Allison Cooper

There are days where I wake up with our alarm clock in the morning and struggle to get out of bed for no rhyme or reason. I move slower on these days and allow myself to take more time than necessary to do whatever tasks on my list that day —…

A few weeks ago, we set out on a family trip, flying from New York City to Texas for a long weekend. My husband and I thought that we had everything so incredibly under control that we actually fist-bumped each other in the airplane aisle as we…

The other day, I put my daughter down for her nap, poured the now-cold coffee that I had reheated about 10 times and still didn’t have a second to drink, refilled it with the tiny little bit of red wine that was left in the bottle I found in the…

About a week after Christmas, after coming home from traveling to see relatives and getting settled back in our apartment with all the kids' new toys in tow, I started to kind of not feel like myself. Something just wasn’t right. I was exhausted,…

Motherhood is both an amazing and a really eye-opening experience. When we first give birth to a new baby, we have these really incredible and often times really high expectations of ourselves, but then the whole experience humbles us really…

Hello friends! I’d like to introduce myself over here as Allison Cooper, mother, writer, blogger, lover of leggings, coffee and HIIT workouts. I love my kids more than this world, but it's also true that sometimes I count down the minutes until…

My mom swapped kids with other moms, hosted a weekly playgroup, and had carpools aplenty. She also had both sets of grandparents a phone call away as well as well as a whole list of neighborhood moms to instantly come to her rescue in a moment's…

I never expected to be a Pinterest-level mom. I don't worry as much about what other moms think of me, but I do worry what my kids think about me. This past Fall, I wanted my kids to have the pumpkin and apple-picking excursions that made it feel…

Have you ever ruined a vacation? I've come close. Earlier in the year, my family and I took a last-minute trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My husband had been away for the entire month of August for military training and, while he was away, was…

I vividly remember the first moment that I experienced a health scare as a parent. My first born was only 18-months-old and sitting in his high-chair as my husband and I chomped down what I had made for dinner that night: broiled flounder. (I was…

Here we are again. It’s that special time of year when Elf on the Shelf starts to pop up in everyone’s Facebook news feed and you get an insider’s glimpse at all the (admittedly hilarious) trouble that the super-creative, Pinterest moms have created…

Accepting my post-pregnancy body is hands-down one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. It’s something that I still work on every single day. During my first pregnancy, I was 20 years old, so I managed to bounce back quickly. In fact, I…

I sat in my parent's living room as my kids toddled around a place they hadn’t visited since Christmas. My husband was away for a month-long military training many, many states away and I had traveled to Pittsburgh from New York City so that I could…

“Mom” is what we answer to day and night when those tiny little voices call. It's the word we wait so long to hear when our kids are beginning to babble. Later, we hear it so much that — let's be honest — there are moments where we lock ourselves in…

When I had my second child I was determined to breastfeed. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I had a breast reduction when I was 17, and I was unable to breastfeed my first baby due to low milk supply. So believe me when I say I was acutely aware…

Dear beautiful, beautiful daughter of mine, My entire life, I’ve struggled with my body image. The women in my life were always measuring their food, counting calories, and comparing pant sizes. Whenever my grandmother would take us out to lunch, we…

After you give birth, it takes some time to get back to "normal," both mentally and physically. Too often, we're so focused on our new "baby bliss" that we put ourselves on the back burner. While everyone has different challenges, finding my workout…

Last weekend, I walked into our living room and was hit smack in the face with something that would shake any mom to her core: cups everywhere, wrappers on the floor, crumbs that crunched under my bare feet, and toys covering every surface. I pulled…

If you look through my Instagram feed at any given moment, you'll probably see photos of my 8-year-old son and 7-month-old daughter. I absolutely love having as many photos of my kids as possible on hand, because I want to preserve my memories of…

I’ll never forget the day I took my son to his first karate class. We walked into the studio early and we were the first ones there. I was by myself with my then-7-year-old, and we met with the instructor and got him registered. As we were waiting…