Grant posing at the zoo

It's only my third day on the job, but I've already figured out that an hour or two spent at the zoo in the morning makes for a much easier afternoon. So after Sesame Street we were once again off to the zoo.

Today we decided to walk out to the farm area. Grant wasn't particularly interested in any of the animals, but when he saw a little girl who was maybe seven or eight years old getting her picture taken by a sign he insisted on going and posing just as the little girl had. I've never really gotten Grant to purposely sit still for pictures before, mostly it's just dumb luck if I manage to get a decent shot, so I just had to post this picture. Grant's first "pose"-

Cream of Wheat!

On Sunday mornings when I was a little girl my mother would wake my siblings and me up by yelling each of our names, in birth order, up the stairs until she got a response from each child to indicate that she or he was at least awake enough to grunt at her. But if, instead of grunting, any child was awake enough to immediately yell back "Cream of Wheat!" then Mom would make that for breakfast instead of the usual cold cereal. The memory of my mother, hair and makeup in various states of done for church and still wearing her big furry red robe while cooking the beloved cream of wheat will always be a fond memory for me. It's just the kind of warm and fuzzy memory I hope my children will one day have from their childhoods.

Perhaps it's not surprising then for me to say that to this day I love Cream of Wheat. I'd go so far as to rank it among my top five comfort foods. I could go on for some time about the intricacies of making the perfect bowl of Cream of Wheat, but I do realize at least on some level that such a dissertation would be boring to most people so I'll limit it to this- timing is crucial! It must be monitored continuously while cooking and then eaten promptly or you’ll end up with an inedible pile of goo. (I suspect that improper preparation is one of the main reasons why many people claim not to like Cream of Wheat. That and the fact that apparently most don’t put butter in it. Fools! Don’t you know that everything is better with butter!?!?)

The timing issue is why, even though I craved it all day, I waited until Matt got home and took Grant upstairs for a bath before making myself a bowl. This was, after all, my first day as a stay at home mom- I did not have Grant's schedule down well enough to test it with something as important as Cream of Wheat!

After hours of waiting the time had finally come. I had just sat down with my coveted bowl of enriched farina- tinged ever so slightly yellow from the butter, glistening from the sugaroverthetopanddon’tstir (which, for those of you who were not raised by my mother is exactly what it sounds like- sugar that you sprinkle over the top but don’t stir into the cereal. And, yes, I’m quite sure it’s one word).

That’s when something happened to make me realize that I am no longer the little girl eagerly waiting to yell out “Cream of Wheat!!” when my name is called. No. I am now in the position of the woman who hasn’t had a chance to get dressed for church yet, but has to stop and stand over a hot stove making cereal because a daughter I loved asked for it.

That’s when Matt yelled from the bathroom upstairs “Honey! Help! Grant just pooped in the tub!!”

Yep, I’m a mom.

(And, yes, I am aware of just how much my son will hate stories like this when he's older, but I gave up my bowl of cream of wheat to clean his poop out of the tub- I'll tell any story I like!)

The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives

Okay, maybe "the rest of our lives" isn't entirely accurate, but "the first day of until I either go crazy or Cookie (or some other as-of-yet not conceived child) goes to kindergarten" just doesn't have the same ring to it. What all that babble amounts to is that as of today I am officially a stay at home mom! Yippee!!

The decision to become a stay at home mom was not an easy one. Both Matt and I have been extremely busy at work and something had to give. For a while we tried letting more trivial tasks, like blogging and sleeping, go undone, but, alas, that was not enough. So after months of discussion and budget analysis we finally came to the conclusion that is was time for my day job to go.

I had never pictured myself as the stay at home mom type, at least not until I had Grant. I never expected going back to work after he was born to be as difficult as it was. It's a subject I could go on and on about for many depressing paragraphs. I kept thinking that my desire to stay home would lessen over time, but it didn't. The fact that I haven't exactly enjoyed my job for the last year and half didn't help matters. Then I got pregnant with Cookie and found myself wanting to stay home more than ever. We talked for a while about waiting until Cookie's arrival in November, which certainly would have made more financial sense than quitting now. But, perhaps selfishly, I wanted very much to have Grant all to myself for at least a couple of months before the new arrival. So here we are.

I'm a stay at home mom!!!

So far my first day has been a good one. Grant and I had a leisurely breakfast and then we went to the zoo. The zoo is very close to our house and we have a membership so I foresee many similar trips in the future. It was so fun to watch him play on the play equipment there. They have a slide that is the perfect size for him and he showed his appreciation for said slide by going down it approximately 1, 256 times- giggling and yelling "weee!!!" each and every time. When it was time to leave I loved being able to say to him that we'd come back later this week.

We were there for less than two hours, but that was enough time for Grant to have lots of fun and to get good and worn out. After eating a quick lunch Grant is now napping in his room. I'm tempted to spend this precious free time either watching TV, reading, or continuing to play on the computer, but I'm determined that when Matt gets home tonight the house will be at least as clean as it would be after his mother has been here all day. At this point in time, it is not in that condition, so I'm off to clean.