Anyone who thinks that being a stay at home Mom means that you don't have anyone to answer to i.e. a boss is completely, utterly 100% wrong. You do...
This boss though, isn't sending emails, peering around your cubicle wall, dropping piles of work on your desk or (as I experienced on more than one occasion) calling you on your personal cell phone or home number over the weekend to discuss something "earth shattering"....this boss is far more demanding than any office boss I ever had. My new boss is currently 17lbs and 26 inches long. She has big blue eyes that sometimes look green or brown and has a giggle that can make me smile at any time of the day. While she is an angel most of the time, there are times (like today) where she insists that everything be done on her schedule and this includes when I am allowed to eat.
We started today, as all others with a bottle for her at 6:30 AM. I am not a morning person in the first place so getting up this early has posed an additional challenge for me personally and trying to measure out formula half bleary eyed into a bottle one handed while balancing the baby who is pulling on my hair and whining for her first "meal" of the day is always fun. Today it was even more entertaining as it wasn't until I was downstairs that I realized I had left my slippers upstairs and since our house is on a slab and it was about 19 degrees outside, our hard wood floors were cold and all I could think about was my nice warm bed upstairs so I tried to rush things and in the process knocked the bottle off the counter and all over the floor.
As we all know...formula is not cheap in fact it can be pretty damn expensive (thank God for Costco) but my first thought was "wet floor, baby, high chair on other side of room" and knew that I had to somehow get from A to B without slipping and dropping the kiddo since I was obviously not very coordinated this morning. I managed to get the baby to the highchair and scrambled on the floor for some toys to entertain her with which she swiftly proceeded to bang around a few times on her tray, drop on the floor again and then start howling for her bottle. After going through about 1/2 a roll of paper towel (how come none of them absorb like they do on the commercials?), I finally managed to get that bottle made but my feet were now thoroughly frozen from being on the cold floor for so long and wadding through the puddle sure didn't help matters.
It was then that I stopped, took a deep breath and realized that today was going to be "one of those days" and thought of how I would have handled this when I was working. Sure the situation wasn't the same but I know that I would have taken on one thing at a time and just tried to do my best. I have learned that when my daughter does have a melt down (which isn't too often) that I need to handle it in the way that I would have any of my old managers....while it might not seem earth shattering to me personally, it obviously was to them or to her and therefore it is important. On days like this, I am thankful that I know how to multi-task as there is no other job like motherhood that will impart this skill which all women seem to have ingrained in them..whether we know it or not.
So, after the bottle disaster, feeding the baby her oatmeal, having play-time and story-time on the floor and 2 or 3 diaper changes along with an outfit change for her it is now noon and I am finally having breakfast. Granted, I did manage to squeeze in a shower somewhere and threw on a mostly clean pair of sweat pants and sweat shirt (notice I didn't say they matched) and inhaled a handful of apricots at about 8:30 AM...I am now sitting down for a bran muffin and cup of coffee from Mexico which makes me think of me and my husband's last vacation (pre-baby) to Puerto Vallarta. If I close my eyes I can almost see myself there, smell the salt air and feel the sand between my toes which is great but when I open them I see the toys on the floor, the Christmas Tree lit in the corner, hear my daughter breathing through the monitor and find that the reality is far better than the trip down memory lane.
As I sip the remaining few drops of my coffee, I think about what the afternoon will bring and look forward to seeing my daughters smiling face again once she awakens but for now I will enjoy this time that I have to myself..watch the snow outside, listen to the new Andrea Bocelli Christmas c.d. and be happy that this time I remembered my slippers! :-)
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