forty things that changed when i had a baby

i wondered all day what i could do for today's thirty days of forty list with the limited time i had... you see, i'm off to pick up miss stacey from the airport tomorrow, and i am still getting ready for three other blog visitors over the weekend!! {claire, beth and caroline}

so i knew i could count tomorrow out as a day to prepare and clean, which meant i wanted to get started today... because after that, i only have thursday, friday and saturday to get my house clean. that may sound like a lot of time, but when you have a needy three-month-old, there are not enough hours in a day as there used to be {which would be a great segue into my list... but i'll finish up a few more thoughts, first}. fortunately, my mama was sweet enough to stop by today and watch isaac while i whisked around and got a lot of cleaning done. i didn't finish, but it felt so nice to have a two-hour-straight chunk of time to devote to cleaning, and thus make a significant dent!

well, back to my list... because of reasons i just mentioned above, i did not have a lot of time to come up with a list idea, much less write it. so imagine how delighted i was when i logged into yahoo to see an e-mail from baby center with a link to the article called forty-two things that change when you have a baby. i just had to go check it out, and when i did, i thought... "hey, this could be my list!"... except, their list contains forty-two, and i only need forty. but as i read, i could see a few things in their list were not true of me, so i deleted those. then i added my own no. 40 and a bonus no. 41.

okay, here goes. {i left the wording in the original second-person point of view from the article, and i added any of my own thoughts in brackets.}

1. you finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms. {i like to think i stopped to "smell the roses" even before isaac, but perhaps i do it more now.}
2. where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid. {ummmm... maybe for a few things, but not so much.}
3. where you were once afraid, you're now fearless. {this one, i will agree with.}
4. the sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
5. you respect your body... finally. {i think i did so already for the most part, even before isaac came along. but now i respect and am amazed at what a mother's body is capable of.}
6. you respect your parents and love them in a new way. {for sure! and my mom had five under the age of six!... twins for her last two!... don't know how she did it!}
7. you find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.
8. you believe once again in the things you believed in as a child. {sooooo true! the hubby and i look forward to christmas this year so much more than we have for the past several years.}
9. you lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago. {if someone had told me this was true before i had isaac, i would not have believed it. but it is SO very true... and so very revealing!}
10. your heart breaks much more easily. {i wholeheartedly agree.}
11. you think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
12. every day is a surprise.
13. bodily functions are no longer repulsive. in fact, they please you. (hooray for poop!) {well, maybe from a baby... but an adult? i don't think so.}
14. you look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself. {YES! it's pretty funny how little i care about my appearance anymore. and i have to add to this one... when you go into a store, you no longer gravitate toward the women's clothing or jewelry or women's books and movies and such. you now gravitate toward the baby section. any extra money you have to spend, goes to baby! and i wouldn't have it any other way!}
15. you become a morning person. {ummmm... sort of. i wish i could say that is true for me, but i think it will be a while before i can say that and mean it.}
16. your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.
17. you finally realize that true joy doesn't come from material wealth. {i already realized this... but a baby makes it that much more evident.}
18. you now know where the sun comes from. {this was funny to me, because just today, i said to mr. b, "i can't wait until isaac gets to that stage where he is saying, 'mommy, why is the sky blue? where does rain come from?...' "}
19. you'd rather buy a plastic tricycle than those shoes that you've been dying to have. {...sort of like what i was saying above.}
20. you realize that, although sticky, lollipops have magical powers. {i have yet to discover this one... but i could replace "lollipop" with "rattle" or "strand of my hair" or "plush monkey squeaky toy" or "funny faces" and say the same thing.}
21. you don't mind going to bed at 9 p.m. on friday night. {hahaha... i don't mind going to bed any time of day, any day of the week!}
22. silence? what's that? {so far, we have quite a bit of silence. even when isaac is loud, it's not a very loud loud.
23. you realize that the 15 pounds you can't seem to get rid of are totally worth having.
24. you discover an inner strength you never thought you had.
25. you no longer rely on a clock—your baby now sets your schedule.
26. you give parents with a screaming child an "i-know-the-feeling" look instead of a "can't-they-shut-him-up?" one. {oh, my gosh... so true!}
27. you take the time for one more hug and kiss even if it means you'll be late.
28. you learn that taking a shower is a luxury. {yes!!}
29. you realize that you can love a complete stranger. {not sure what i think about this one. even though i did not know isaac was a boy until he was born, i still feel i knew him already by the time he came out. i tried to get to know him while he was in my tummy, so he truly did not seem like a stranger to me when he was born.}
30. you find yourself wanting to make this world a better place.
31. if you didn’t believe in love at first sight before, now you do! {i did, already. i still do.}
32. you start to appreciate sesame street for its intellectual contribution. {so funny! i was just thinking the other day how cartoons are so interesting to me again... the good ones. they completely bored me before isaac. now, it's mostly what i watch... maybe not intellectual on my level, but stimulating none-the-less.}
33. you have to quit watching the news because you see every story from a mother's perspective and it breaks your heart. {this one is not so true, for me. but my heart does break when i watch the news and there are sad stories that directly affect moms and children.}
34. you just plain love life more—everything comes together and becomes better because of one tiny person and your love for them. {YES!!}
35. the support you get from other people surprises you, because the people giving it are not always the ones you'd expect. {yes! i have found that to be true!}
36. nothing is just yours any longer. you share EVERYTHING! {right now, for me, that's just time. but i know soon, it will be a whole lot more.}
37. no matter what you've accomplished in life, you look at your child and think, "i've done a GREAT job!" {i also think to myself... "i've never done anything better or more right until i had isaac!"}
38. you want to take better care of yourself for your child.
39. you can have the most wonderful conversation using only vowel sounds like "ahhh" and "oooo." {hahaha... i love this one! absolutely the truth!}
40. you have less time to blog, but sooooo much more to blog about!
41. {i have to add this last one as a bonus... you forget much more than ever before! i was supposed to get an eyebrow wax last night, which i had scheduled the day before, but it completely slipped my mind and i didn't remember until the middle of the night. i have only had my eyebrows done one time since isaac was born... and that was at the end of july for my brother's wedding! ughhhhh! i hope my blog friend isn't scared of my bushy eyebrows. *wink*}

there you have it! i thought this was a fun list... and i didn't even have to write it myself!! {by the way, this post reminds me a lot of a favorite commercial of mine... one that would tug at anyone's heart strings.}

not sure if i'll be back with a list tomorrow... i guess it depends on when i get back from visiting with sweet stacey. regardless, have a great day!


{p.s. until i get back, enjoy a few photos that my husband took while i was reading to isaac before bed a few nights ago. i thought they would go nicely with this post.}

{i love that mr. b captured the look of wonder on isaac's face here!}


{i love the look on his face in this one. and his hair cracks me up right now. he lost a lot of his newborn hair, and now the shorter peach fuzz is growing in. but he still has those little patches of his original hair, and it gives him the appearance of a funny shaped head... well, funnier than it actually is.}


{"focus, isaac... focus!"}


{old mcdonald's farm animals on this puppet book were scaring him a bit. so i switched to goodnight moon.}


{i think isaac looks like a little old man in the photo above on the right. *wink*}


{the rainbow book on the right is his favorite right now.}

{if you ask me, i'm not lookin' so great in these photos, but see no.14 in my list above if you want to know how i really feel about it. =)... besides, the photos are cute of isaac, and i'm pretty sure that's all that matters to viewers... at least to this viewer. mr. b isn't a bad photographer, is he? i love this last shot. we were reading the rainbow book, which is a pop-up book, and mr. b. artistically shot the photo with the pop-up sun in the foreground.}