Feats of Strength
We remembered it was Daylight Savings Time when Holly and Sean showed up an hour early (aka right on time) for our Sunday brunch photo session while we were still in our p.j.s. The rhythm of my days is changing now--first DST, and soon the end of maternity leave--and you might say I'm trying to hold on to what I have while I still have it. Today I stayed in bed with Wombat for an hour while he smiled and cooed and farted and kicked off the covers and poked me in the eye with one particularly ragged talon while I tried to ignore the fact that days like these are numbered.
Okay, maybe I'm being a wee bit dramatic considering I'm only going back to work half-time and will therefore have Mondays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and weekends to snuggle the crap out of my kid before my feet hit the floor at the crack of eleven, but still, change is a-comin' and it's going to be even harder than we thought. I wrote at Work It, Mom today about finding out from a coworker this week that instead of end-of-year bonuses or raises we all got 10 percent pay cuts. Granted, 10 percent of chicken feed is hardly anything at all, but it's still rough knowing that for all the mental contortions I performed that I might feel financially secure on my new part-time salary, they weren't enough to prepare me for this.
I've always been annoyed by magazine articles and talk show teasers that promise to cut my monthly living expenses in half if only I follow their five easy steps; it's always something like "cook dinner at home rather than eating out" or "instead of going to a movie, find free entertainment like visiting a local park." It reminds me of when I used to get calls from phone companies offering to reduce my monthly service bill to $30 when I was only paying $15 in the first place. Simon and I already eat home every night (a can of Denison's turkey chili is only eighty-nine cents with a Safeway card) and the last time we went on a date our biggest expense--and it was a splurge, let me tell you--was a single glazed donut ($1.25).
While I handwring and pace a groove into the Pergo, Simon remains eerily calm. Whether he's putting on a brave face for me or he has a map to a cave of treasures I don't know, but I hope it's the latter. Every time we've passed a major milestone in our relationship, Simon asks if now is the time I reveal I'm actually a princess and heir to an enormous fortune, and even though I always tell him that sorry, there is no fortune, I know he's still holding out hope for a big wedding-night reveal. What I want to know is why I have to be the secretly rich one? Where's YOUR trust fund, buddy?
Oh, but we are rich in love, my friends. Simon took the baby out by himself for the first time while I had my ear turned inside out last Thursday, and although it was only for an hour, it felt like a much bigger accomplishment for all three of us. Simon negotiated the Greatest Record Store in the World with a notoriously mercurial infant, and I found that I wasn't the least bit worried about either of them. Simon made me promise to keep my phone on vibrate even though the doctor's office had signs everywhere ordering in no uncertain terms that all phones be turned OFF, and while I can confess I broke their rule and left my phone on vibrate, I should also confess that I left my phone at the bottom of my purse, which I left on the floor and on the opposite side of the exam room because even more than Simon needed to know I was available to help, I really needed to know the boys could handle each other without my help. Of course they passed with flying colors and celebrated with triumphant body language.
Speaking of triumphant body language, look what happened just a few hours ago.
I was photographing Yogi Wombat's near-perfect bhujangasana, and in the split second it took to put the camera to my eye, he had flipped onto his back, arms and legs waving like those of an upended but joyous stinkbug. "Good job, strong boy!" I exclaimed like any other mother, and then "Do it again so Mommy can get a picture," like any mother with a blog. Now, he likes to tell me he's not my performing monkey, but I think the pictures above speak for themselves.
I called Simon immediately to tell him the news, and although I was expecting to hear excitement in his voice, I wasn't prepared for the disappointment that came from his having missed witnessing the stunt in person. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go handwring and pace to and fro in my Pergo groove because one day soon it will be him calling me about Wombat's latest accomplishment, which I'll have missed out on completely, and only to work for chicken feed minus 10 percent.
i read one of those silly cut-your-living-expenses-in-half articles recently where they said to do your own pedicures at home and not to send out your laundry. hysterical. ha!
sorry about your pay cut. at least you still have your job... but i have friends in your situation and i know they worry.
I think a lot of us are worried. I took a 5% pay cut after we left a third of our staff go. And I've been sitting here with nothing to do for a couple of weeks, very very worried. Pending move to Vancouver coming up but the company has transferred me there so they must have some hope of keeping me busy. In Canada I almost feel it would be a good time for me to make the huge life decision of having a baby because at least I'd get a year off with some pay which would be better than losing my job and trying to qualify for EI.
I always ask Ryan, "Why couldn't ONE of us have married rich?". Alas.
First comes the joy of them rolling over, then it seems like only moments later you're thinking - crap where's the baby I only put him down a minute ago - as he crawls under the nearest piece of furniture...
Enjoy!
i feel the same way...what do you give up when you aren't spending ANYTHING extra? maybe you could decorate other babies for a fee :)
at least we are all in this together. which is, i don't know, depressingly reassuring?
Sigh. Money sicks. Lack thereof, even moreso.
Nice work, Wombat.... for the camera, too? Classic, and you are clearly amazing!
One of my friends got a merit increase in January and was recently told that he will lose this increase in May because of the economy. He is very frugal and is just barely getting by as it is. I hope things get better soon.
Congratulations to both of you on Wombat's rolling over!
I think you have to look at the milestones this way: you both will get to experience some over the course of time and they'll come out roughly even. Both of you NEED to have a few to yourself, just as you NEED to share a few. I know it doesn't help the hurt and disappointment when you miss a big one, but the fact that you're excited at all, that you're proud and that you're disappointed, shows how much you love him.
And in the end, that's what really matters to Wombat, right?
P.S. I get quite annoyed with those articles too. We live the same way you do - all of our meals are at home, we're very very careful with money, we don't splurge and if we do it's for a remarkably small amount. I always wonder how those articles keep getting published because obviously the readers don't listen.
I totally hear you and I totally understand. I went back to work for chickenfeed as well and my husband watches Theo twice a week. Bryan found his first tooth and I wanted to die. It gets easier. But it's hard and there's no way around it. I'm sorry you're going through this.
Hmm, that zikili post is creepy... anyway, Mr. WB is clearly a baby genius and far too advanced for his age. Good job Mama