It’s that time again! Time for me to tell you more about the ways I have failed at parenting my children. Though by now I call them learning experiences or character builders. Let’s keep things positive people!

Here are ten of the things I have personally learned since becoming a parent. The things that people don’t tell you when you find out you’re pregnant. Some, such as myself, would think of these as hacks. The normal human would think of them as common sense.

1. Take your toddler’s fuzzy socks off before changing a poopy diaper. If you do not, the child in question will somehow stick the fuzzy sock into a large pile of poop, making a bigger, more disgusting mess.

Almost one year ago today, I wrote a post titled, No, I’m Not Tired: The Life of a Working Mom. I looked back at it today and realized how much my life has changed in one short year. When I wrote that post, I had one kid – now I have two. BIG DIFFERENCE.

So I thought I should write an update. And this time I am going to title the post appropriately, because yes, I am tired. Very tired. Four cups of coffee tired.

One year ago, I would get up at 5 am in the morning. And I thought that was early.

I admit that sometimes I write my blog posts for selfish reasons. And today is one of those days. One of those days where I needed to convince myself that everything would be okay in the end.

Nothing too out of the ordinary happened today. Just life. Normal things. But for some reason, it just felt overwhelming today. It just seemed like SO MUCH.

Somehow I ended up with pink eye two weeks after both kids had it.

Both of the kids cried the entire way home from the sitter. And not just whimpers – ear piercing crying. The “I’m beyond being calmed down” cry.

I knew when I started blogging that not everyone would agree with what I wrote. And I was 100% okay with that because I write about a lot of things that some people might consider controversial.

But yesterday, someone made a comment saying that I had not “grown into a mother” in response to an article I wrote about going back to work after maternity leave. She didn’t disagree with the fact I went back to work, but she did disagree with the fact that I felt “more like myself” after going back to work. And that I treated my children as an extension of my job.

Social media and I have a love/hate relationship. Since I have been on maternity leave, I have spent a lot of time scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram to pass the hours while attempting to comfort my newborn that has not taken up sleeping at night yet. While it does keep me extremely entertained, it also makes me feel extremely inadequate at times.

Being a mom in this modern world is hard. Everyone splashes their beautiful family pictures and workout selfies and Pinterest birthday parties all over the internet. I have done these things too!! Henry’s first birthday was a freaking fiesta.

I might be writing this post for selfish reasons – to give myself a pep talk. To remind myself that every day won’t be so hard. That I won’t spend every day crying. That this won’t last forever. But I also know there are plenty of other moms out there right now that are probably feeling the same way I am. So I have decided to put it all out there for the universe to read. Again. Because I guess that is kind of my thing now.

My second son, Simon, was born exactly four weeks ago. I am currently on maternity leave from my full-time job.