What are you up to this weekend? We have family in town (we’re celebrating Aron’s sister’s 40th birthday!) and are looking forward to checking out Davis’s Bike & Brew Fest. Meanwhile, Skyler is working hard on getting her two little teeth through her lower gum. One is definitely through; the other is still causing her a bit of anguish.
We’ve been breaking out some teething remedies. Sophie’s
the deer (as Hudson has named her), Watermelon rinds, teething biscuits, and our knuckles have been tops. The Boon Pulp Silicone Feeder
(above) is my new favorite addition: we’ve had products like this before—where you pop some fresh or frozen fruit into something they can gum—but this is by far my favorite. I’ve been freezing whatever puree she doesn’t finish (banana, sweet potato… what-have-you) and she loves it. I love that it’s easy to clean.
What are your favorite teething remedies?
We usually rely on Infant Tylenol and have some Orajel swabs or Homeopathic tablets at the ready, but I’d feel more comfortable letting your pediatrician make those recommendations.
P.S. Here’s a video of Hudson spotting her first tooth—of her reaction, really. Also, a look back at when Hudson got his first tooth on this trip to Saint Lucia!
It was just over a year ago when I first heard about The Wonder Jam: Allie Lehman announced on her blog that she and her husband, Adam Lehman, were starting a new business together to help entrepreneurs “be the brand of their dreams.” I was just starting to think about how to make writing Hither & Thither viable (financially) and needed some advice. I was particularly excited to find a team that might be able to consult on design as well as all of the stuff I’d until then ignored, but wanted to learn about (SEO? Alt Tags? What?). And before I knew it, we were redesigning the site!
It’s been such a pleasure working with them; I told Adam the other day that he could easily be the volunteer coach on a kids’ basketball team—their enthusiasm is wonderful. But what’s really amazing is, just over a year later, getting to follow all of their success. So I wanted to ask them about how they took that leap to create the thing of their dreams.
To start, we’d love a little background about your history at The Wonder Jam. How did the idea for this business come about?
Do you know what you’d like to be doing, career-wise, in five or ten years? (Or now, perhaps?)
Some certainly do. I have a feeling that, for my part, the future hold many roles. There was a time when I thought I would be an academic: I finished two master’s degrees, and the coursework for a PhD, but realized more years put toward a thesis wasn’t a good investment if you don’t want the end-goal. Then we moved to New York and I dabbled in magazines a bit before starting at the bottom at a mid-size book publisher. I took an internship, and worked as an editorial assistant for a few years, eventually working my way up to Editor before leaving to stay home with Hudson. Since then, blogging has become a part-time job, and so I get to put on quite a few creative hats: freelance writer, photographer, publisher, advertiser… somedays it feels like one big internship. It’s challenging and dynamic, humbling but full of possibility—it can be very rewarding. And it has opened a lot of doors—though it’s hard to know which ones to step through right now. I am so lucky to get to stay home with Hudson and Skyler these years (my primary role is caretaker). But I imagine that one day—sniff, sniff—they’ll go off to school and I’ll be happy to build on this media experience.
But while I’m very happy blogging at the moment, I do imagine that the role will evolve. So I’m especially fascinated whenever I hear about men and women who create a job for themselves—often after devoting a number of years to parenting, and sometimes simply to fuel a creative need.
Julia Child, of course, is first to come to mind when thinking of inspiring self-starters. She took her first cooking lesson at the age of 32! There’s a great article on Inc. with her “Recipe for Entrepreneurial Success,” my favorite being the author’s distilled: “Don’t wait till everything is perfectly organized to start a new project. You have to learn along the way.”
Later today, I’ll be introducing another new blog series that you’ll find appearing regularly on Hither & Thither. “The Work We Do” will feature creatives who work in fields many people aspire to, and which will ask each person how (and why, and when) they started doing what they do. I love getting a look behind the scenes. I hope you will, too!
Where do you stand on this? Are you in your dream job? What was your trajectory? Be sure and check back later today and join the conversation!
