10 THINGS I SAID I'D NEVER DO

thanks for the great post idea, stacy!

as i've jumped into this 'two kids' gig, i've noticed that i'm doing quite a few things i said i'd never do. and i do them a lot. i think its called survival mode? some of them relate to parenting, and some don't, but anyways, here are ten things i said i'd never do, in no particular order:

1. back when i was single and naive, i always said i'd never EVER let my legs get prickly/hairy once i was married. no way was i going to let my husband feel legs that weren't meticulously and perpetually smooth, how embarrassing would that be?!

BAHAHAHAHAHA! i laugh out loud at my 20-year old self.

funny story: as i was pushing, just before lia was born, i thought to myself; 'gee linds, you really should have tried to shave once in the last three months so that your husband and nurse didn't have to hold such 'au naturale' legs right now.' but then i was giving birth so i promptly forgot about such things. plus, i like to think that as you get older you get a better perspective on what's really important in a marriage. that, or nothing really embarrasses me anymore...

2. before i was a parent, i said i'd never let the television babysit my kids. i grew up in an almost tv-free home. we didn't have cable {my parents still don't have cable!} so there was never anything on except the news, and my mom was really strict about screen time. we had family movie night almost every week, and i went through a phase where i watched saturday's warrior every chance i could, but that's about all i remember. how awesome is my mom, btw? anyways, i was determined that i would raise my kids the same way... but in real life, the tv does babysit my toddler. on the days he decides not to nap, it gives us both one hour of 'quiet time' and since baby sister arrived it's the one way to keep him from destroying the house while i nurse. i confess, i don't love it, but i am grateful for it.

3. i always said i'd never go on a diet. i declared i'd rather be chubby than give up chocolate and ice cream and all those glorious carbs. but then i really struggled to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight after i had luc and it was rough- my energy levels were down, my self-esteem was down, my emotional eating was way up. i felt gross constantly- bloated, too full, cranky, and tired. so i dieted and added a little exercise to my life, and besides the bonus of losing a few pounds, i learned how to take care of my body, how to eat what i needed to physically thrive instead of eating my feelings in the form of endless chocolate bars. actually it was incredibly freeing to realize that i didn't NEED to eat all the time, that i could give up all the snacks and not starve.

4. i was never ever going to co-sleep with my babies. i love my sleep and there was no way i was going to share my bed with a wiggly, sweaty baby/toddler who likes sleep on top of me. that is, before i actually had that wiggly, sweaty baby who didn't sleep at night unless he was sleeping on top of me, and then after he was finally sleeping through the night as a toddler, decided that 6 am was an appropriate time to start the day. PUT HIM IN MY BED AND FOR THE SAKE OF ALL THAT'S HOLY, LET ME GO BACK TO SLEEP became my new mantra.

5. i declared i'd never go a year without traveling somewhere amazing. i love to travel. i'd much rather spend money on an experience than on things like clothes or shoes- i'll pick a trip over new stuff every day of the week. and from the middle of high school to college, i was on a hot streak. french canada, italy twice, france twice, england, mexico, and spain, 5 years in a row. but then orlando started law school and that became our new expensive 'trip' on the east coast. and now we have our babies and its harder to leave. hopefully we can sneak off to someplace fun the next year or so, fingers crossed!

6. i said i'd never like kettle corn. popcorn should be so buttery and salty it could induce a heart attack. that was my strict rule-i didn't even like caramel corn!- until we moved to cleveland and i tried the hundreds of flavors at campbell's sweets. my favorites turned out to be the kettle corn and the dichotomy corn- white cheddar and caramel corn mixed. i could eat an entire bag by myself in one sitting. it was amazing, and i'll forever be converted to sweet popcorn. {anyone in cleveland want to mail me a bag of campbell's dichotomy popcorn?}

7. i said i'd never wear workout clothes anywhere EXCEPT working out. yeah, that one bit the dust when luc was born. i could exercise OR get ready, but never both. now with two kids, i can't do either. so i've lowered my standard to 'its perfectly acceptable to wear workout clothes everywhere, regardless of whether any exercising actually happened'

8. before i had kids, i always said i'd never forget what it's like to be a kid. then it hit me this week- i forgot. i hurry luc along when he sees an interesting rock and wants to stop. i don't understand his need to be the noisiest train on the planet as he 'chuffs' around the house. i don't share his fascination for taking things apart/making a huge mess, and i say 'not right now' way too often. if not now, when? i'm working on this one, i want to be more like him, he's way more fun.

9. growing up with curly hair in a decade that wasn't the 80's was hard, and for the majority of my life, i said i'd never love my hair. i daydreamed about permanently straightening my hair for YEARS. thankfully, i married a man who loves my curls, and because he loved them, i gradually started to love them too. and now i wouldn't dream of straightening my hair!

10. i said i'd never work outside the home while i had little kids. i love being a stay-at-home mom but i do admit that while it is incredibly fun and fulfilling and wonderful, it is only one facet of who i am. so when we moved to arizona at the end of the summer last year and finally felt settled for what may be a large chunk of our lives, i started thinking about life down the road and what i wanted to do. on a whim (at 39.5 weeks pregnant no less) i looked online at some of the local museums to see who was hiring. honestly, i had no intentions of actually finding something, i was looking 'just for fun'. but there was this open part-time (like 10-20 hours a month) position at the children's museum (which we LOVE) and i suddenly knew i had to apply for it. there was no question, i knew something perfect like this wouldn't come around again anytime soon. so i applied right then, and they called me the next morning to come in and interview. i interviewed on my due date haha! they were awesome and offered me the job and then kindly gave me six weeks off to have a baby :). i've only worked one event (i'm on the museum event staff) so far but i love it. it's a good balance for me right now, to be home 95% of the time AND to have a few hours here and there to get out and do something else i enjoy.