Before I had Henry and lost part (okay, more than 50%) of my brain, I never had to write a grocery list, never needed multiple reminders to do anything, I was very (very) organized, and never missed appointments, bills were also sent in weeks before their due date, and my car was also serviced at the appropriate time. When I was pregnant, I was given advice to keep a journal and/or write the baby letters to memorialize all our experiences. I laughed internally at these suggestions. Who were these people talking to? Didn't they know me? Had they not seen my office at work -- my calendar system, all synced with my iphone/google calendar/ical at home so I would never, not ever, miss a thing. All my paperwork was always in order - labeled and filed. But in reality, I didn't need this crazy advanced system, because it was all in.my.brain.
Fast forward to today. That calendar system? All those notes for deadlines, appointments, and reminders set on my iphone? It's my lifeline. Vitamins, dog's heart worm pill, court appearances, and reminders when leaf pick up day is...all in my calendar, and it is an absolute must that they are in my calendar, because there is no way this side of hell that I would remember otherwise. Henry must have hit some internal switch on his way out that turned off part of my brain. No worries, though, I have my backup system full of all the awesome technology... I'm just not quite sure what will happen if the network ever flatlines. That's a thought I don't want to tackle right now.
And that whole "write to your kid idea?" I tried to embrace it early on. I bought a beautiful new journal, and I wrote in it religiously the first few months (before Henry started rolling over/moving...) I wrote a lot, I even remembered to write the entire birth story down before I forgot it forever. But now? There are some dates, number of teeth, and milestones jotted down -- things I want to make sure I remember, but there are no complete thoughts. Even this blog was supposed to help me write things down, keep others updated, but well, you can see how the entries have been a bit more spread out? Sigh. So, to all those Moms out there that I silently judged, I apologize. I now know why you have stacks of papers in your house, baskets of unfolded laundry, stacks of "to-read" books, and bins full of pictures that never found a place in photo albums. If we are going to be honest, it has taken me two full days to complete this blog entry.
The bottom line is that at the end of the day when your child is finally asleep, you (well, I do at least) do a little victory dance saying "I did it, I made it through the day!" And then like a first responder, you tackle the most dire tasks first: Dishes, laundry (diapers and clothing essentials for the next day), important emails, online bill pay, etc. And then you look at the clock, you see how much time you have until it is essential you shut your eyes for the night and you decide: Do I work out to get rid of the last 10 Henry pounds? Do I spend time with my husband? Write in said journal you promised yourself you would do once a week, or read the next book for the book club you want to go to, but so often fail to attend (as it starts at 8:30 and you're just plain exhausted by then), or do I just go to bed?
But enough about me -- my brain will catch up someday. Right?
Henry!
14 months old!
Favorite Book: "Good Night Gorilla" -- Loves to read and be read to -- a lot!
Number of teeth: 8
Favorite songs: Itsy bitsy Spider, ABC's.
Loves to: Dance!
Best Friend: Charlie
He's a talking machine! My favorite part of the day is listening to Ryan and Henry's morning conversation when Ryan gets Henry up and changes his diaper. Melts my heart to hear Henry's sing songy voice discuss the morning events with Ryan!
I'm getting so big!
Roar, I'm a Tiger!
Loves to read
"Vroom Vroom!"
Daddy and Henry
"Mom, I would really like to go outside with Charlie"
"Cruising around the hood"
"Dad, pick me up!"
We needed a picture of Charlie in the mix :)
Super cool guy!
