Hey, hey Austin Mamas! I’m Beth Ward, lover of butter coffee, wine, shoes and all things Kendra Scott and mama to 2 adorable little girls, Harper and Emmy. I live in SW Austin with my husband, Jason, daughters and 3, yes THREE, cats! And by the way, is it Mama or Momma? Seriously, I need to know the correct spelling here!
Anywho, we are in the thick of toddler/babyhood right now. Harper is just over two and Emmy just turned one. I work full-time as an accountant for a commercial real estate firm and Jason owns his own business, so you know, I’ve got another job there too!
Before you start thinking “this girl sounds crazy!” let me just say we didn’t exactly plan much of this, at least not in the timing it all happened. About two and a half years ago we started the adoption process after a few years of heartbreak and many infertility treatments. That whirlwind process led us to our oldest baby girl, Harper, and meeting her on the first day of her life and bringing her home to join our family. Her adoption was finalized when she was about 7 months old and two weeks later, we had our first ever legit positive pregnancy test, surprise! Fast forward 9 months and Miss Emmy made her debut. All the while my poor old kitty, Sadie, was going through some major lifestyle adjustments well into her adult life. And to just make things more interesting, we adopted 2 kitties, Pete the Cat and Abby ‘Cat’dabby, this past fall.
Most days involve the ordinary stuff, getting everyone ready for the day, out to school/work, picked up, dinner made, reading and playing, bathing and back to bed. They also include all the normal questions like, “Who made this wet spot on the couch?”….“Is it milk, kid pee, cat pee, drool????” Meanwhile, I’m Googling “Is it safe for cats to eat mac-n cheese / broccoli/applesauce/goldfish,” trying to keep the girls from inevitably swapping ‘ba-ba’s’ (aka pacifiers) and just keeping a little bit of control in this crazy life.
I’m known to apply zero filters to my posts on social media and totally admit to the not-so-perfect holiday photos and Pinterest fails. I mean how fun is it really to always see the perfection? I’d rather hear the stories about having to dump the class holiday party treats because the cats were caught licking them. Wait, did that happen? Um, yep *wink*, haha!
I love this city and all that it has to offer and am enjoying rediscovering it through my kid’s eyes. This past Christmas was especially wonderful as Harper loved all the Christmas lights and has become obsessed with one of my favorite Christmas movies, the Grinch! And yes, she’s still requesting to watch it well after Christmas decorations have been put away. I can’t wait to get outside more this spring and summer and take the girls to all the places we read about, splash pads, Thinkery, story times and of course Amy’s Ice Cream, oh, that’s right, Jason’s already taken care of introducing them to that goodness!
I’m a pretty laid back mama (or is it momma? Really, who can answer this question for me?) and after all the difficulty we had in starting our family I try really hard to sit back and appreciate the special role we get to play, guiding these little beings through life. I’m so excited (and nervous!!!) to join the AMB team and look forward to sharing this crazy ride with all of you!
Awe…Beth! You are awesome girl! I say spell mama however you want to!