And then I realized, I'm a real mom

My life as a grown up- I graduated college, started my first job and got married. I loved moving in with the hubby and setting up house. We saved up and bought a home together, did a terrible job painting, changed jobs, bought furniture and got pregnant.

 Having one baby is cute. People tell you you are a precious pregnant lady, you decorate a precious nursery and buy precious clothes. You lose your pregnancy weight by the time baby is 6 weeks old and look adorable toting around this little bundle of joy in your gender specific stroller.

Having two babies is less cute. My sweet, funny wonderful daughter is all of those things but she is no longer a baby. She picks out her own clothes (usually leggings or sweats) , pulls the ponytail out of her hair leaving it looking messy and unkept, and talks ALL the time. My cute baby son this afternoon was sitting crying in a purple Bumbo waiting for me to finish feeding him while I was helping his sister go potty. God, please help second children. And firsts. And parents too.

Also moms of two are less cute. I reflected on this though this afternoon as my cool skinny jeans from Ann Taylor #notactuallycool #idontevenhavetwitter are covered in sidewalk chalk and I have my phone in my back pocket and tennis shoes on. There are a lot of problems with that sentence. 1) Why do all my clothes have baby food/ play dough/ chalk on them? 2) Since when do I wear pants with pockets big enough to hold a phone. Can these possibly be both mom jeans and dad jeans? 3) I wear tennis shoes every day. Today I was wearing cute boots because flats and skinny jeans is not something I do but when we got home Addy wanted to play hopscotch and hula hoop and run down to the river so the boots were out and the sneakers were on. Wow. And this is totally normal for me.

Also this conversation happened today. I asked my best friend Aubra to lunch.
Aubra: Where do you want to meet for lunch?
Me: Well, I was thinking we could grab food from Jason's Deli and then go eat at the Jumpy Place so we can talk instead of me having to try to keep everyone calm in a restaurant. They have picnic tables there.

Sweet Aubra who loves my kids went with it like that was a normal request. When did this happen? I say this laughing because I adore my kids and love being a mom but I never knew how much work it would end up being to get everyone out the door with brushed teeth and hair in the morning. I manage to pull it together most days and I haven't become yoga pants mom (yet, but a third would probably drive me to it) but what happened to the well rested and well dressed girl I used to know? I guess she will come back in a few years but she won't be me, she will be my daughter. And when she does I hope I will be my mother, giving up things for myself so that she can have the cute new clothes and fun ski trips and naps on a Sunday afternoons. Actually I sincerely hope we can both have the naps.