It happened today. I always secretly hoped that it wouldn't be me, that somehow I would end up being the one wife and mother that always succeeded in having a clean home without baskets of unfolded laundry sitting out and plastic toys covering the floor in every room. I really do try. I have a basket in the living room where all the baby toys go when they're not being used... hypothetically. Generally speaking, it isn't too bad around here.
Today I thought I was having a particularly good day home with my baby girl. She had played nicely by herself for little half hour segments of time here and there that had allowed me to do some work for my work-from-home job. We had taken a morning walk together despite the crushing humidity of a St. Louis summer day so I felt like I had exercised. We ate the same thing for lunch - Cheerios and yogurt - which just makes me realize how fast my baby is growing up. She took a decent afternoon nap, again I was able to get a thing or two done, though somehow not as much as I felt I "needed" to do. Then about a half hour before my husband got home from work I pulled out the cookbook and actually made dinner. I was able to utter the phrase, "Dinner is in the oven" when he came home, which always makes me feel like a huge success.
So it was a good day. Then as I was cleaning up after dinner I realized that every single room in my apartment had a kid mess in it. There were Cheerios all over the kitchen floor, an exersaucer with toys thrown in a somewhat even radius all around, and in both the living room and the study there was a "baby play area" with a blanket down and toys scattered all about. In our bedroom where the crib is there are toys on my dresser. Why? I have no idea.
And my little girl hasn't even started crawling yet!
Oh well. After she falls asleep, I have time to go through each room and collect the toys quietly and put them back in the toy basket. There is still a load of clean laundry in the living room, but that can wait until tomorrow. I guess it was still a good day, despite the brightly colored messes in each room.
I always knew that I wanted to have kids. To be honest, the only thing I wasn't looking forward to about having children was "kids stuff." Before having my little girl I dreaded kid stuff. There is always so much of it! It is so brightly colored. You can't keep with a color theme no matter how hard you try. (With a girl, you can get the pink version of everything, but pink doesn't go with anything else I own, and for some reason people are reluctant to buy only pink things for a baby. Why? At least then it will all match!)
I may have lived in my own space for years now, but I still have no idea what my personal style is. The one thing I do know about it is that I love sparsity - clean, simply furnished spaces with lots of room to move around and no knick-knacks or fru-fru. Well, those days feel like they're over. I still try very hard to only have some toys out at a time. We can always rotate through toys and leave some in the closet. And I am determined after my first baby is done with things to get rid of them if we didn't use them and not save them for a possible second child.
So I look around my apartment and I see baby things everywhere. All those brightly colored toys, mismatched pieces of baby furniture, and little blankies. My 20-year-old self is cringing a little bit, but today when I look around, I love it. I love all the little toys and the borrowed exersaucer, the high chair covered in Cheerios and the blankets everywhere. This is exactly the life I wanted. And even if it's messy, it's wonderful.
I always knew that I wanted to have kids. To be honest, the only thing I wasn't looking forward to about having children was "kids stuff." Before having my little girl I dreaded kid stuff. There is always so much of it! It is so brightly colored. You can't keep with a color theme no matter how hard you try. (With a girl, you can get the pink version of everything, but pink doesn't go with anything else I own, and for some reason people are reluctant to buy only pink things for a baby. Why? At least then it will all match!)
I may have lived in my own space for years now, but I still have no idea what my personal style is. The one thing I do know about it is that I love sparsity - clean, simply furnished spaces with lots of room to move around and no knick-knacks or fru-fru. Well, those days feel like they're over. I still try very hard to only have some toys out at a time. We can always rotate through toys and leave some in the closet. And I am determined after my first baby is done with things to get rid of them if we didn't use them and not save them for a possible second child.So I look around my apartment and I see baby things everywhere. All those brightly colored toys, mismatched pieces of baby furniture, and little blankies. My 20-year-old self is cringing a little bit, but today when I look around, I love it. I love all the little toys and the borrowed exersaucer, the high chair covered in Cheerios and the blankets everywhere. This is exactly the life I wanted. And even if it's messy, it's wonderful.
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