Remember when you were scared of monsters? Right before going to bed each night, you would open your bedroom closet as quickly as possible to try to scare the monster before he could scare you...or you would lay in bed petrified, sure that a long, slimy arm would reach up from underneath and grab you!

 During my first pregnancy, I craved chocolaty cereal. I ate so much of it I thought about writing to the manufacturer to ask if I could be their new spokesperson. At least for nine months. While I still enjoy the cereal on occasion, it's kind of lost its appeal to me.

 Now that I'm a Mom and have three daughters of my own, I get to sit back and watch how my children make friends. My first daughter, who is six, reminds me a lot of my best friend. She is sociable and friendly and will play with whomever is available.

 I’m an awful cook, I’ll admit this openly and can produce a list of people who will confirm this fact. Of course I struggle with this incompetency. As a homemaker, one of my chief duties is to supply my family, especially my hard-working husband, with a delicious, healthful dinner on a daily basis.

 When my newlywed friends ask for advice about what to do before having kids, my answer is always the same. Sleep, travel, and get “me-time” out of your system because you can pretty much kiss that goodbye once you become a parent. Most of the time I think I've scared my friends into never wanting kids and I often say spending a day with my family is the best birth control out there.

Nighttime can be frightening for children. I'll admit, I'm still afraid of the dark myself and I'm well into my thirties. I also get scared when I have to sleep alone so I can only imagine how stressful it is for a child to be dumped in their dark room and told they'll be seen in the morning.

Thank goodness for preschool. I'm sorry I'm so excited about it, but just when I was on the cusp of losing my sanity for good, my dear Mother-in-law suggested I put my very energetic two-year-old in preschool. Her thought was that it would enable me to spend some more alone-time with my one-year-old, and she even offered to foot the bill!