Mother's Day · 2026

For Lauren

For the heavy days, the soft ones, and every quiet morning in between.

Lauren,

I love you beyond words, beyond anything I could ever put on paper. Watching you care for and love our beautiful Mila has been the honor of a lifetime. Coming home to you guys standing in the front window makes my heart overflow with love, and I want you to look at this and be reminded just how special you are.

So if it's a Tuesday and you're exhausted. If Mila has a meltdown over not getting her yogurt bites. If you caught yourself in the mirror and didn't recognize the woman looking back, just for a second. Come here. Open this. Look at her face. Look at your face.

This is the truth of you.

She has been folding into you like this since the day she met you.
She always will.

Lauren holding Mila, hair across her face — Our chicky in your arms, huffing (and pulling :)) your hair. Truly the most amazing thing I have ever seen.

Lauren and Mila looking at each other — This is the look you give her. I see it. She feels it.

Lauren and Mila cheek to cheek — Cheek to cheek. Her favorite place in the whole world.

Lauren and Mila on the porch — Selfies from my favorite girls.

You have given her a childhood I would have wanted for myself.
Not the big things. The hundred small ones. Every single day.

Lauren laying on the nursery floor laughing — Laughing at something only the two of you understood.

Lauren reading a book to Mila on the green couch — Story time on the green couch. She listens like every word is magic.

Lauren holding Mila who is curled into her — Shnoogies that slow the world down and calm everyone's nervous system, no matter what's going on outside.

She gives you snuggles all day.
She learned where home is from you.

Lauren and Mila with a snack bowl, Dad in the mirror — Dinner on the move. Steak bites and being buckwild.

Lauren and Mila on the floor with the cat watching — All of us on the floor. Lerm pretending he doesn't care.

Lauren crouching outside, holding Mila close — You are her safe space. A place where she can always count on being loved and held.

Mila nuzzling Lauren's leg in the yard — Shnoogies every way you go :)

You are the kind of mother I wasn't sure existed
before I watched you become one.

Family selfie with Dad, Mila, and Lauren outside the stone cabin — The beginning of our own little circle of trust.

Lauren,

If you ever feel like you are not doing enough, come back here. Scroll slowly. Let it sink in.

You are the warmest thing in our house. You are the reason Mila laughs the way she does. The reason she knows what love feels like. The reason I know what it feels like, too.

Happy Mother's Day. And happy every other day after.

All my love, Tal

· · ·