Back When I Knew It All

When I was pregnant, I had all these beautiful visions of me and my little one enjoying trouble-free days, never watching tv, having fresh baked goodies on a regular basis, and making delicious dinners that could have their spot on Food Network.

And then I had LBB.

Trust me...I might as well have been having visions of hopping around a flower field with a lollipop in my hand.

There are moms out there who can do it...and I applaud them. Moms that can make gourmet, organic, all healthy meals that have never seen the inside of a canning factory. There are moms out there who can serve warm, fresh bread on a regular basis to their loving family, all while looking like they just stepped out of a 1950's Good Housekeeping Magazine.

I am not one of those moms.

In fact, I really think those moms are few and far between...figments of our pre-baby imagination where our little ones always listen, never throw a toy, and always eat their meals. That whole thinking that "When I have kids, I'm not going to feed them applesauce that isn't homemade" and "When my kids are the same age as that mother's, they are not going to throw a tantrum everytime I put them in the cart at Target." Trust me...if you don't have kids of your own yet, I know you're thinking those thoughts. :) I thought them. All. The. Time.

But...then you'll have kids.

And you'll realize that in the whole process of waking up, getting them ready, squeezing in a quick shower for yourself, and then chasing their active little bodies around all day, that somewhere in the middle...

They throw a fit.

They scream at the store.

They refuse to eat their dinner.

And a can of Chef Boyardee Mini Beef Ravioli's may very well become your best friend.

And that, my friends, is the wonderful thing about motherhood. It catches you off guard, in such an amazing way. When you invest long hours being awake in the middle of the night while your little one cries because of a tooth coming in or when you've had the day from *fiddlesticks* because your toddler decided to push every limit he could imagine, those "perfect" things just don't matter.

It's the bedtime kisses at night and being put in charge of watching his baby Anklyosaurus when he goes to bed that make you a good mom.

Nothing else matters much...although it would be pretty awesome to go hopping through a flower field.