The Mysterious Era Before Children

Nana and Pop babysat Madeline on Saturday while they were in town so that Eric and I could have a date night. (Thanks, guys!)  We were obviously very excited and eager to have a night of uninterrupted grownup time, but when we tried to think of something fun and exciting to do, we were stumped.

What did we do for fun before we had a child anyhow? I vaguely remember being an interesting person.  At least I was able to carry on a conversation without inserting words like "potty," "Dada," and "uh-oh!"every few minutes.  And I seriously doubt Eric and I would have decided to breed in the first place if we weren't having a good time together.  I know a lot of drinking was involved in the days before Madeline, but that couldn't have been all...right?

Saturday's experience got me thinking about what else we did with ourselves before we started a family. What, for example, did I do after work if I wasn't grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning up spilled juice, pretending to ride on a boat, taking Madeline to the bathroom, doing laundry, trying to explain where babies get milk from, coaxing Maddie out from under the dining room table, or picking Legos out of my body? (All of which I did this afternoon.)  I think I spent all my free time heating frozen pizza and napping.

Furthermore, I remember getting stressed on occasion before having children, but now I can't for the life of me figure out what I could have possibly been worried about.

Oh no! I napped through Oprah! Now I'll never know John Travolta's secret to happiness!
Oops! The four martinis I just drank were twelve dollars a piece! Well, it's a good thing I don't have to pour my hard-earned dollars into a bottomless mini human.  I guess I'll just give my drunk self a bath in my money now. Damn, there's three new movies I want to see, and I've got a free Sunday afternoon. However will I choose?

I'm not snark-ing against people without children. In all seriousness, I know life is busy and stressful for everyone at times for different reasons.

I just find it interesting how parenting has become so consuming that I can't even conceive of what life was life before we had children.  Project Madeline takes up a lot of resources.  She's sucked all the money, time, and brain cells out of Eric and me and replaced those things with sticky, gummy-bear-flavored kisses.

In the end, we spent Saturday evening browsing home decor stores we usually can't visit with Madeline and her grabby hands. Then we stuffed our faces with burritos and visited a new craft beer store that opened in town. Nothing like browsing the beers of the world while eight months pregnant, let me tell you. Even though our night was not particularly exciting, Eric and I still had a lot of fun just being us.

Meanwhile, in the not so distant future, I will begin to wonder, "Hum, what did I do with all that free time when I only had one kid???"

Nana and Maddie Bear