Thursday, October 2, 2008

Busy times

My best friends in the moms club each have a little girl, so Bear is often surrounded by shrieks, hollers, temper tantrums and the like. That's not to say that these particular little girls are badly behaved--not by any means! They're just normal little girls with big voices. Anyhow, Bear hardly ever makes a peep when we're in public. At home, he's always making tooting noises with his mouth and lately he's been making these little high pitched noises that sound an awful lot like the beginnings of actual language. My friends have rarely heard Bear's little sounds, but today, when we were out to lunch, Bear yawned and made the loudest sound I've ever heard him make! My friends looked at me with surprised faces and couldn't believe he'd yelled out so loudly. We all started cracking up.

I just realized today that I am having the best time of my life. Up until this point, college has always been what I would call the best. I had a ton of friends who were always up for fun, no real responsibilities other than attending class and basically a lot of free time on my hands to do whatever I wanted. I made the first friends that I really felt that I had something in common with, some of which are still my friends today. Of course, I was always poor and I hadn't met Max yet, so those are some downfalls, but there are bad sides to any situation. I also could never figure out what it was I wanted to do with my life...never felt sure about my major and didn't feel passionately about much of anything. After college was also good, because I met Max and had lots of fun dating him, but I missed having lots of friends around. I also started thinking that my job was not a very good one, but I still didn't know what to do with my life. I got a graduate degree, but I had trouble finding work and then we moved to Texas. I still couldn't find a good job, so I accepted one that was less than desirable. I made some friends there, but no one that I keep in touch with. Then we decided to move to Mississippi...again, not a great job to be found, but the one I did find is the best I've ever had. I worked for a bit and then got pregnant, not realizing all the changes my life was about to go through.

I always knew that I wanted kids, but I never realized the world that would be opened up to me once I had one! The moms club (and no, they're not paying me to say this!) has been a lifeline for me. I've never been as involved in a club as I have been in this one and it has been well worth my while to get involved. Since I stay home with Bear, I didn't have a whole lot of friends to reach out to. My friends from college don't have kids yet, so we can't really swap kid stories about middle of the night puke or changing explosive diapers. Through the moms club, though, I have found all of that and more. Bear and I attend most of the activities that the club offers and I think both of us are better for it. I have friends that live nearby again and Bear gets exposed to lots of other kids of various ages. I have much less free time than I've ever had in my life, but I'm mostly happy to do the things that now fill my time, even if it involves cleaning up gross stuff. I'm so thankful to be have a club that exists in our area and am so thankful that I've found other moms that I have more things in common with other than the simple fact that we have kids. I feel really lucky to be able to stay home and to have a husband that wants me to be able to do that.

Hmm...this post turned a completely different direction than I meant for it to, but that's okay! I am grateful for everything and I should say it more often. I'll have to post pictures tomorrow of Bear all happy in the swings at the park.

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