About

I am Catherine.  Mom to two daughters - a 4.5 year old, L, (the half is very important, I am sure you know) and an almost 10 month old, M.  Before I had L, I also lost one child to miscarriage, early in the second trimester.  I am a wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a friend, a sort-of techie, and a lawyer (but nothing on this website is legal advice, don't you dare take it as such).

When L was born, I was lucky enough to get 16 weeks of maternity leave paid at 100%, plus was able to take several weeks of vacation on top.  It is safe to say that I spent some time almost every day in a store spending some of that maternity pay.  With M, I wasn't quite that lucky; I had 12 weeks off with short term disability pay, but having moved away and taken a huge pay cut in between, I went from free spending to penny pinching.  I also found that although the girls were just about four years apart, all the rules about being pregnant and raising infants had changed (really, they want me to have my infant face backwards in the car until she's two? have these people ever been in a car with an infant?)  And so over my years of pregnancy and parenting, I have developed a lot of parenting related interests.  These include, in no particular order:

- pregnancy loss
- post-partum anxiety (which I suffered after giving birth to M)
- music and kids
- books and kids
- shopping for kids
- maternity leave
- working moms
- benefits issues
- simplified parenting (which I'm not always good at, I admit)
- finding awesome deals
- supporting new parents in general

I read a lot of articles, do a lot of shopping, and find almost everything interesting. I started this blog as a way to keep track of the things I read and find interesting, and the products we have tried (and liked, or not).

If I link to Amazon for something, please know it might be through an affiliate link. Also, if I discuss a product it is because I have personally used it, unless I say otherwise.

You can contact me at thecuratedchild@gmail.com