A friend who was staying with us over the weekend was asking me if my perception of time had changed since I quit my job to become a SAHM. If you’d asked me before the Hatchling’s arrival, I’d have thought that’s exactly what would have happened – the days would all blend together, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Monday and Friday, blah, blah, blah. But I’ll tell you, if there’s one thing that’s going to make you feel the difference between the work week and the weekend, it’s being the stay-at-home parent. The clock hits 5, you better believe I’m watching the clock for Mr. Squab to get home. And weekends are when I’m not the sole caregiver during the day! Woot!
But where I have noticed some warping in my sense of time is in the passage of the months and seasons. For example, I’m having the devil of a time remembering that it’s January, that we’re in a new year. It just doesn’t compute, somehow. When I was working in corporate hell, the seasons passed, tantalizingly, outside the windows of my skyscraper. Sure, it was kind of cool to watch the snow falling from the 20th floor, or see the stormclouds gathering miles away. But my abiding response to the year passing was one of wishing I were “out there” in the weather, in the world – anywhere but facing another day in that damn cubicle. So maybe that accounts for the shift: now I can be “out there” whenever I want. There’s nothing the Hatchling loves more than being outside. Whatever the weather, as soon as we step out the door she smiles and sticks out her tongue, tasting the air delightedly. When the leaves are falling, we can go and catch them right then – no waiting until 5:00 or until this meeting is over or until the project is done. When the snow flies, we can stand in front of the window for hours if we want to, watching the flakes fall – and then go out and have a snowball fight or make snow ice cream or whatever. It’s, you know, pretty fucking awesome. Even when Mr. Squab doesn’t get off work on time.
In other news, the Hatchling had her 9 month well-baby check today, and what do you know, she is one well baby! 21 lbs, 11 oz (90th percentile), head circumference 46.4 cm (95th percentile), and height 29 1/2 inches (off the charts). I told the doctor that people often mistake her for a 1-year-old, and he was like, “Yeah, well, that’s because she’s the size of an average 1-year-old.” Pah. “Average.” As if.
