Mommy {Mis} Adventures

I remember the days when I could run an errand (or three) and have it take just a few minutes. I’d wear cute clothes without spit-up stains, run or hit the gym four times a week, and take longer than three minutes to eat lunch. My car was clean, I showered once a day, and had time to talk to my best friend on the phone.

Now… well, let’s just say the shirt I’m currently wearing probably has more than just spit-up on it.

I live near a fabulous {dare I say, famous} mall that I used to visit quite frequently. I hadn’t been since before Baby B was born, but needed to go because I had a return to make at this fabulous and famous mall. We were on the way home from a doctor’s appointment for B (a story for a whole ‘nother day) and he started screaming with hunger. I saw the mall, knew that it would be a good place to feed him AND get my errands done at the same time, so I stopped in for a minute.

So smart, right?

As I sat on a bench giving B a bottle, I realized I was in front of a store where I used to buy my “trendy” clothes back when I was three sizes smaller. I watched everyone walk by, dressed in the cutest shoes and hottest bags and perfectly tailored outfits. Teens, moms, grandmoms– they all looked fabulous. And there was my reflection in the glass of that trendy store, looking three sizes bigger and holding a screaming baby and wearing an outfit only because it fit and not because I liked it.

This should be the part where I bitch and moan about my life now that I have two kids. About all I’ve given up, about how much I miss my old life. But I actually didn’t get to that point, because as I looked at myself in that glass I saw something else reflected back:

A pair of 20-somethings slowed down and stared at me. One said to her friend, “stop plotting ways to steal that baby.” She replied, “I’m not going to steal the baby, but maybe that cute stroller. Okay, maybe also the baby.”

I looked up as a pair of grandparents passed by, ooohing over B. My parents would have done the same thing.

Someone else walked by and pointed at my diaper bag, wondering where I got it.

It was then I truly saw myself, as a mom, doing the thing I always wanted to do. It just looked different than I thought.

And then B had a major, five minute long poop that ended up being a blow-through. As I frantically searched my bag juggling a bottle, B, and the burp cloth I had {thankfully} thrust under him to protect my pants I realized I didn’t have a change of clothes for him.

I did the only thing I could do– dress him in the too-small outfit I had come to return.

cue the music… wah, wah, wahhhhhhhh.

Score one for the little guy. 😉