Welcome!
I am Danielle Schlafer, the Chaos Coordinator of twin boys, a husband and one fur baby. We live in Rosemount, MN which is a suburb of St. Paul.
If you are looking for a realistic view of mom-life along with getting some tips on managing kids with special needs, travel, Disney, self-care and nutrition, you have come to the right place!
If photography is also something you are interested in, you are in luck since I have a side hustle of photography for the last 8 years and would love to be able to help with giving tips and tricks on how you can get some great photos yourself!
Before Kids
My husband and I met when we were the crazy young age of 13 and we started “dating” when we were in 8th grade–and by dating I mean we would say “hi” to each other when we would pass by in the hallway! Throughout high school we would dated on and off–I think I broke up with him like 5 times through high school?( Not sure why he decided he wanted to marry me!) The Summer before senior year we did start dating again after a year of not speaking to each other and now we have been together ever since…going on 18 years now!
In 2010 we had our wedding in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and I must say, having a destination wedding is one of the best decisions we have ever made! Beautiful location, little stress, super budget friendly, and very little planning need to go into it! I would love to go back and relive that day over and over…
Before kids, traveling was our passion. I think that was the hardest thing to give up once kids came along! Some of our favorite places we have visited are Banff, Negril, Punta Cana and of course Disney World! We are hoping eventually take our kids on more travel adventures with us, but with their special needs it’s a little more challenging.
Life is full of surprises….
I will never forgot the day my husband and I went in for my first ultrasound at 10 weeks and were told that we were having twins. It took a whole 30 seconds (which felt like a lifetime) for it to sink in that there was two babies instead of just one. Somehow in that moment I was smart enough to ask the tech if they were fraternal or identical twins. The ultrasound tech then explained to me that they are most likely identical since they were sharing a placenta. So, to answer the question that I get asked so often, no twins do not run in my family, we just won the baby lottery of getting pregnant with identical twins!
Before I had the surprise of a lifetime of being told I was going to have twins, I had planned on staying a working mom even though I didn’t really care for the job role I was in. When I made the realization that the salary I was making at my job was not going to cover daycare costs for two infants my husband and I agreed that it would make most for me to stay home and take care of our kids and focus on growing my photography business. Being a stay at home mom was never on my radar of things I would do, but I also never expected to be a mom to twins either!
Being a stay at home mom to kids with special needs
I am 5 years into this whole stay at home mom thing and what a journey it has been. Around the time my boys were 3, I came to the realization that my boys weren’t developing at the rate they should. They were barely talking, having constant meltdowns, would rarely every sit still and had extreme separation anxiety that caused them to be “kicked out” of the preschool program that they were attending. My life then became a whirlwind of evaluations, doctor appointments, and various therapies. Suddenly, staying at home with my boys became less because daycare was too expensive and more because I needed to be around to take my boys to their million of appointments, special education classes, and therapies. I poured any freetime I had researching what could be “wrong”with my kids and how I could help them. I hated seeing them struggle when other kids were thriving.
Issues with food
I have done many things to try and help my boys over the last few years and the thing that has helped them the most was changing their diet. I had already cut out gluten from my own diet because I realized it was causing me many issues, you would have thought I would think to do the same thing for my kids earlier to see if it made any difference…Well, better late than never, we cut out dairy, gluten and corn from my kids diet and they slowly started coming around. We still have a ways to go but I feel like I have my boys back and not just a shell of who they were.
More than just a “mom”
I am sure any stay at home parent has battled with finding themselves again after pouring your heart and soul into taking care of your littles for so long. I am working on clawing my way out of just defining myself as just a “mom”. I am photographer, I have a love for travel, I am a disney fanatic, I like working out (I have even ran a few half marathons!), I love helping others, and I am obsessed with finding a good deal! Some of these pieces of me have been lost through the years of being a mom but I am working on trying find that right balance!
I have read so many blog posts looking for advice from others I thought it was time for me to create my own blog! I am hoping with the information and experiences I have had over the years, I can help someone else!