The Little Leaf | my first children's book

The Little Leaf   

Once upon a time, there lived a little leaf, green and happy. Sometimes, it worried. What if it fell off its branch?

The sun made it hot. The rain made it wet. The wind tugged its branch, but the little leaf held on.

The dog barked. The rabbit nibbled. The squirrel dug. The mommy, daddy, and small brown-haired boy brushed by. The little leaf held on.

The little leaf worried about the ground, where it was sure to fall. Many days passed, and it became curious. Finally, it grew brave, and let go of its branch.

The little leaf fell softly to the ground and was happy once more. That was easy! Soon, it began to worry again. What would happen next?

The sun made it hot, and the leaf became dry and brown. The wind tossed it into the grass, and the little brown leaf worried more.

One afternoon, the brown-haired boy toddled over the grass. The leaf hoped. Maybe the boy would choose the little leaf for playing! Plants and leaves nearby had more colors, though, and the little leaf lost hope.

The boy bent down and chose the little brown leaf! He picked it up gently.

Hooray! The leaf traveled in the boy's small hand, across the grass and to the place where his mommy sat and watched.

The boy placed the leaf in his mommy's hand, and the little leaf saw her smile. Then the boy reached to her again. Was he going to take the leaf back?

The boy surprised his mommy and the little leaf! He closed her fingers over it. It was hers now. Then the boy toddled away.

The mommy had happy tears in her eyes. Hugged in her hand, the little leaf would never worry again.

It was the mommy's very first gift from her son.

The little leaf would be loved forever.

Illustrations forthcoming. Because I have so much time on my hands, right?


If you're familiar with children's books, please recommend edits. Thank you.

8DPO train ride

August 8, 2011

I'm obsessing again, but I hate not knowing. Am I going to be the mother of two? Am I going to change my son into an older brother? What will the answer be when the wait is over?

A few days. A set number of hours. Stretches of time. Minutes, all in a row. Barely, barely ticking forward.

I'm on a slow moving train and each bump of the track is the next second, and the next, and I'm watching out the window, analyzing every tree, every patch of grass, in case it's a sign of where this train is going.

It breaks my heart to exit the train and be right back where I started before the 28-day trip.

I think we did it, this time. I think we're going to be pregnant. I think April 2012 is going to be the month our family grows once again. Magic.

Is it a good sign that I feel so confident? Or is it horrible what I'm doing to myself, holding onto this hope? I vacillate between.

From Backwards by Christina Perri

Take me backwards, turn me around.
Cannot find my balance on the ground,
This world's too heavy
For a feather falling quickly.

And I wrote you a story,
But I'm afraid of how it ends,
And all my friends are doing well,
And I'm still on the mend.

I'm gonna lay back down,
Hope the wind takes me around.
I gotta find some courage in this town,

'Cause nobody's going to save
Somebody who won't change,
I try to be brave.

And nothing's coming easy, and all at once,
I feel a little queasy.
Oh, but if your love's my remedy,
Won't you please come and be with me?

Cheesy Blogging

I got to be a Cheesy Blogger Guest Post Writer! And now I can die happy.

- - -

Theory: the cheesiest bloggers of all write blogs that don't actually exist.

I began blogging because I was so excited about a secret that I needed a place to write about it. (I was pregnant.) I thought I was brilliant and everyone in the world would someday read my beautiful words and think, “What a wonderful writer!” and the accolades would fall from the sky.

Then Cheesy Blogger founder Angela casually mentioned that I was writing a scrapbook blog, and she was absolutely right. Is the writing decent? I think so. Should anyone who doesn’t already care about my baby (now a toddler) read my blog? No.

No. Hmm.

I can’t deny that a thrilling part of the writing process has fizzled for me, knowing that I’m not writing something that entertains to a mass (or even an imaginary mass) public.

So I’ve been thinking: Start a New Blog! It’ll be clever! And funny! And someday everyone in the world will ready my beautiful cheesy words and those accolades finally will fall!

I looked up clever blog names to see if they were available as dot coms. I thought through a few entertaining posts and began imaginary writing. I designed a few mastheads. My inspiration was back!

I'd write four times per week. I'd comment like a madwoman on other people’s blogs. I'd be clever and hysterically funny. I’d try to make friends (something I’ve NEVER been good at). I’d go to conferences. I’d network. Heck, I’d advertise.

And… fizzle.

Maybe I have what it takes to be great at something. Maybe I don’t. Trying is a choice.

For now, I’m cuddling up with my little scrapbook blog, where I can be cheesy and mushy and photo-heavy for an audience of family and friend(s) and me. And in the meantime, I’ll take pleasure in reading the wonderfully entertaining and excellently cheesy blogs of others like Angela and Marianna Annadanna and SarcasmInAction. I’ll keep dreaming.

There’s always tomorrow.