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When I was pregnant, I dreamed of being a Stay At Home Mom. I waited until I was 33 to have my daughter and had ten years of working under my belt already. So often I would find myself at work, secretly feeling jealous of coworkers on maternity leave, wishing I could have a baby and stay home with her.

I pictured myself being the epitome of patience: never losing my cool, staying positive and just being so incredibly grateful for my child that nothing could spoil my happiness. I imagined going to play groups where I would bond with other mothers. We'd sit and drink coffee while our children played and we'd laugh at their antics. I imagined taking my child to the library, sitting down and showing her books and going to story hour together.

And then at some point when my daughter was six months of age I realized that wasn't going to happen. But it wasn't until she was about a year old that the truth really hit home for me. This girl is different! She isn't going to sit in one place and quietly play with other kids.

I tried going to play groups, and I didn't even have the chance to talk to other mothers because I was constantly chasing after my daughter. From the time she could crawl, she wanted to explore, and she never stopped moving. Once she could walk, storytime at the library was impossible. She wouldn't stay with me, she didn't want to do what the other kids were doing, and she would constantly walk over to the little platform that the story lady was on and try to grab the book she was reading.

The other parents would look at me like I was nuts. I would just smile and sigh and pick her up and try to bring her back. Then she'd run to the door of the room and take off. I would redirect her to the children's area, trying to get her interested in some books. Nope, the other parts of the library were way more interesting.

One time she started running away from me, and I purposely followed her but I hid to see if she would try to find me. She made it all the way across the library, probably 100 yards before she bothered to turn around to look for me!

I tried to find more physically active activities for us to do. I found another mom with a young son who wasn't walking yet and we made a date to meet at the indoor pool during a special time when parents of young kids could get in for a dollar. I didn't even get to talk to the other mom because my daughter was constantly running and walking around the shallow part of the pool. Then she wanted to climb the stairs up to

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