(I must have looked completely insane when I mentioned this post in another post. For some reason it never posted and sat in my Drafts folder. This post was originally written on October 28th, 2008. Hopefully all confusion (mostly on my part) will be cleared up now!)
I have found that I am not only getting older (I’ve begged the kids to close the damn fridge door no less than a dozen times today) but I am also regressing and starting to resemble a caveman .. err woman. I haven’t started using bones as fashion accessories, but I far it’s not too far away.
My days are filled with grooming. I am clipping finger and toe nails on a near daily basis. The stash of q-tips is dwindling as they get used up caring for tiny ears and belly buttons (those suckers get dirty!). I often use my fingers to comb out Abby’s hair since I am too tired to run up the stairs to grab the detangling comb.
I knew I dipped further into the land of cave when I found myself answering in grunts instead of yes and no. Abby has picked up this nasty habit now as well. See, I don’t get a whole lot of adult conversation during the day. James tries to call me on his lunch break for 5 minutes. In those 5 precious minutes I try so very hard not to whine about how his daughter (she’s “his daughter” when she’s not an angel) peed on the floor 2 seconds after telling me she had to go potty. Instead, when he asks me how my day is going I just … grunt.
When I talk to the babies I am not talking so much as I am making vowel noises in varying pitches. They are forever entertained by this and have started to immitate me. Megan does an awesome OOOOOOH!! While Katie’s got the AHHHHHHHH!!! down perfectly. Lauren is the conversationalist and just babbles happily whatever her little tongue will allow.
Once upon a time I was a driven career minded woman. I went back to school to further a career so I could care for my child. Along the way I got married and became a stay at home mom. Some think that being a stay at home mom has changed me, that I am somehow not the driven independent woman I once was. I’ve been blown off as boring because I am “just a mom.” I have stopped evolving, sacraficing it for the sake of caring for my children.
I wouldn’t change a damn thing.
I am still just as driven as I was before. My mind isn’t wasting away as I roll on the floor with the babies or as I try and try and try again to teach ABby how to write her name. I think I am lucky to have the chance to stay at home and care for my children, no matter how insane it may make me. This is just another phase in my evolution.
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Ah-ha! That makes sense.
I was about to curse my RSS robot-thingie for not telling me you had posted.
Evolution? maybe. I think it’s definitely got something to do with survival. As a kid, I distinctly remember the way my mom answered the mundane question: how are you doing? with the response, “surviving.” She wasn’t undergoing chemo or battling depression, but just keeping her head above the waves of parenthood and life in general. I say it all the time now too. And, once again, I’m turning into my mom.
Great post - thank you for sharing your wit and your precious semi-baby-free time.
Marnies last blog post..New Babies & Old Babies
But and sure you and your brothers were such sweethearts! I don't know how she managed to teach my French class in high school when Mr. B was out for something or other. I do recall he yelling at us in French and us just looking at her not knowing what the hell she had said because we were first year kids.
Teachers are saints. You included!