I was having a conversation recently with someone about what it’s like to be a parent of a one year old and they asked me to describe what a typical day is like in my life. I stared back with a blank expression.
“Typical?”, I asked.
They tried again: “Yes, you know, what is a normal day like?”
I slowly replied: “Hmmmmm….typ-i-cal….NOR-mal….uhhhhhhhhhh….”. I rolled the words around in my head, trying to search for some meaning, but none would come. It’s not that the fog of sleeplessness had rendered me completely unable to understand the English language. It’s just that we said “sayonara!” to normal a long time ago. There is no “typical” in our world anymore. I might wake up every hour during the night OR I might get to sleep in until 9:00 a.m. I might be able to run all of my errands, clean the house and have time to cook dinner OR I might have a cranky baby who won’t let me go to the bathroom by myself. Some days we’re sick and some days we’re well…basically the only expectation of normalcy is that no two days will be the same. It can be frustrating because it’s difficult to make definitive plans, but it’s also part of what I love about being a parent…we just never know what’s going to come our way. So we’ll sacrifice normalcy for awhile and embrace the chaos in exchange for all of the wonderful unexpected moments.
Taylor climbed down ALL of the stairs in our house, from the very top floor all the way to the garage!