Life sure has changed a lot since my son, Abel, was born last May. Actually, I'm pretty sure the transformation began while I was pregnant. Either way, it's safe to say that a few of our standards are now rare occurrences and things we did occasionally no longer stand a chance. Here are five things we said and did with whimsy pre-baby, but no longer even dare to utter:
"Turn up the TV." You're more likely to hear my husband and I say, "Turn on the subtitles!" these days. Even though our son isn't super-sensitive to noise, I remain paranoid that we'll wake him up. If he's asleep, you can pretty much bet the television volume is down really low and subtitles are turned on.
Read more*¿Qué Más?:* Be careful, moms–it turns out babies can actually read your mind!
"Let's have a bottle of wine with dinner." Don't get me wrong, we still imbibe as we please, but I can no longer manage more than two small glasses without feeling either tipsy or guilty. I'm officially a lightweight.
"Roadtrip!!!" I have absolutely no problem traveling with my kid, but gone are the days of spur of the moment roadtrips and overnight stays. There's way too much planning necessary when traveling with a baby for us to even consider winging it.
"Let's go to the movies." We've been to the movies exactly once since the birth of our son. We LOVE movies, but it's friggin' hard to find a babysitter, especially if we don't plan it like two weeks in advance. And if we do make it out, you better believe we'll be at the matinee and not the post-dinner showing.
"Wanna get together for dessert?" Yeah, you know what, my kid behaves pretty decently when we go out, but I'd rather not push it by starting an outing at or even near bedtime. That brownie sundae is just really not worth a bedtime battle. "Are you opposed to having dessert before dinner?" I'm not–that we can handle.
"It's so good to be just the two of us!" Despite how quickly our former way of life has disappeared, neither I nor my husband would have it any other way. All the fun of our past life doesn't even compare to the joy our son brings each of us on a minute-to-minute basis. He is worth every sacrifice–the big ones and the little ones.
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