Thank you, lovely readers, for your interesting inquiries. I hope to get to all of them in the coming weeks. Keep 'em coming!

For our first installment, Alex poses three compelling questions:

1) where in the world would you like to travel alone?

2) if you could have one job -- that you haven't had -- what would it be? (circus clown? goat herder? professional chef?)

3) what's one piece of advice you'd give potential parents that you wished you had known?

Thanks, Alex! Here are my As to your Qs:

1) There are so many places I want to go: Ireland, India, and Iceland, as well as many other countries that begin with letters other than I. But I can't imagine going to any of those places alone. I would just miss my guys too much, and I would worry that something could happen to one or more of us and we'd be too far apart to help one another. Perhaps the time in my life when I would have felt comfortable traveling alone is over, or maybe (hopefully) it will return when Harper is a little older. I can, however, envision myself taking a brief sojourn a little closer to home. Maybe a secluded cabin on the coast or a lake where I could read, write, nap, swim, take long walks, do yoga, and drink good wine while watching documentary films without hearing Byrne complain that I populate our Netflix queue with entirely too many depressing selections. But then, I'd miss the way, at the end of each movie, Byrne sheepishly admits that he liked it after all.

2) You know, I had such an amazing pregnancy and childbirth experience that lately I've thought it would be cool to work in some capacity with expectant and new mothers and babies. Maybe as a doula? A yoga instructor? A massage therapist? I also really love baking, so maybe I could be a pastry chef? Perhaps I could combine my interests and start up a service that delivers freshly baked cupcakes to ravenous breastfeeding moms of newborns. Hmmm.

3) Put down the books! The first thing I tell friends who are pregnant is, "Steer Clear of What to Expect When You're Expecting (or, as my childbirth instructor called it, What to Freak Out About When You're Expecting)!" I'm a big researcher, and throughout my pregnancy and in the first months of Harper's life, I found myself looking up every question that came to mind in the virtual library of baby-care books that somehow made its way into my house. While some of the information was truly helpful, I still second-guessed my abilities as a mother constantly when what my heart was telling me to do conflicted with the advice of a given book. Why do we mothers let an army of "experts" convince us that they know more than we do about the best way to parent our children? I am becoming more and more comfortable now with trusting my instincts and just going with the flow as Harper and I determine it, and I credit that ease with a self-prescribed baby-book fast that I sanctioned several months ago. I also think it's important for parents to read things other than parenting media, if for no other reason than to avoid becoming the annoying dinner-party guests who try to get everyone at the table involved in a discussion on Sears versus Ferber.