Despite the fact that I find them endlessly annoying, I need to write an open letter to my blog. It needs to know I feel sorry for neglecting it. I’m just going to get it out of my system real quick, if y’all don’t mind.
Dear Blog,
I miss you. I named you before I named my baby (officially, at least.) There are so many silly things just bouncing around in my mind that I want to tell you about, but what with the baby and all, they are just going to continue bouncing. I promise that someday soon, we will have our day in the sun again.
Love,
Emily
Somehow, now that B is home for the summer, it seems as though I have less time to get my daily activities done, and blogging has fallen by the wayside. Actually, though, I think him being home is just a red herring. In the past week, Miss C has come alive, Peter Frampton style. A lot of people commented in the weeks following her birth that they were amazed that I was finding time to blog and comment and all that. Well, back then it was easy because all she did was eat and sleep. I would just park the iPad on whatever side she wasn’t on and get to blogging when I wasn’t gazing at her, amazed at this little being we had created.
Well, all of a sudden she is a real human being who is awake during normal business hours and loves to be engaged. She plays, she watches, she smiles, she acts like a person instead of a bag of sugar. I love talking to her and hearing her babble and coo back, so that’s a lot of what I’ve been doing. Even if she is perfectly capable of hanging out in her Pack N’ Play and batting at the mobile like a little kitten all by herself, I can’t very well just leave her. She’s just too dang adorable to go unnoticed.
I’m sorry, but my baby is freaking adorbs. Now you see why I can’t ignore her.
So time is of the essence. It’s flying by way too fast and sometimes doing the laundry and making silly faces at The Girl takes a priority over blogging.
*Sniff.*
I am moving at a snail’s pace getting stuff done. Only yesterday were we finally able to make the trip to the county courthouse to pick up Miss C’s birth certificate. We received her Social Security card in the mail nearly seven weeks ago. When the SSA outpaces you, you know you’re too slow.
I was intrigued when Bellissimom tagged me in a little game asking me how I find the time to get my stuff done. I think it’s geared towards new parents, but any big change in one’s life requires re-prioritizing and reorganizing of their daily rituals. Bellissimom asked me how I find the time to get my shiznit done, and in true new-parent fashion, here I am weeks later with some answers.
So, how do I find the time to….
…do the laundry? I am mental – MENTAL – about the laundry. It’s one of those things that I can’t concentrate on anything else if I know it’s sitting in a corner plotting a way to get grosser and stinkier than it already is. I’m on a mission to get it done in the same way that the pilot of the Enola Gay was on a mission. I will bomb that pile of mess to kingdom come, even if it means getting up super early or staying up late to do it. It’s me against spittuppy onesies, and I aim to win. Oh, and we’re going to transition to clothe diapers next week, so the fun will just continue.
…write a blog post? The same way I “find the time” to get my kid to sleep; ie, wait for the cosmos to conk her out. The ball’s in her court on this one. The blog is basically about her, and at this point in her nine-week life, she dictates when I hammer out these posts.
…be the parent you want to be?
…find time for yourself? Bellisimom separated these last two questions but I am going to squish them together. I find the time to be the parent I want to be by setting aside a little bit of time each day for myself. Every night without fail, B takes over Miss C care at 9:30PM – whether she’s sleeping, eating, or crying – and I am 100% off duty for at least four hours or until she stirs past 1:30AM. I shut the door to our bedroom and read baby books about her development, pray for her, and read non-baby books for me. Right now I am chasing Brazelton with A Clockwork Orange. My reading and meditation time makes me sane. It gives me something to look forward to each day. I can reflect on my role as a mother, learn about Miss C’s development, just do a little something for myself. It keeps me balanced, and Miss C deserves a balanced mom.
According to the rules of this game, I am now supposed to tag three people to play. Here’s who I choose:
Now for my questions for them. I think I am technically supposed to answer my own questions too, but you’ve heard enough from me today already.
How do you find the time to…
…read something purely for pleasure?
…cook something special OR eat at your favorite restaurant?
…shut off the world?
So for the people that I have just tagged, here are the rules:
- Please post the rules;
- When answering the questions, give as much information as possible;
- Leave a comment on Sex, drugs, rocker…and stroller, baby. This is so we can keep track of the meme and take a polite nose into everyone else’s lives; Emily talking now, I didn’t do this. Laundry called.
