Dakota Rose Callahan came to this planet on Christmas day 2009 at 4:18 am, and I will always remember that moment because she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

To create life is the greatest gift I have been given.  Every time I look at my baby girl, I am humbled.  It’s like you imagine what it’s going to be like, being a mom, all your life, or at least I did…  but when it actually happens it’s more beautiful than you could have ever imagined.

One thing that amazes me is that I can’t really remember what my life was like before Dakota.  When I think about it, the best way to describe it is that I was living in black and white, and now my world is filled with color.  I have been blessed to be able to stay home and raise her. For me, staying home, meant being her first teacher, her support, creating a little haven in our home for her, and most importantly to me, not missing anything.  Maybe not glamorous, and there are definitely days when I miss my share of adult conversation, however, I wouldn’t do it differently.  It’s all perfect.

Thank you to all the Supermoms who I have been able to watch and learn from. I am grateful and blessed to have crossed/walked paths with all of you!

Super-Mom Ali Frydman

When my daughter eats breakfast, she likes her booster seat to face me so that her toes can touch my knees. Once her toes meet my knees, her meal can begin. It was this way when she first began that famous rice cereal and breast milk concoction and it is this way now as she spoons her oatmeal, yogurt and applesauce all by herself.

For a while, my husband would ask me why I had to sit down with Ava as she ate. “You sit with her when you read to her, when you play with her, when you nurse her. Now is our chance to “get stuff done.” “Quick! Let’s move before she needs us again! There is laundry to fold and she won’t stay strapped in one place forever.” The minute I would rise, Ava would keep eating, but the rest of the day wouldn’t flow as well. So, I’d sit with her. Knees to toes.

When I do sit with her, I gain the most wonderful treasures – smiles, laughs, lots of first words, and even some sweet potato stained clothing. Amazing bonding times. A few weeks before Ava’s brother Noah was born, I was sitting with a fifteen month old Ava, but thinking about how our life would soon change, wondering how Ava would react to her new brother. In my mind, I saw her loving him with all her heart, but I began to worry about giving Ava a sibling when she was only sixteen months old herself. I was sitting there with her, but I was not as present as I could have been with my baby.

At that moment, Ava looked at me and pulled me in with her little hands for a big hug and sighed in her sweet little voice, “Oh Mama. Love you. Hug.” She taught me what my own super mom and yoga teachers had been trying to share all along. We did not need the perfectly manicured home, with instantly folded laundry. We did not need to drag our babies to a million different developmental classes. We do not need to fix our entire house right away. We just need to learn how to stay present with our children and each other. The rest will fall into place.

My daughter is now twenty-two months old. Her brother just turned six months old. She adores him. He idolizes her. We all work hard to stay present each moment. With work and other responsibilities, we all might not be able to sit together for every meal and love each other without external distractions, but we have set our intention to stay present. Sitting with my children, knees to toes, now serves as a daily physical reminder for someone who tried every way to become a super mom, but learned that truly being there in heart and soul was the authentic goal.