Six months!

Oh my, the kiddies are now six months old, and a few days. It is amazing how fast these things go. They were so tiny and now, well, they are still tiny but they are a little less tiny than they were. They are not so fragile anymore and of course much more aware of the world around them. They play and 'talk' ("wa wa waa!") and do all kinds of things. It amazes me every day.

In the mean time my life is falling back into place. Some bits are in a different spot than they were before all this, and some things just fall back into their slots like they never left. The biggest difference with before is of course that I now have two little ones at home to think about, not just one big one who can take care of himself. Before I could stay at work and finish something before heading home, calling that I would be late, no worries. Now I usually need to leave on time in order to get home at a reasonable hour to help put the kiddies to bed. Never mind trying to get to daycare on time - if I wanted to do that, I would need to leave Rotterdam around four in the afternoon. Considering how I can't be there before 9.30 if I also drop off the kiddies in the morning, that would make for some really short workdays!

Other changes are e.g. my activities during my 'free time'. It is just not possible to do all the things I did before: biking around to go to the market, drinking coffee with a newspaper or two or three to read for an hour or two, all those things. I don't mind all that much. I still sometimes do it when G watches the kiddies on the weekends. Now I also get to walk around with the kiddies and see the parks etc. in a whole new way. I am looking forward to spring and summer when the weather will be better and the kiddies will be even older.

One consequence of the shift in time management is how to deal with friends etc. It is not so easy anymore to have spontaneous meet-ups (text: "wanna beer?", not that that happened very often) and again there is the home situation to think about. Can't keep taking advantage of your partner as a babysit! Haha!

The funny thing is that I had expected to be swamped in Mom Friends by now. You know, you hear that all the time: by the time you get pregnant (maternity gym!) and/or your kiddies go to daycare/school, you get new friends who are in the same 'life phase' as you. That always scared me more than it inspired me, but okay. Well waddayaknow: it didn't happen so far. The people from maternity yoga were nice enough but we were at different stages of our pregnancies and didn't start and finish at the same time so it wasn't exactly a coherent group. I didn't get anyone's contact details, for example. And now at the daycare I hardly speak with other parents. Sometimes very briefly but it doesn't get much deeper than "how are you?" and "what a sweet baby you have!" Okay, I also get remarks like "oh you are the mother of The Twins" but that's it.

On one hand this is a little disappointing. Somehow I would have liked to make new friends. I am always on the market for new friends. New friends are a good thing. On the other hand I (still) don't feel comfortable being a Mom Friend myself. You know, talk about your kids and nappies and sleeping patterns and 'can your kid crawl yet?' (no) and all that. I already see that my kiddies aren't as fast as other kiddies sometimes but I am not so worried - I feel worse about not seeing that as a problem, to be honest. (I hope the consultation bureau sees it the same as me.) Plus I already get plenty of advice and tips. It seems like Mom Friends can't get enough of the kiddies talk though. And then whinge about how they don't talk about anything else but the kids anymore... Yah.

G and me now agreed that we each have one evening to ourselves every week. That evening we can each plan something freely: a concert, a night hanging out with a friend, whatever. (Got an idea? Call me. I'm sure I have my one night free for you! :D) Plus we get about three hours on the weekend each. So he can go biking, I can do my coffee&newspaper thing, etc. Of course this is pretty flexible and work things are not included because that would be unfair. So far this is working. We'll see how it goes in the long run.

My apologies for the long and not particularly interesting post this time. I just felt it was time to post something again. Also apologies for any typos and grammar/spelling mistakes. Blame the gods of being tired. Next post will be better: more inspired and inspiring, more interesting and above all, better written. ;-)