Here I am, blasting a playlist called, "Flow State - Chillstep & Synthwave for Deep Focus | Coding Session" from YouTube after searching up, "edm study music" ... lmao.
It's 10:30pm on January 9th, 2026… my baby is sound asleep and my hubby is at the gym (plus most likely charging our EV at a free charging spot, lol).
My baby isn't actually 17 months just yet but he will be super, super soon so this is me prepping for my first official newsletter because I know I won't have time in a couple of weeks.
We are off to Bali next week and then will be road-trippin' to Albury from Melbourne for my sister's wedding!!
MY WHOLE FAMILY IS COMING TO MELBOURNE!! YAYYYY!!
As someone who doesn’t have blood relatives living near me, I’m already STOKED for all of the exciting things happening in 2026 and I know this year is just going to get better.
I spent the last few days umm-ing and ahh-ing about what newsletter platform I should use to build a community on and enough was enough!
Beehiiv was something I gravitated towards because I’m a tech girlie and I kept seeing tech content creators share their content on there so meh, why not!
Substack was another option but I’m also a UX girlie and love cute looking seamless designs/products and Beehiiv looked like it fit the bill soooo… LEGGO! 🔥
All right, so the POINT of this post/email was to share a lil bit of my thoughts as a new mum.
Cause OMG, I survived 17 months with this GREMLIN of mine!!!!
For those who survived 18+ years with their “little ones,” ARE YOU OKAY??? HOW DID YOU DO IT?????!!!!
Nah, just joking!
But ACTUALLY… go check up on your mama and dada friends!
Ask them if they are okay, ask them out for late night bubble tea (after their babies are sleeping, of course!), ask them what cute, silly things their baby has recently done.
Let them share their proud parent stories, buahaha.
Okay, since nobody’s asked me… I’ll just ask myself.
HOW ARE YOU, KIM? WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING A MUM TO A 1.5 YEAR OLD???
Oh, I thought you’d never ask!
So life as a mama to a 17 month old…
WELL, IT’S ACTUALLY PRETTY GREAT.
I quit my job in September so it’s been 4ish months doing my own thang and figuring out life.
I have had people joining my self-paced 6-week online program to help them get out of their soul-sucking jobs and have received great feedback from it (AHH! So good!!).
I also have had a handful of 1:1 coaching clients as well (more to come in February - yay!), so that’s been really rewarding helping them brand and position themselves better for this cray, cray job market.
My hubby has taken a year off to spend time with my son and I (the year is almost over btw! He’ll be heading back to work in Feb!).
My gremlin has been on an airplane 12 times, will be 15 times after the Bali trip (yes, we have one layover because my partner wanted to catch a Qantas flight over a Jetstar one… loool).
So, if you really think about it… us surviving that many flights with a baby probably means we are doing okay (or maybe not, that first long haul flight to Canada was pretty brutal with a 9-month old… hahaha. TRAUMAAA!).
I LOVE my gremlin btw.
He literally looks like a little version of me so it’s hilarious. Some say he looks like my hubby but ummmm.. yeah nah. Maybe his ears but that’s all. 😂
He’s moving SOOOO MUCH!
He’s adventurous, risk-taking, loves climbing the highest of highest things, bubbly (but will def stare you down if you’re not funny)… and yeah.
Oof. I LOVE HIM.
However, the first 6 months of his life was REALLY TOUGH.
He suffered from severe eczema all over his body.
We went to eczema specialists at the Royal Children’s Hospital (we were sooo lucky to get an appointment there in a short period of time and many follow-up appointments after!).
He looked like a lil mummy half of the time because he was wrapped in wet dressings on most days (even during naps!) ☹
Luckily there was a light of the end of the tunnel after we did an allergy skin-prick test on him after he turned 6-months old.
We found out he was allergic to eggs and had a minor reaction to peanuts and cashews.
After discovering that, we cut that from his diet (well, cut that mainly from my diet because I was breastfeeding then). The boy was only starting to eat a bit of solids at that time so we cut that from his diet too!
We have no idea if that was the main trigger but after that, his skin started to heal.
Of course, we did a LOT of activities too like always having the humidifier on, making sure he’s not too hot or cold, bathing him in sensitive body wash (QV bath oil, ftw!) and sooo much more.
But whenever we see a tiny lil flare up, we know exactly what to do to prevent any big flare-ups!
Life for the first 6 months was tough as new parents and also having to figure out the crazy eczema situation.
Fortunately, I had more support and visitors from Canada when I was 2-3 months postpartum
My parents and sisters visited me during that time but wheeOO, life was such a blur back then (#iykyk).
And after that, we visited them in Canada when the baby was 8-10 months old and we spent 2.5 months there ❤. There were lots of flights in between because we also visited family and friends in Toronto and Portland!
That part of parenthood was magical because the baby was a mean-muggin’ non-crawler for the first half of his life and then suddenly he learned to stand up and crawl and there were so many people to witness the milestones with us! 🥹
Also, seeing my parents, sisters, and close fam + friends make my baby laugh (or try to settle the baby) was freaking precious.
Now fast forward to now, he’s a speedy Gonzales wanting to explore new places!
Okay, so how about me???
I mean, I took a 2.5 hour nap in the middle of the day today (LOL). So I was pretty tired but I mean, who doesn’t feel tired when Melbourne decided to have a 40 degree day! (That’s in Celcius btw! It would be 104 degrees Fahrenheit to my fellow American readers!) 🥵
This year, I have a few ambitious goals.
Some will be kept as a secret until I get closer to them (but also I can’t reveal too much because one is literally a surprise and I’m scared the human(s) who gets the surprise will read this post/email sooOOOO… yeah, not going to share until maybe a few months from now!).
But yeah! WOWZA.
If you made it this far, I applaud you!
It was basically a brain dump of allllll of my thoughts from this past year or so.
So THANK YOU for sticking around to listen me ramble.
I hope you have the best day doing what you LOVE and embracing all the crazy things life is throwing at you.
Let’s Skip & Soar together, shall we?!
xoxo, knd.
OH! And since you’re here and still reading (lol) - I’d love to know HOW YOU GOT HERE and what are you looking forward to the most in 2026!? Happy new year, btw! 🥳
Okieeeee, I’ll stop yapping.
Go have a great day! 🙂