Mommy & The Little Empress
Mommy
My name is Michelle and I’m the eponymous Mommy behind Mommy Misadventures, a collection of blog entries from my very first days of pregnancy through present day.
I’m also a huge geek, a foodie, and aspiring novelist. To help pay the bills, I work from home as a freelance writer, specializing in consumer and small business technology. My work has appeared in local print outlets as well as online on national outlets including Salon.com’s Tech Tips and Houston’s Chron.com Small Business section. I contribute regularly to the Life Your Way blog network in the Tech and Work channels.
More than ten years ago, I met the scariest guy I have ever met. Then I fell in love with him. Neither of us is quite sure how that happened. We’ve been happily married for over seven years now despite the fact that neither of us popped the question. We have accepted that absolutely no one else on earth is crazy enough to willingly spend their lives with either of us.
Once upon a time, I was an IT professional working in the high tech and finance industries and being a stay at home mom was the very last thing I ever imagined myself doing. And then The Little Empress was born. From the moment she was placed in my arms, I knew that being a stay at home mom was the only thing I really wanted to do. Luckily, we were blessed to have that opportunity for me to become a SAHM a few months after she was born. I am thankful for this every single day. (Even on the days that being a SAHM drives me nuts.)
I am a mom with a chronic, invisible illness. In November 2011, I was diagnosed with Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease (UCTD) after over a decade of of dealing with unexplained joint pain, fatigue, headaches and more. This diagnosis was upgraded to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE better known simply as lupus) in May 2012. As of spring 2013, my major symptoms are still chronic joint pain and worsening episodes of fatigue.
The Little Empress
The Little Empress
The Little Empress made her grand entrance into the world in the spring of 2008 and has been a whirlwind of activity ever since. As of this writing, she is four years old and is one of the sweetest and imaginative little hurricanes you ever did meet. She loves dinosaurs, playing pretend, Iron Man, the Hulk and My Little Pony. She has an incredibly vivid imagination and loves telling stories. She thinks that zombies and vampires are awesomely cool and has expressed interest in becoming a cat when she grows up.
She was a textbook “high needs” baby — intense and determined to get her way from the very start. She once had a bout of colic that lasted over 12 hours that us all weeping in exhaustion. She needed to be held all the time and to make matters worse, she would only accept being held by Mommy. Even Daddy couldn’t hold her for more than a few moments before she would wail and try to fight to get away.
Though she babbled early, she still had no real words by 24 months old and was diagnosed with an expressive speech delay as well as a social delay. We were blessed to receive incredible early intervention support from our local Regional Center. She attended a developmental nursery school program to help aid her speech development and also briefly attended a speech-centered preschool program.
The Little Empress is currently attending a 5 day a week, pre-kindergarten program at a learner-centered preschool. She talks a lot and has an incredible vocabulary but still has significant issues with pronunciation. As of Spring 2013, she receives speech therapy through the local school district. She has a tentative diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Daddy
The Hubster AKA Kyo is my husband. No, his name isn’t really Kyo but it may as well be because that’s what most people call him. We’ve been together for nearly seven years, married for three after a three year engagement. We’ve promised our families a big wedding but never quite got around to having it. Oops.
I love him dearly but The Hubster ™ can be a prickly fellow. I have likened him to an ill-socialized German Shepherd: he cares little for people he doesn’t know but is loyal to his friends and fiercely protective of his family.
He enjoys playing games of all types and worked for years in the video game industry before moving on to a career in educational software. He doesn’t gift me with flowers and candy — instead he power levels my characters so I don’t have to. <3 If that ain’t g33k love, I don’t know what is.
The Mutt ™
Miyuki AKA The Mutt ™ is our dog. Back in May 2006, I visited The Berkeley East Bay Humane Society and met this spastic energetic licking machine loving animal. She was so excited to be out of her cage that she zoomed around the room, knocking over tables and stuffed chairs. For some reason, no one wanted to adopt her! I wonder why! 
She’s an intelligent, loving, energetic, eating machine with a loud bark that hides the fact that she is an incredible wimp. These days, she spends her days laying around and putting up very well with TLE’s games.
