A fellow Mom and friend asked me a rather perplexing question
recently.
A fellow Mom and friend asked me a rather perplexing question recently.
It sounds innocent enough. But to parents of relatively new offspring, it can be a real stumper.
“What’s new with you?”
I actually had to stop and think about it. And think. And think some more. What was new with me?
I had absolutely no idea.
“Well, Emma got her first tooth,” I cautioned.
“Oh, wow! That’s exciting,” she said. “But what about you? What’s going on with you?”
“I found a cool rocking horse for Emma,” I answered again.
Granted, that particular bit of news wasn’t directly pertaining to me. But as parents, our lives are wrapped around our babies – every new tooth, new step, new word – leaving little time for anything else.
My life from a year ago – before our darling Emma was born – is a distant memory, as if it had belonged to someone else. I see fuzzy snapshots of late night dinners and movies with my husband, Pilates on weekday mornings, lunch meetings and afternoon coffee with my girlfriends.
And then in January, everything changed. I joined the ranks of other Moms, devoted to our little ones. Their time is our time. They need and we give. They laugh and we laugh. Wiping noses, kissing boo-boos and blowing bubbles.
I know I’m not the only Mom whose former life has quietly slipped away, leaving a fuller, remarkable life in its place. And yet on the bare surface, a somewhat duller one, too.
Wendy, my girlfriend and Mommy to Emma’s pal Audrey, said the most exciting answer she could come up with to that vexing question was finding a dish scrubber that she had hunted for at discount stores for months.
And another Mom friend, Christine, said she found new walking shoes for her daughter, but the store had run out of the needed size.
I can relate. Life’s details, big and small, seem to take greater importance when a little one is afoot.
We have clothes to wash, a dishwasher to unload, dinner to cook, and groceries to buy. There are books to read, peek-a-boo to play, diapers to change, parks to explore, and songs to sing.
And me? Well, most days, I just try to keep Emma fed and rested; entertained and learned; and most of all cared for and loved.
It’s not news. It’s just our daily lives. Our precious, busy, challenging lives.
Sure, our kids get on our nerves. We have our moments when we just want to take a great, long time-out. But we wouldn’t trade it for the world.
First tooths and rocking horses. Dish scrubbers and shoes. Sleepless nights, belly laughs and hugs.
That’s what new with me.
