Yes, that's a picture from before Chickpea was around, taken during our honeymoon a little over a year ago now. I thought today would be a good day to post a picture of us in our carefree, pre-parent days because today we were reminded just how much the entire world has changed for us now that we have a child.
Today was "practice" morning at daycare, which was a big, big deal. Not for Audrey-- for us. We spent hours last night planning what to pack in her diaper bag, and this morning we were running around like it was a full-on fire drill. When we reached Esme's (Esme is the wonderful person who will be taking care of Audrey) it became clear that she suggests these practice days for the parents' sake, not the kids. She immediately told us how adorable our baby is, assured us that we'd packed everything right, and told us that Audrey would be fine and that we could call as soon as we got home, if we wanted to. (We didn't, but the temptation was powerful.) She had to sort of shoo us out the door because we just stood there, unable to leave. Another parent dropping off his baby looked at us and said, "First day?" Esme was already holding Audrey, who looked a bit bewildered, but fine. We drove away feeling like we'd left our hearts back at Esme's. Scott left to do some work, I went home. Somehow, I made it through the next three and a quarter hours, frantically cleaning and rearranging things in the house and talking to a friend on the phone to distract myself. I considered checking to see if my downstairs neighbor was at home so I could maybe hold her baby for a few minutes as a fix, but I figured she's busy too and didn't need me at her door trying to snatch her child from her. At last I hopped in the car to go pick up Audrey. Would she still remember me? I could hardly stand it a moment longer.
Then, as often happens when I drive places, I made a teensy navigational error and could not find Esme's street where I was sure it was. I drove down the street and looked again-- nada. In a panic I called Scott and shrieked, "I can't find the daycare! I've lost the daycare!" Scott told me which street I needed to turn onto, and then confessed that he was actually already there, waiting to meet us because he missed her so much. When we arrived, Esme and her helpers were serving lunch to an adorable bunch of toddlers all seated in a little circle of highchairs, and Audrey was fast alseep in her carseat, ready to be taken home. Esme reported that Audrey was very happy the whole morning, and the other kids enjoyed meeting her. I think I must have still had a wild look in my eyes because Esme very gently suggested that maybe we could do another practice day next week, no charge. "For mom," she said. I feel this woman knows me already.
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