I'm going to start by saying if you want to have kids, are trying to have kids, etc., don't read this. I mean hopefully, a blog post wouldn't change your mind about what will be the most meaningful experience of your life. But it might take some of the fun out of things. Focus on cute baby outfits, fun family vacations, and someone little saying "I love you."
Now for the rest of you that are already in it -- read on.
As many of you know, this past weekend my husband and I had our first child-free weekend in over two years! Two years! I mean think about that. That means both of us haven't slept past 7 AM in over 800 days. We haven't chosen where we want to eat without factoring in if a playground is present and if they serve grilled cheese for two meals in a row in more than 28 months! We haven't decided what to do on a Saturday without planning to be home by 1:00 for naps in 2 years! We haven't gone more than 10 minutes without screaming in over 2 years (I meant kid screaming, not adult screaming, for the record).
Okay, I'll stop, because that list could go on. My point is the weekend was freeing. It felt beyond luxurious. I was so, so relaxed! We ate sushi (in peace) on Thursday night. We ate Indian food (in peace) on Friday night. We also took Uber and Lyft for the first time - they both rocked! We went to a winery for a wine tasting and again had a lovely, peaceful Italian meal in the hill country on Saturday. And the whole weekend I found myself feeling like I need to hurry up because ___. Then, I would realize, no, in fact, I do not need to hurry up because whatever it is can wait. I would like to say that by the end of the weekend I missed my babies so much, I couldn't wait for them to come home. I could say that, but I would be lying. Actually, I had to take a deep breath before I got in the car to go to Waco to pick them up.
So I kept saying to myself what lesson can I learn from this...how can I make life easier? My first answer was I need to do lots of sucking up to mom and dad to ensure more of these weekends in the future. But then I really tried to think of something I could do. And you know what? I didn't come up with anything. Yes, I can eliminate unnecessary time commitments, which I have done. But really, it's just a phase. It's the phase where you have more than one child that needs help going potty, needs help cutting up food, needs help putting on shoes, needs help getting snacks, needs help (ha - they need more than help) cleaning up toys, needs to be told to not yell, needs to be told to not jump on the couch, and so on. It's the phase where you have two children still learning how to get along with each other (I know...this never ends). It's the phase where children create messes far faster than you can clean them up. It's the phase where our list of family activities (where everyone can participate) includes - bounce houses, Chuck E Cheese, the pool, and the park.
And the lesson here for me is this phase will keep getting easier, so focus on that knowledge. At least that's what everyone tells me - and you people, you know who you are. You better not be lying. But you know what else might help - to start planning for everything we are going to do when we aren't in this phase any more (the groundhog phase where everyday is just like the day before. I mean, how many bounce houses can you possibly go to? I just want to see an animated movie at the theater!). So that's what we started doing. We started planning for a mini family vacation for this summer, which seems so exciting. And we started planning for a big family vacation the next year. And that made me feel instantly better.
So I guess I did learn something here, when you can't take a phase any more - start planning for the next phase. It might relax you enough to actually enjoy the phase you're in right now a little more!
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