Nine to Five.

So, I recently noticed that I am experiencing how to raise children backwards. I know I don't have any. Just let me explain.

When my mom died (and really even before) I was raising teenagers. I taught Abby all through her senior year. It was me who made the list of daily chores, drove her to practices, games, activities. I made food when she had friends over, and bought her birthday, graduation, and other event decorations. I sweetly advised against too short of skirts, and I exasperatingly told her to kindly tell her friends to leave. I was tired, and I had work in the morning. I was 19.

Then I started raising a toddler. I had the cutest child of all time to look after. At three years old I took over where my mom left off. Cede was (and is) a little tape recorder. Say something to her and seconds later you will hear it come out of her mouth. I tried diligently to "raise" her as well. I potty trained her, I taught her how to write letters and numbers, I taught her all of the lyrics to "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift (all of the fundamentals). We went to the pool, we read stories, we watched cartoons, we made cookies, we finger painted, we played with sidewalk chalk. We talked and sang and stomped in mud puddles.

Now. Its a whole new ballgame. I am currently spending a good amount of time with one of the most extraordinary beings of all time. An infant.

Two weeks ago, I started my new job. I get to his house, feed him, put him to bed, play with him; repeat 6X. I do this everyday, 5 days a week. It is still new for me. I sit in there and just stare at how beautiful he is. He is perfect. Those HUGE eyes and that perfect skin, and my favorite; his soft chicky fuzz hair. Its weird for me too. I didn't understand that babies sleep so much! The first time I came thinking, I'll have time during his nap to get some homework done. Hmm, nope. Its more like, I'll have time during all six of his naps to get some homework done. That is, if I can wash and get ready his bottle for the next feeding first, plus also clean up all of the messes we somehow made in the thirty seconds that he was awake. I'll say one thing. It sure makes the day go fast!

I also didn't know how scheduled babies are. I mean, that little thing is an alarm clock. I don't even need to look at a clock. I do though, just to test him. He's won every single time. I think to myself, nah...he's all messed up because we went for a walk today. Oh no. On the button. He sleeps one hour. He eats every two (which I am told is because he is growing, he will soon go to three hours). When I say "every" I mean it. Its amazing. Sometimes I wonder if he checks the time on my phone while I'm not looking and then decides to cry. Its really the only explanation.

By the way, I should probably stop here and say, he is so good. I mean, I have zero experience, as far as babies go, but I do know that not crying is a good thing. I also know that crying only when 1. He's hungry, 2.He's tired, 3. He needs his pants changed is an awesome thing. Since the other things are on a perfectly timed schedule, and the last thing has its own "way of letting me know" it pretty much takes the guessing out of it.

I'm really thankful. I cannot explain how stinkin nervous I was about this. I suppose because it was a lot of pressure, and also because I had no experience. God has been gracious to me though. That first day, when I had no clue, I was so terrified and I left feeling like it was going to be a long day every day. So I prayed. I prayed that somehow, God would let my maternal instincts take over. I know that they're probably in there somewhere and that's how everyone else figures it out, so even though I never gave birth (thank goodness!!!) I thought I might have some sort of intuition type of a thing. Sure enough. Its there!

So, yes I am exhausted, and I sure as heck have a lot more empathy for people with babies and I can tell them from experience, it only gets better. Toddlers are so much fun, and then those teenage years are great because you get to watch them become who they are going to be.

I'm just glad someone let me practice on their kids, cause maybe one day having mine will be a breeze!

Biggest worry: getting peed on. Still hasn't happend. Knock on wood.