you're on baby time

I have never been what one would call a regimented sort of person. When I think about high school, or college, I think of a horrible messy room, long late nights up doing something the very day of the due date, and possibly even doing some things after the very date of the due date. My old friends would be so amazed at my life now, with my schedules about eating and sleeping. I think if you voted for "the person least likely to have a childrens' daily schedule and family monthly calendar posted on the fridge" in college, I would definitely have won that one. But they change your life, kids, and you realize that things are a lot, lot easier with a schedule. Especially if you have a husband who goes to sleep about 8:30pm every night. Then you better bet you put the kids the bed early in attempts at having a marriage too. Geez, cake AND eating? Yikes.

The summer is so hard on people like me, with functioning ADHD and who used to be night-owls, since we get about 4 hours of sleep if we stay up 'til 12 or 1am. I used to live at night, but now it's 8:30 and even I am falling asleep on the couch. But my inner me wants to get out there and DO SOMETHING!! So I get up, put in the laundry, go outside and weed, spray paint a chair, come in and clean the bathroom sink, and then wonder why it's 12:30am again. I have a schedule, but I have yet to fully learn the art of time-management. The late setting sun tricks me into believing it's 10pm every night, but still, I love the summer.

After July 4 every year I basically give up. It's my feeling, as I'm getting the kids dressed into something red, white, and blue, that I might as well unpack the winter clothes, because it's almost OVER. And it does go that fast. I thought summer flew when I was in school--but with kids, your world is in fast-motion all the time. Except when they're nursing at 3am for the 5th time that night, then time goes really slow. You'd be amazed.

Last week my kids and I were at Sears Portrait Studio (I'd show you the photo, but I think that's against the RULES) picking up an order, and I saw a sign on the wall that said, "Please be patient, we're on baby time," with a photo of a baby crawling. And I thought, that's good--baby time. Maybe one day at a time is baby time. One small crawl, or step, or leap.

There's so many times when children are young that you really can't wait for things. I can't wait for this kid to talk, you think a lot, especially with the first. I can't wait for this tooth to push through, or this clumsy phase to end. "I can't wait for this kid to sleep through the night" is a popular refrain among new parents. But soon they're four, and older, and all you really have to do is shout upstairs "GET BACK TO BED PLEASE" instead of rock them back to sleep. Then you have the mindpower to begin thinking about a time when they won't need you so much. And then about the time when they actually won't need you. And then, possibly most scariest, the time that you will need them. And maybe, just maybe, that makes this time of teething and not sleeping through the night just a little more bearable, knowing it won't last. At least that much is true; they always remind you that no matter the schedule, time flies.

Or crawls, but really fast.