Tender Mercies

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”- Theodore Roosevelt How often do we tell our children or the younger generation, "You can do it!" "Believe in yourself!" or "Don't be afraid of failure"? But then why are we so quick to be our worst

Dear Adelai, Your 4th month has been the most difficult month for me as a new mom. It was as though the honeymoon stage of having a small little newborn, where meals were brought over from welcoming friends and the social acceptance of mommy naps, was over.  I was exhausted. The accumulation of three months jam-packed with round-the-clock nursing sessions, wiping up spit up, doing yet another load of laundry, and trying to figure out how to balance motherhood with my own autonomy was taking its toll. When you were first born, I took advantage of your naps and aimed for 2 naps a day myself. But this past month those naps slowly stopped becoming a priority because I felt like I "needed" to get things done while you slept. You were "supposed" to be sleeping through the night by 3 months, or so the baby sleep "experts" claimed, as long as I was being efficient with our sleep routine. Consistency, they said, was key. So I tried to be consistent.  But y