Kids Cramp Your Style

Congratulations to Jill M on the birth of her baby Luke Ryan on June 4, 2006! I got the opportunity to see Luke a few hours old. He was cute but the foremost thought on my mind was thank God I will never having to go through that again. I cringed when the nurse asked Jill how long she breastfed the baby so they could log it. That always stressed me out because the formula nazi’s seemed to be looking for proof that I wasn’t feeding my child adequately. This was more of a problem with Jack and not so much with Ty so maybe things are better now.

I’ve been very restless lately. I have been struggling to figure out why and a few friends have made suggestions that have been interesting and complex. I think the answer is actually quite simple. I went from having 1 – 3 social or sports engagements every night of the week and weekends packed with activity to a life that has a fraction of this level of activity. Almost all of my activity time has been replaced with child care and child centric activities. Having two kids under the age of three (coupled with miserable pregnancies) hasn’t lent much time to actually dwell on this reality so I think it’s just now manifesting itself. Assuming this is true, I have a couple options:

- Accept this as reality and get over it
- Do more stuff
- A combination of the above

Right now I’m leaning towards a combination. The “do more stuff” has its limitations because of all the “mother’s guilt” that comes from working but I can use the time after the kids go to bed and Jack is now at the age where we can spend hours out together doing something fun. Weaning Ty has also been liberating, just as much mentally as physically. I’ve pretty much spent the last four years pregnant/breastfeeding/pregnant/breastfeeding and now I am done and it’s very exciting.

In fact, I celebrated this milestone by going to Los Dos Molinos on Saturday with a group of 20 people that we used to go to Mexico with twice a year to play volleyball. After two margaritas, I was technically classified as intoxicated and announced it was the best time I had had in a long time. Brian clarified that it was only time I have been intoxicated in the past 5 years. It just felt great to go out and have fun like that. After 8 glasses of water and 2 Advils, I managed to wake up with a minimal hangover. While I had a ton of fun, I do not think I can physically handle binge drinking more than once every 2 – 3 years.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Jack and I met Tracy and Jagger at the splash park close to our house. Two hours flew by and the kids seemed to like the water. I can see us going back there a lot because it’s so close to the house and it’s a great place to go when it’s hot. On Sunday, we went to the zoo and rented one of those four person bicycles. It wasn’t as fun as it could have been because Ty got sunscreen in his eyes and cried a lot. Sarah came over for dinner and we had a good time playing with the kids and catching up. On Memorial Day, Brian took Jack back to the zoo and they had a great time together.

Yesterday, I went to my monthly brunch with Missie. After brunch we went looking for shorts for me. A friend had a pair I liked and I asked where she got them and she said Abercrombie & Fitch. I had never been into that store and had avoided it because the music seemed very loud. Missie used to work there when she was in high school and she said that they play that music to disorient the customers. I was definitely disoriented and felt very silly yelling at Missie and the cashier to be heard over the blasting dance music. I did find the pair of shorts I was looking for and paid full price to get the hell out of there. I was measured for a bra at Victoria’s Secret and the news wasn’t too depressing but there is still time to go down in size even further. I really like the IPEX no underwire kind they are selling but I am very anti-underwire. We then went looking for maternity clothes for Missie. I always hated shopping for maternity clothes and it still brought back bad memories although I was secretly gleeful that I would never have to spend money on clothes that would have a 3 month useful life.

And finally congratulations to Kathleen on her pregnancy and subsequent shot gun marriage. :-)