About Me and This Blog

Hi. I'm Cara, aka caramama, aka Cara Mia.

Cara is not only (one of) my nickname(s), but it also Italian for "dear." Mama is Italian for, well, Mama. So my moniker caramama basically means dear mom or mother dear. Mia is Italian for "my." Now that my kids are older, I am going by Cara Mia to identify myself as my own (dear) being. I am way more than just a dear mom... and my life now is about more than just the struggles of raising young kids!

My family members also have pseudonyms on this blog:

• Londo - My wonderful husband (who actually gave himself that name)
  
• The Pumpkin - My daughter, born in 2007
  
• The Pookie - My son, born 2009

I started this blog on Thanksgiving Day, 2007, when my firstborn was 8 months old. As I explained in my post Why I'm a Mommyblogger, I didn't understand why people had any interest in writing or reading blogs... until I had my child and needed a community of other parents going through what I was going through. I found it online, in other parenting blogs and eventually my own.

At a certain point, I stopped keeping up with this blog. My kids were in elementary school, and I had more of a community of parents around me in real life. In addition, I was no longer focused on just getting through the blurry, sleep-deprived days/weeks/years. 

But now, we are in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Once again, I'm feeling restricted from sharing in real life about my internal struggles--internal in that I almost never leave the house, and internal as in what's going on in my head and heart. I think that writing will be a good release for me, and maybe I'll feel that connection I used to feel to others writing about similar experiences.