When Did I Become THAT Mom??

Since it took a while for our little boy to join our family, I had a lot of time to determine what kind of parent I wanted to become. Of course, I had much inspiration from moms surrounding me, helping me decide how I would raise my future children (or sometimes, how NOT to raise them). As the years passed and still no baby came, the list only grew longer and longer.

Well, here I am now: a full-fledged mom. And suddenly I've realized that I've become that mom, the mom I swore I'd never become, the mom who is violating those rules she'd made on her precious "list". Yes, I'm the mom who lets her child wear their pajamas all day long (sometimes it's just easier) and I'm the mom who just wears her own pajamas all day long (most days it's just necessary). I'm the mom who doesn't wear make-up, whose house is a mess, whose child has a constant runny nose, whose child screams uncontrollably and for no reason at times. Yes, I've become that mom and for the most part, I've, welcomed her, loved her, even embraced her. However, there is one thing that I swore whole-heartedly I would never become: the flaky mom. But alas, I've found that I am even her in all her constantly-running-late, full-fledged glory. As the months have passed since Will's birth, I've gotten better at gauging my time and arriving at appointments on time (two weeks in a row I was even EARLY for church and since I'm always flying solo and we have 9:00 church, that is no small feat). But today was just one of those days where I was at my worst.

I had a function at 10:00 that I'd already promised to attend and I REALLY wanted to go. Yet this is how the morning went:

• 5:50--Will wakes up. Not unusual b/c sometimes he will wake up early, nurse and go back to sleep for an hour or two. I thought for sure he would go back to bed since he was up late the night before for the Ward Trunk-or-Treat (pictures to come on that).


• 6:50--Will still not asleep, just playing in his crib. I finally drag myself out of bed and then get him out of his crib.


• 7:30--Will tired and whiny. Put him to sleep even though he hadn't eaten breakfast yet.


• 7:35--I'm tired and whiny. Put me back to sleep even though I hadn't eaten breakfast yet AND I had tons to do.


• 9:10--Woke up in a shock that I slept so long.


• 9:35--Showered, hair done, make-up on.


• 9:45--Salad made, dressing made (from scratch, mind you), thumb sliced real good when slicing apples for said salad, kitchen a mess, but can clean that up later. Salad in car along with Will's diaper bag full of toys and the breakfast he will for sure want to eat.


• 9:50--Woke Will up from nap, changed his messy diaper and his clothes, put his coat on, strapped him in car.


• 9:51--Look up address of house on mapquest, shriek in horror when realize it's so FAR (as in I should have left a good half an hour ago far) and try to print off directions.


• 9:52--Printer out of paper.


• 9:53--Put paper in printer. Printer still won't print, Will screaming in car b/c he is HUNGRY (and b/c he hates the car).


• 9:54--Printer still won't print and I can't find my keys.


• 9:55--No keys, no printing, lots of crying coming from the direction of the garage.


• 10:00--Still no keys.


• 10:10--Get Will OUT of the car, look for Ward directory to call the hostess, find it and learn that Will has eaten half the directory, including the page with the phone number I need.


• 10:15--Finally find hostess' number, call her with the lame but true excuse that I cannot find my car keys and apologize profusely for my flakiness all the while Will screaming in the background because at this point he is starving.


• 10:20--Printer prints.


• 10:21--Retrieve food out of diaper bag to feed my crying baby and locate my keys: hidden in a crevice in the deep recesses of my diaper bag. Argh.


• 10:30--Will fed and calmed.


• 10:31--Realized I have become that mom. Eat some Halloween candy, go on a walk with Will and get over it. We all have our days.
• 12:30--Can't find my keys. Again.