“Isn't this fun, Elizabeth? Getting new shoes and having ice cream with Mama?”

Let’s be always on the lookout for ways to encourage and cheer on other moms in the trenches, many of whom are fighting hard battles we don’t even know about.

When you find a good one, they can be a wonderful support group and an inexpensive way to keep your sanity. Here’s my top ten reasons why playgroup moms rock.

I'm truly sorry that fate frowned on you, and positioned your seat directly in front of me and my squirmy 16-month-old on the long cross-country flight yesterday.

And while we’re at it, here are a few other things I’m no longer sorry for as well.

Here are ten awkward moments where laughter can save the day. Repeat as necessary until the giggles (or you!) are exhausted.

Adultness does not always mean we know more – it means we have had more time to forget the lessons of childhood.

To me, the morning walk is filled with loud noises and annoying people. To my son, the morning walk is just about the coolest thing ever.

When your child has food allergies, a random sippy cup instills the kind of dread you normally save for a rattlesnake sighting.

I stayed up really late on Friday night making her cake. It wouldn’t have been as late had I remembered to grease the cake pans, had the cakes come out cleanly, had I only had to make four cakes one time.