Another funny parenting tale

Well I've been very slack at blogging recently due to a mixture of a teething child and pregnancy kicking my butt slightly. I thought it was about time I shared another funny story with you all to make up for it.

Little J is growing so fast and learning so quickly that it's hard to keep up. Now he's this mobile, curious, bundle of energy that is in to everything. The other day we went to a friends house for lunch and took little J along. I hadn't realised ahead of time but it was the first time we had been to the home of a friend without children since little J had learnt to walk. I'd begun to take for granted the fact that at home I can just let him run around the house and know he's not gonna get into too much mischief (though he just learnt to open screw top bottles so I have a feeling that's all about to change!).

When we go to the houses of other friends with kids, they are like our home - toys everywhere, slightly beat up furniture and anything breakable or valuable hidden well out of reach! But not so at our child free friends house. They have a beautiful home full of all kinds of things for Josiah to break and/or ruin with grubby little finger prints. At first little J was polite and cautious but soon he was running around the house nosing through everything!

Little J is very helpful and already quite well house trained. He loves to help with laundry and even knows which buttons to press to put on a wash. This is fine at our house as the washing machine is always turned off at the wall but not so at our friends place so the little monkey kept turning the washing machine on and off.

Then there were musical instruments to play with, magazines to 'read', all kinds of things to look at in the kitchen and a bed to climb on.

I basically spent the entire time chasing him round the house and got very little chance to just sit and chat with the grown ups. At one point when I did finally sit down for a moment, little J wandered into the lounge with a bottle of lube he swiped from the bedroom when noone was looking!

Add to that the screaming over tired meltdown he had towards the end due to having missed his lunchtime nap and I think it's safe to say we probably wont be getting another invite any time soon!

But seriously though, it made me realise just how much has changed in our lives since having kids. It really is like we have entered a whole other world and there's no going back. We can't do things how we used to - we've had to adjust to find child friendly meals/outings/furniture/routines etc. Having said that, this new world is a fun roller coaster ride of a place to be - a world where I get to do arts and crafts and go to fun kids groups and play with toys when I take a bath!

You know you're a momma when...

During a rare moment of peace, I was browsing the net and found this fun little article about motherhood. It made me giggle so thought I'd share it with you all and share my thoughts on a few points too. So here goes:

7. FREEDOM! As a mum, any time to yourself is bliss, even if it's doing something as dull as shopping.

10. Momma's have an in built baby sensor that detects the slightest sound/movement of any child. For this reason I make hubby sleep with the baby monitor next to his head. He can sleep through anything, while I hear as soon as the boy makes a sound. When he was still sleeping in our room I woke whenever he rolled over!

12. Sad but true - sleep is what momma's crave most, even more than sex. Pre-baby our evenings went along the lines of put dinner on, do chores while it cooks, eat dinner in front of the TV, go to bed and enjoy naked time with hubby. Now, by the time we get to bed I'm shattered and often fall asleep before I've even got my clothes off. Began to realise we needed to come up with creative new tactics to fit our new lifestyle. Most recent tactic is to plan evening meals where you shove everything in a pan and throw in the oven for half hour. We put the boy to bed, one of us preps dinner while the other does chores, and then while dinner is cooking........ ;)

13. Same goes for a bath without rubber ducks/boats/other bath toys or a small child trying to push your head under the water when you try to wash your hair.

14. Yeah and if you thought pooing while someone is chatting to you is bad, try pooing when a small child is trying to shove your bum off the seat so they can look behind you and see what's going on!

15. And use wet wipes to wash on mornings when it all goes to pieces and you don't get time for a shower.

18. YES!!! I understand the boy is just discovering food and keen to try new things but I just want to be able to eat something, anything, without having to share it with him!

21. I'm working on it

24. Yep. In those first few weeks I dread to think how rarely I showered/brushed my teeth!

So if you want to bless us momma's, give us some child free time to lock ourselves in the bathroom, take a long soak in the tub and eat chocolate to our hearts content.