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I have big news!!!!!! No, I’m not pregnant. Every time a “mom blogger” says she has big news, people think she’s pregnant. I’ve learned to caveat all “major announcements” with the #notpregnant hashtag. Otherwise, everyone is disappointed.

Well. Hopefully this isn’t disappointing, because it has been in the works for over a year (six years if you count all the time I’ve been blogging) and to be frank, that is way longer than the gestation period.

What’s bigger than my tummy on week 39?

MY BOOK!!!!

Yep, today I finally get to reveal the title and cover of my book, plus I’m announcing that it is available for pre-sales!

Oh my god, it feels so good to get that out there.

Remember when I said writing the book was hard? And then I said laying out the book and finding high res versions of my photos was even harder? Well, deciding on a cover is the absolute hardest. At one point, everyone wanted to go with a cover of Harlow on the iPad and I was like— I CAN’T JUST HAVE ONE OF MY KIDS ON THE COVER!!!

Call me crazy but I think Mazzy would hold that against me for the rest of my life.

Can you imagine Thanksgiving dinner in 2042? I’d serve Harlow turkey first and Mazzy would shout, “I knew it! You’ve always loved Harlow more! You put her on the cover of your book!!!!”

Finally, just a week ago, I thought of something that fits my experience as a mom perfectly— an image that says I’m far from perfect but I’m doing the best I can and I’m okay with that. I took the photo in my kitchen while Mazzy and Harlow, were like, “MOM! What are you doing???!!!! MAKE US LUNCH!” Which seemed to really bring the cover photo home.

Here is my book:

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Just to be clear, this book is not me coming down on myself or hating on my kids. It reflects my personal philosophy which is that the average parents (not the ones striving for perfection, hovering in the playground or overdoing it on the Pinterest crafts) are the people having the best parenting experience of all.

It’s a celebration of parenthood in general, while still being honest about the many struggles of new moms and dads. It’s also a love letter to my two daughters, which is something a reader called my blog a few years ago and I never forgot it. That’s another reason why having “Love, Mom” right on the cover feels pretty perfect.

Hopefully, that will help Mazzy and Harlow forgive me for the potty training chapter.

I think I had the most fun writing the first few chapters because those were about a time before I started my blog (I started Mommy Shorts when Mazzy was about 9 months old) so you will find lots of fresh content inside along with a lot of your favorite stories, charts and photo series.

They say that raising a child takes a village and I’ll add that writing this book took a village too. Throughout, you will find pictures and quotes submitted by my readers (aka you guys) over the years, because Mommy Shorts has never been a one-sided venture. Your contributions, advice, support and witty comments have been the backbone of my blog for over six years.

As I say in the intro, “You will learn a lot in this book, but maybe not all of it from me.”

The book will be on shelves on September 27th but if you’d like to buy an advanced copy, or more than one copy (one to read, one to give as a gift, one to put out on your coffee table, one to give your baby to chew on, etc.)…

You can now purchase it online by clicking on any one of the retailers below:

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Thank you all for bearing with me during the book writing process. It was no joke. I honestly never even considered that I would one day write a book so even if nobody buys it, it still feels like a great accomplishment of which I am pretty proud.

Just kidding. BUY MY BOOK!!!!