- Tag 3 or more people and link to them on your blog. Add new questions, delete old questions and play about with the rules.
Happy Tuesday!
The Waiting 
Excellent answers!
And take your time with the (extremely!) adorable baby. We’ll be here when you have time…
That’s what I love about WordPress…everyone’s cool and understanding. Thanks, Guap!
I have laundry, revision, an essay to write and a distraction adorable Grandson (it’s just as bad if you’re a Nanna if not worse because you haven’t had to do the night feeds!) loving reading your blog instead of all the other stuff I have to do :) P.S your girl is a real cutey xx
Thanks! My mom is coming for a visit next week and I am going to glut her with Miss C time.
I love that you take the daily “you” time. That is so good for you and having a little time is really the only way any level of sanity can be maintained!
Isn’t it strange how they are starting to become little people now rather than a lump that just sleeps and eats and poops!!
I’m very blessed that my husband is a teacher so he gets the summer off. It frees me up to take time for myself for things like working out and getting together with friends occasionally. I’d love to say I enjoy having C attached to me at all times, but sometimes I just need to be Emily for five minutes, not just C’s mom. The upside is that it makes me appreciate her all the more when I return to her.
Cecille has one smart Mommy !
And a smart Bubby! :)
Love A Clockwork Orange, great read! Despite the content it’s still a much better choice than The Lovely Bones, which someone gave to my mum when V was one month old, OMG.
It’s true, Miss C is totally adorable. Nature’s pretty smart the way it makes us adore our kids ;)
If I hadn’t seen the movie 100 times I don’t know if I could follow it, it’s so crazy with a vocabulary all its own.
I cannot BELIEVE someone gave your mum The Lovely Bones when the baby was only a month old. Did the same person recommend that she watch Rosemary’s Baby when she was pregnant? Ugh! Context, people, context!
Nerd alert–that crazy vocabulary is actually slightly mangled Russian!
I had a feeling it was! It seemed kind of familiar.
I hate having to balance my day. I hate cleaning so I try to always do it on my day off. That way, I know it will get done once a week and I know which day to do it. Everything else kind of falls into place. Probably because I don’t have a baby. Haha. Looks like you’ve got everything under control though! Your little gal is super cute!
I don’t like having to balance my day either, mostly because I dislike planning ahead for things. But with a baby, I’m forced to. This is the part where the little violin comes in….waaaaa, I have a super cute baby who makes me think ahead a couple days. What a terrible, terrible life I have. ;)
Thanks for the tag ;) Now I’m forced to getting round to updating my blog, hehe! You’ve done me a favour really…I’ll do it in the next few days, I promise!
Miss C is still as adorable as ever!
Daisy
No problem! Take your time…I certainly did.
I think my partner needs to take over baby duty every night. My daughter is now 9 months and a huge hassle now she can crawl and pull herself up on things. I could definitely use the time out on some days. Except she’s always in bed by 9.30 and fast asleep so perhaps more like 6.30
Seriously, it’s awesome just having a bit of time to yourself. Get your partner on that!
Pictures of your baby are not helping my particular brand of crazy right now. So freaking adorable.
I’ll try to find a picture of her screaming at 3AM so as to offer a more well-rounded depiction of her ;)
This post is so sweet, and I love that you are having time to yourself every night. Thank goodness for B! He is awesome! This post really makes me think about those questions too, so thank you for that! This has been a crazy week (now who is behind on blogs?!), and it’s been really helpful to me to think about how I make time for myself and handle stress (so far, not so well!) I think I may do a post about it (sticking my internetical nose into the conversation!) if I can come up with anything useful to say (for myself or anyone else). Love you!
My head would explode if not for Mr. B. A lot of new dads don’t take an active roll in parenting their newborns, but he is incredibly caring and alert to her. He doesn’t just pop in when she’s in a good mood or clad in clean diapers. It is a beautiful thing?
Oh and that last question mark is supposed to be an exclamation mark. Not up for debate :)
[…] a little one into the world and it absolutely changes how you manage your time. She shared her own tips for finding time to do certain things and now it’s my turn! I’m supposed to answer […]