Mom the Veteran

It's still hard for me to believe that I have two children now.  I run into old friends or see celebrities on TV that had kids way before me.  I saw them as mothers, and saw myself as, well- as just me... solo me, not a mom.  A lot of these people stopped at one child or are just getting pregnant again now.  I realized that at some point, I passed them up and I didn't really notice.  The turtle won the race (unless they go for three; then they can take the prize).

I finally felt like a real veteran mom of two during Diego's last speech therapy session.  Armed with my new sit and stand stroller, I felt ready to take on my first outing - solo.  I mean really solo.  No hubby, no parents, no other friends with their children.  Just me and the boys.  Absolutely no one else.

The therapy session outing was a success!  The new stroller really helped me.  On my way out I happily strolled my boys through the sliding doors of the the hospital and turned to pick up my car from valet parking.  I noticed there was a small line forming at the valet, and as I found myself taking my place in line I literally laughed out loud.

"I guess this is the stroller line," I said as I realized that I was third in a line made completely out of moms and their strollers.  They laughed along with me.  I took a moment to note that I was the only one with 2 kids.

The first woman's car was returned to her.  As she got ready to load up her car, she hesitated and instead turned timidly toward the other two women who were second in line and asked,

"Do you mind helping me put my baby in the car?  This is our first time out."

I couldn't help but smirk to myself.  I had been in that woman's shoes not too long ago, too intimidated to even try to understand how a stroller and carrier worked.  And now it was as if I were a seasoned pro with my nifty, specialized stroller taking on the world all by myself.  OK - to you it might seem like I was just ready to load my car, but to me - I was conquering the WORLD at that moment!  I felt great!

But then the two women started making gaga-eyes at Mateo, and he started crying. All my world-conquering emotions were instantly suppressed with the one goal of getting my baby to shut the hell up.  And I was failing.

So much for conquering the world.

Sigh.

Working on getting Mateo into some speech social therapy - Shirley