Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Unexpected Developments

Here is a short list of the things in my life that have surprised me as of late.

1. Now that I use cloth diapers, I dislike doing the laundry less than before. I think this is due
to the increased regularity of the task that means there are always clean clothes somewhere. It's never a laundry emergency anymore, and I never have to spend a whole day catching up.

2. Along the same lines, I found when changing a friend's baby that the idea of saving poop in my garbage can until the truck comes is disgusting to me. All these years thinking that cloth diapers are yuckier, only to find out that I now think the opposite.

3. I cut both of my kid's hair today, Reasor's for the first time. Reasor, who tries to escape no less than 4 times per diaper change and rarely sits still was fine. It was Alena, the one with the long attention span who is often content to sit who wouldn't keep her head still for more than 15 seconds.

4. Reasor's new haircut makes him look younger rather than older.

5. I ran with shoes today in preparation for running my outdoor 10k on Saturday. I found that it was harder on my joints and the bottoms of my feet than going barefoot. In fact, 20 minutes in I had to take off the shoes because the muscles on the tops of my feet hurt so badly. I expected my feet to be heavier with shoes, but I didn't expect all that other stuff.

Am I the only one who walks around surprised all the time?

P.S. I know, I know, a picture of baby's first hair cut. I'll get to it eventually. Or Kevin will. Probably Kevin.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

I'm a real boy!

Do you ever have moments when you realize that you have become what you've been becoming? For instance, last summer we were at a big outdoor party and they had all sorts of fun stuff to play, and I thought, "I'd rather watch my kids having fun on this than do it myself." The I realized that I was a real mom. Those "And now I'm a mom" moments happen fairly frequently. (I guess it's interesting that it doesn't stick. I get to become a real mom over and over again.) For instance, when Alena had a first play date where it wasn't about me hanging out with another mom. Or watching her in her first dance class. Or decorating holiday cookies with her. Or scooping up two crying children and cuddling them simultaneously. Or reading stories to one child while having a conversation with the other who's in the tub in the other room. Or cooking 3/4 of a meal while my children played with each other without any input from me. I probably have the thought, "Ok, now I'm a real mom" at least twice a month.

The last two weeks or so I've had another repetitive "now I'm real" realization that I didn't realize I was working toward. It's when I'm running on the treadmill and I hit 2 miles and it starts to get easier. My first two miles are the hardest. Now I'm a real runner. Isn't that just crazy? I had my suspicions that all of the runners that told me that were in cahoots to trick the rest of us into their habit. Turns out that when you run regularly long enough it actually turns out to be true. Who'd a thunk? Also, who'd a thunk that I would ever be a real runner? Life is full of surprises, people.

For instance, here's one for my mother. I make my bed now. ! !! I know! Crazy!