So if you are looking for makeup reviews or skincare advice, I kindly ask you to check back on sunday.

But if you are in for a different topic and don’t mind me rambling on and getting all emotional, grab yourself a cup of coffee and click below.

My daughter just goes through a time of teething and developing, and even though she still is an absolute sunshine during daylight, crawling around our apartment at high speed, chatting away in her own language I not yet understand, sleeping has become quite difficult.

She started sleeping through the night at about six months, and shortly after we moved her to her own room. Everything was fine until about a three weeks ago, at a little more than eight months, when she stopped sleeping and started crying a lot at night, going back to sleep only if you held her in your arms for about half an hour. 

Needless to say, she co-sleeps in our bed 9 out of 10 nights.

I think it is due to teething, the upper front teeth are coming, one after the other. And even though I miss sleeping through the night, I am not complaining. She will leave my arms sooner than I will want her too, growing up so fast.

Earlier that week, when I sat there, watching her face after she had gone back to sleep, I couldn’t help but notice how much becoming a mother has changed me and the way I feel, but this is not the topic of my post.

It also made me think about the woman whose life I once changed in a similar way: My mother.

Once you have a child of your own, you realize and probably appreciate for the first time in your life what your parents did for you.

You realize they have gone through the same sleepless nights, hours of crying for no (obvious) reason, financial and personal limitations you are going through. (Don’t even think about puberty…)

And if you are lucky as I am, they are there to help you out even if you are 35 and all grown up, but are unable to cook, clean or do anything but look after your newborn baby.

My mother is a caring, loving person, a great cook and an awesome grandmother. 

She sparked my love for beauty and makeup, always looking on point.

But she also is the one who taught me to speak my mind, stand on my own two feet and pursue my goals.

She never told me or my sisters that we couldn’t do, be or have anything. 

She taught us to work for what we wanted and go our own way. (As did my father, but again, this is a topic for a different post.)

She managed to continue working while raising four kids, and one thing I will never forget is her saying: “You need your own pension fund more than you need a husband.”

My parents are married for 36 years. 

They fight, they care, they travel the world. 

They gave me relationship goals to stick to and the reassuring knowledge that it is possible to be with someone that long without inevitably getting bored.

My mother is a great role model for girls and women out there, especially for my daughter. 

I hope we will have her around for many years to come.

Today is her birthday.

Happy birthday, Mama.