It's already been a week since I broke up with Intel for someone else and unlike all the other breakups in my past, there are no tears to speak of, no long talks with my sister to remind me that I am worthy and I will find happiness again, and no middle of the night urges to contact Intel and ask to be taken back. Nope, none of that. It's too soon to say what it's really like day to day as a stay-at-home mom but I can say that I am happy and this past week included a lot of firsts not only for Lily but for me as well.
One of my firsts is that I cooked dinner every single night this past week and I didn't mind. I cooked rice for the first time (how embarrassing is that?) and learned that squash takes forever to bake to the point that watching Nate eat it reminded me of a dog gnawing on a bone. I tried out new recipes and I consider it successful because Nate ate it and is still alive. My mom always told me growing up that a way to a man's heart is with food. I don't agree, but I do feel a sense of pride knowing I could cook a healthy and tasty meal for my family and I know my mom and I agree on that.
The other first is an embarrasing realization that my quest to meet more people in my neighborhood is starting out differently than I hoped. I am meeting new people that are very friendly, especially to Lily. Lily has gotten "there goes the future" and "she has the face of the future President of America" and the usual "all that hair is awesome" (which by the way never gets old). Unfortunately, all these comments come from what Nate calls "street persons." They aren't transients because they aren't going anywhere and they don't seem to be homeless. I take a lot of walks with Lily and when you take walks around the city, especially downtown, in the middle of the day during the work week, you pass a lot of street persons. I have also handed out leftover baked goods out to them so maybe word is getting out about crazy tall lady and her baby walking around the city looking for people to give treats to. It did seem like I got approached quite a bit last week.
I'm slowly putting myself out on the "mom-friend" dating scene. Thankfully Nate paved the way at the library's book babies class and I was approached by a couple of women last week who remembered Lily. I haven't gotten any phone numbers yet and yeah, I have had a couple anxous moments where I wish I had a fun group of active mom friends in the neighborhood. If I've learned anything about the dating scene though, it's that it all seems to happen when you aren't working so hard at looking for it.
Even though Lily still cries quite a bit when she goes down for her "will it be 30 minutes or 1.5 hour" naps, we had a lot of fun this week. I know she like Guns-N-Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine", she'll giggle if I jump up and down and say boo, she enjoys dancing with me to the Beatles "Yellow Submarine," and likes watching me dance while cooking in the kitchen. Lily likes to hold leaves and will follow the falling leaves from the trees with her eyes. She'll kick her legs in excitement whenever a dog or a cat comes close. She likes playing with the nalgene bottle cap and enjoys the crinkling sound of a granola bar wrapper. It probably seems pretty mundane and boring reading this but I honestly find it really exciting to be a part of Lily's world. I wonder what I'll learn this week.
One of my firsts is that I cooked dinner every single night this past week and I didn't mind. I cooked rice for the first time (how embarrassing is that?) and learned that squash takes forever to bake to the point that watching Nate eat it reminded me of a dog gnawing on a bone. I tried out new recipes and I consider it successful because Nate ate it and is still alive. My mom always told me growing up that a way to a man's heart is with food. I don't agree, but I do feel a sense of pride knowing I could cook a healthy and tasty meal for my family and I know my mom and I agree on that.
The other first is an embarrasing realization that my quest to meet more people in my neighborhood is starting out differently than I hoped. I am meeting new people that are very friendly, especially to Lily. Lily has gotten "there goes the future" and "she has the face of the future President of America" and the usual "all that hair is awesome" (which by the way never gets old). Unfortunately, all these comments come from what Nate calls "street persons." They aren't transients because they aren't going anywhere and they don't seem to be homeless. I take a lot of walks with Lily and when you take walks around the city, especially downtown, in the middle of the day during the work week, you pass a lot of street persons. I have also handed out leftover baked goods out to them so maybe word is getting out about crazy tall lady and her baby walking around the city looking for people to give treats to. It did seem like I got approached quite a bit last week.
I'm slowly putting myself out on the "mom-friend" dating scene. Thankfully Nate paved the way at the library's book babies class and I was approached by a couple of women last week who remembered Lily. I haven't gotten any phone numbers yet and yeah, I have had a couple anxous moments where I wish I had a fun group of active mom friends in the neighborhood. If I've learned anything about the dating scene though, it's that it all seems to happen when you aren't working so hard at looking for it.
Even though Lily still cries quite a bit when she goes down for her "will it be 30 minutes or 1.5 hour" naps, we had a lot of fun this week. I know she like Guns-N-Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine", she'll giggle if I jump up and down and say boo, she enjoys dancing with me to the Beatles "Yellow Submarine," and likes watching me dance while cooking in the kitchen. Lily likes to hold leaves and will follow the falling leaves from the trees with her eyes. She'll kick her legs in excitement whenever a dog or a cat comes close. She likes playing with the nalgene bottle cap and enjoys the crinkling sound of a granola bar wrapper. It probably seems pretty mundane and boring reading this but I honestly find it really exciting to be a part of Lily's world. I wonder what I'll learn this week.
your week sounds great - you made me laugh with your cooking stories! We'll have to have a mom date - add Natalie when the time comes. Hopefully Lily can teach Lena a thing or two - though consistent daytime napping is not on anyone's radar right now, apparently. Magdalena was up from 12:45pm to 6 pm today with barely any snoozing. Yikes!
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