IAMTHEMILK
34September 19, 2013 by Katia
A year ago in August I had a baby, Daniel.
Six weeks later I had another one. I called him IAMTHEMILK.
I recently wrote a post about some of what Daniel has taught me about myself. IAMTHEMILK taught me a few important lessons as well. Like, for example, that an AHA moment doesn’t always have to be grandiose. It doesn’t have to knock on your door and announce itself, it sometimes can just kind of seep through.
A year ago I was giving Four Year Old a bath. He was three. It was ten days after his brother was born. 37 Year Old was urging our son to finish up his bath. He was thirty six. “Common, Ben, the milk is waiting” he said. A voice in my head went “Yes, I’m ready”. I won’t tell you how old I was.
I will probably never forget that bath. There were no heartmelting mama/son moments taking place there that day, nor were there any go-down-in-the-history-books-shower-curtain-tearing-tantrums, it was just that crazy mechanical thought that flashed in my head the moment I heard the trigger word milk. IAMTHEMILK.
It’s so funny how life works. Had I ignored that voice instead of noticing and responding with a “you do realize you were just thinking with your boobs, right?”, I would have never gone to Chicago.
When I started the blog I was at my most un-me. I was being food. I was struggling with breastfeeding. I was being involved in an involuntary exhibitionist act in front of the person you would least of all want to be exposed to, my mother in law. I suppose that something inside me, an infinitely wise mechanism put me up to this knowing that this blogging thing I knew nothing about was going to become the scenic way back to me.
IAMTHEMILK taught me another funny life lesson. Sometimes to become you again, you’ll have to do a lot of things that are the opposite of you. Like spontaneously travelling to Chicago by yourself (well, anything spontaneous, really), like ignoring your bruised ego and approaching that website that’s already rejected you once before as if nothing’s happened. Like walking into a hangar size room full of strangers at the conference centre in Chicago, approaching a group of people occupying the Canadian Blogger table and going “hi, Canadian bloggers! I’m a Canadian blogger!” as if you don’t have a severe panic attack and immigrant identity crisis going for you at the same time.
Like persevering. It’s not that I don’t follow through, it’s just that I don’t when it’s a dream I’m pursuing. Because there’s always something more important and deserving than a dream, right?
I deserve a medal for the time I persevered when it mattered. Happy birthday, IAMTHEMILK. I’m so proud of you!
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This post is a Finish The Sentence Friday post on the topic: I deserve a medal for the time I…
Make sure to visit our wonderful hosts. When I grow up, I want to be them.
Stephanie at Mommy, For Real
Kristi, woohoo! at Finding Ninee
Janine at Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyaholic
Congratulations and thank you for blogging. I love visiting and reading your work. Hopefully I’ll get to see you at BlogHer next year. 🙂
Oh my gosh, thank you my dear, I hold your comments near and dear. I remember a lot of them and use them to warm my cold heart. 🙂
Happy Birthday to your blog and definitely do deserve that medal for per-serving, Katia. Thank you for linking this up with us this week! 🙂
Thank you so much, Janine, for providing an opportunity to award myself a medal 😛
Happy Birthday ~ I too am so glad you started this blog, and that I got to hang out with you at BlogHer! I always love reading your posts 🙂
So glad as well, friend, that was one of the highlights of the whole blogging experience!
This is perfect. Beautiful and perfect. Happy Birthday, I Am The Milk. I wish I went to that conference.
Right back atcha, twin! XO
Awesome post. Happy blogiversary and congrats on finding your way back to you.
Thank you so much, Pam! 🙂
Happy Blogaversary. What a beautiful story your blog has, and (though I never thought this was a sentence I’d utter) how very glad I am that you just thought with your boobs instead of realising it. 😀
You definitely deserve a medal – you’ve found your way back to you, and done it with consummate style and gorgeousness of writing and person.
😀 HAHA, I love that I made you utter that sentence! And thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sure, the Blogosphere is full of surprises 🙂 x
Katia,
Happy birthday all around, and I mean, to everyone, even that blog of yours which must have received a little trophy from the WordPress peeps, and makes you the coolest kid on the block today, and I like it.
Le Clown
Yay, Eric says I’m cool! 🙂 Thank you so much, dear clown.
Happy blogiversary!!!!! I’m so glad you started this journey because:
1. I got to meet you
2. This is one of my favorite places on the Internet
Here’s to many more years of writing it out!
My heart just melted a little bit. Huge hug to you from across the screen. And thank you. It was wonderful meeting you!
Congrats on your anniversary. I love your blog Katia. So glad you decided to ‘birth’ two babies that year!
Thank you so much, my ever kind friend!
[…] A year ago in August I had a baby, Daniel. Six weeks later I had another one. I called him IAMTHEMILK. I recently wrote a post about some of what Daniel has taught me about myself. IAMTHEMILK taught me a few important lessons as well. […]
You do indeed deserve a medal for that because IAMTHEMILK is wonderful!! So glad I have “met” you here and hope to someday have an experience like Chicago where I can meet all my bloggy friends & idols IRL!! 🙂
I’m so glad too and I’ll be even happier when it happens IRL!
Two beautiful births! I’m so glad that the one inspired the other, so that I get to read your fine words. Congratulations, Katia!
I love you, Rachel, thank you!
I feel like weeping! Happy Birthday, IAMTHEMILK! I loved hearing how this moment occurred for you- I totally pictured it in my mind. (Though in my mind, it was my bathroom and my bathtub where the moment happened. But you were there, not me. Sorry- that’s weird.) Anyway… please know that it is not an exaggeration to say that the birth of IAMTHEMILK changed my life in great ways. I am grateful that it brought me to you! Much love to you…
I LOVE that it was happening in your bathroom in your head. That makes PERFECT sense! And I feel exactly the same way about you. You are interlaced with my journey. I will never forget the first comment I got from you on my miscarriage post and I feel like so much of the good stuff that happened to me on this journey was thanks to you. Thanks, friend.
It is inspiring to get a glimpse of your journey. Starting a blog can feel insignificant at times and rewarding at other times. Congratulations on your first year! I truly admire your writing. I mean that.
I wish you knew how happy it makes me to get a comment like this from a blogger I don’t interact with on a daily basis. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Happy, happy birthday to IAMTHEMILK! And to its mommy, Katia, whose writing weaves its way into my heart and brain and makes them both a little bit bigger each time I visit. Mazel tov!
OMG, my heart is so warm now it’s going to explode. Much love to you too, my friend!
My blog feels like one of my babies too! I am determined to make it to BlogHer some time. Hopefully we WILL meet one of these days.
I would absolutely love that. I think would hit it off IRL. 🙂
Awesome post. Happy blogiversary and congratzzz on finding your way back to you. 🙂
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How sweet of you, thank you so much!