wonder if you have anything left to give. You have given so much to being a mom that there are moments when you lose sight of it all. Don’t lose sight of me, the person that you were before and the things that made your happy. Don’t let me disappear.