Our feature mother this week is Adriana McMorrow. Adriana lives in the US with her husband and her adorable son. Another busy mama working and raising her son while trying to fit in everything else. Adriana had an incredible role model in her father and lives her life with his principles of hard work, honesty, integrity and never giving up ,to always go for your goals! You can follow Adriana and her journey on IG @eco.monti.mama
Thank you Adriana for sharing your story with us!
1.How many children do you have name and ages?
I have one beautiful and sweet little boy. S is 20 months old.
2. What is your current occupation?
I’m an ex Clinical Logistics Professional turned SAHM.(stay at home mum)My husband and I are starting up our property management business.
3. What are the challenges of balancing work and parenting?
The main challenge for me is time! There are not enough hours in a day for me to complete all the tasks I want to. S is a very active boy and is used to doing many activities throughout the day. We implemented some of the Montessori at home practices and they require a lot of work to teach S to do things for himself and get him involved in many of the housework activities such as cooking and cleaning and over all they require a lot of supervision from me. I am confident that this model is a great fit for our family and I am perfectly fine with dedicating most, if not all my time to teaching S to be independent and successful in a safe environment.
That being said,I don’t get much work done during the day and that’s why I go to bed very late every night. I spend 3-4 hours after I put him to sleep every night to focus on work, cleaning and plan/prep S activities for the next day. It’s crazy to think that now that he is finally slepping through the night, I ‘m not getting more sleep my self. But I really enjoy these hours and don/t mind getting fewer hours of sleep. I consider this time me time!
(me time is so so important, so I am happy to hear that you are giving this to yourself even if it is late at night)
4. What is your life philosophy?
I have quite a few.I was so lucky to have as my dad the most brilliant person I have ever known! I tried to learn as much as I could from him.He had the kindest heart and was just extremely smart. He taught me so many things and most of them leading by example!He taught me to be hardworking, generous, kind to everyone, trustworthy and to always go after my goals. He truly was a remarkable human being and I am honored to be his daughter.He died one week before my wedding. And it is so sad that S did not get to meet his grandfather. But I will make sure S knows just how amazing he was!
(So sorry you lost your dad a week before your wedding.He sounded like such a special person and I have no doubt that S will know exactly how special he was)
Positive attitude above all! Some say there will be obstacles, darkness and life is hard.
But I see opportunities, lessons to be learned, light at the end of the tunnel. Life is complex and experience rich and that is what makes living life SO AWESOME! The sky is the limit! Every single goal can be achieved if we put our minds to it, if we work hard and if we don’t let defeat or fear beat us!
Consistency, persistence and positive attitude to keep us self -motivated are key to achieve our goals!
( I absolutely LOVE this attitude!!! Consistency and positive attitude are key!)
5. What is a piece of advice you would give other mothers and what is one thing you wish you had known before having children?
As soon as people find out you are pregnant you get bombarded with a lot of unsolicited advice. My advice to you mamas is every child and family is different! What works for some may not work for you. Take what you like from those advises and do what you feel is right for your family. If it doesn’t work, then try a different thing. There is no shame in making mistakes. Learn from them and improve!
I remember always hearing people say not to get the baby used to being held. I thought I would follow this advice but realised it didn’t work for me once S was born. There is nothing I enjoy more than holding and cuddling with my babe.If I don’t do it now, then when?Life is short and memories are meant to be lived to the fullest!
(Yes! Yes! Yes!)
6. What is your greatest achievement apart from your child so far?
On a personal level, marrying my husband. Here is why: He is smart, caring, generous, hardworking, goal driven (or as I call it positive ambition) family oriented.I’ve always tried being very objective when it comes to love. Choosing my husband as my life partner and dad to my child has been the best decision ever and my greatest persona achievement!
On a professional level, all the learning and growth I enjoyed throughout 12 years experience as an International Commerce Professional. I had the opportunity to work with amazing people from all over the world while working for a successful multinational company in my last job which lasted over 7 years. The best part is the friendships made and kept throughout the years.
7. What have you done that you thought you could never do?
I never thought I would fall in love with somebody in a foreign country and settle there.
( I hear you , I did the exact same thing 🙂
8. What books do you like to read to your son?
We started reading to S since day one as part of his bedtime routine. S enjoys books so much that he makde books part of our morning routine as well. I read a couple as soon as he wakes up.
Dad and S enjoy reading:
- Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site (Sherri Duskey Rinker and Tom Lichtenheld)
- Curious George (H.A.Rey)
- Daddy Hugs (Kaen Katz)
- Baby University Book Set that includes Quantum Physics, Newtonian Physics, Rocket Science and General Relativity for babies.(Chris Ferrie)
- Also , any lift the flap animals, dinosaurs and vehicles books.
S and I love reading mostly books in Spanish (as it is my mother tongue and we want S to be bilingual) Therefore, I try to get as many books as I can find in Spanish. Our Favourite Spanish Editions are:
- Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and Come Over to My House (Dr Seuss)
- I love my Daddy Because…and I love my Mommy Because..(Laurel Porter-Gaylord)
- The Snowy Day (Ezra Jack Keatz)
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?(Eric Carle)
Other books in English that I translate to Spanish we love are:
1.Wherever You Are (Nancy Tillman)
2. You Belong Here (M.H.Clark)
3. I’ve Loved You Since Forever (Hoda Kotb)
4. The Tiny Patient (Judy Pedersen)
While reading books we always describe pictures, sing songs about the drawing in the books and talk about the things S saw while being outside during the day, like birds, airplanes etc.
S is currently obsessed with Pete the Cat books! There are so many of these, but we only own three: Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons and I love my White Shoes (James Dean and Eric Litwin)
Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party (Kimberly and James Dean)
We ordered Three Times the Fun and expect it to arrive this week. We are very excited to read your book to our S and cannot wait to add it to our collection and forthe wholefamily to enjoy it!
Thank you so much for having me on your blog Michaela!
It was such a pleasure featuring you on my blog and S is a lucky guy to have a mama like you. I just love the fact that you love reading all those amazing books to S and thank you so much for ordering mine! ( Adriana received her book after she had submitted her answers but sent me a lovely photo of my book in her library! Happy to say they loved the book!
