Motherly Talent

There are many gifts and talents, many developed out of necessity, that a woman gains when she becomes a mother. One of those is the ability to do many tasks previously thought to require two hands with just one.

Below are a sampling of these tasks:

1. Vacuum

2. Pick up another child and put all 20-40 pounds of that child into a shopping cart, car seat, stroller, chair, in a time-out, or wherever their little body needs to be.

3. Push a stroller or shopping cart

4. Eat. I have yet to meet a food that I cannot consume while balancing and holding a baby on my lap. Longs strands of spaghetti? Bring them on. Stir fries, soups, ice cream sundaes with ooey gooey carmel strands. Not a problem. In full disclosure, I suppose I am not able to handle chopsticks with one hand (but let's be honest. I kind of stink at regardless)

5. Use the restroom (this one I have only been done a couple of times and is not easy, but when you are faced with setting your child on a public floor or holding them, you figure it out pretty quickly)

6. Pick up toys, wipe a counter, and do most any basic tidying up job.

7. Go to the park, put other kids on swings, push other kids, wipe noses, dole out snacks, take kids on bathroom runs, all while forgetting you are even holding a baby.

Although I can do all of the above, I would say that I am just average in this mothering ability. I have heard of friends nursing while cooking, painting their living rooms with a baby in a Bjorn and my mother has recounted the incredible story of watching my aunt swoop her crying child out of his car seat and nursing him all while driving. A STICK SHIFT. This was before all the seatbelt laws and not something I would be comfortable doing, but I am nevertheless amazed that she was able to do it (although my aunt is pretty amazing). How? I mean...how??

Mason and I at the park this weekend

(For the record Mason has been my most content baby and although held a lot he is also happy to just chill out in a bouncy seat, swing, and most recently his exersaucer. It felt like I spent the whole first four months of Kiwi's life holding or "wearing" her and Little Man seemed to have an uncanny ability to cry every time we sat down to eat.)