A Day in the Life

Stephani (our Parents as Teachers Rep) comes to visit us every six weeks. She visited last Wednesday, and as usual she says "Tell me about a day in the life of Joseph." And as usual, I reveal for Stephani all of my evils: "We wake up sometime between 7 and 8am, Joseph plays in his highchair while I put on a pot of coffee and flip through a magazine or catalogue...Joseph wakes up from his first nap just in time to watch me make my lunch and eat it, and then we watch Days of our Lives together!" Stephani assures me that there is nothing wrong with trying to inject some amount of normalcy in our days, but it gets me thinking, and the conclusion I have come to is "I love my life now."

When I discovered that I was pregnant with Joseph I had just completed my MBA about a month prior. I had great ambitions, and as mentioned in an earlier post my dream has been to run my own business. I wasn't at all disappointed when I found out I was pregnant...quite the opposite! But it did throw a wrench in my plans for the future just a little bit and things have been uncertain ever since.

I am very lucky that Joe and I have been able to work things out so that I have this time to be home with my son and watch him grow and develop, and that I have this little hiatus from the professional world. As a result, a new creative side of me is emerging that I never knew existed; not to mention that I have the luxury of putting some relaxed consideration into what I want to do with my life. But the greatest surprise of all has been that I love being a stay at home mom.

I love that when I describe my days it is "We" doing everything together. I love nursing Joseph, playing with Joseph and giving him baths. I love having a quiet, peaceful afternoon at home while I knit and Joseph plays quietly on the floor a few feet away (when that actually happens). And I love that it is nice out again and we take walks together downtown and stop at a couple of shops or to a cafe for lunch, or just stroll through the park. I even love having the time to keep a tidy home and improve it decoratively.

With the novelty wear off? Admittedly I do have days every now and then where I long for something more; be it adult interaction or the ability to express myself creatively and receive any sort of unbiased feedback. But after six months I should say that I doubt that this feeling will wear off, and I silently dread the day that our safety net runs out and I must return to the working world.

For now, I try my hardest to cherish every moment I have with my family, and accept this time together as the greatest gift I shall ever receive. As I type this, Joseph is just behind me in his pack'n'play squirming and squealing playfully. It won't be long before those squeals turn into bored and annoyed squawks. And then (drat!) I must rush over to cuddle and entertain my son. I am one lucky gal.