A little conversation

The conversation went like this:
  "I love you" (me to our 5 month old)
  "Ahh waaav oooo" (our 5 month old)
  "Oh yeah, you love me"
  "Eaaaa"

Okay I know she didn't really say it but it really sounded like it. She is such a cute little talker, these are the moments you never want to forget when you are mom.

There are times I know that I miss out on these little moments and I kick myself for that. It is something I strive to better about myself as a mom. I have the overwhelming honor, privilege and ability to be a stay at home mom and I would hate myself if I thought I didn't take full advantage of it.

It is hard to believe just 4 short years ago I was teaching and was worried about "giving up" my career to be a stay at home mom. Now I can't imagine trading anything for it. I know a mom who recently had to go back to work (her choice) after he baby was born and she seemed happy about it (though of course she was going to miss her baby girl) but it made me so sad to think about leaving my kids all day with someone else.

I hope you aren't reading this thinking. She hates moms who go back to work, or she thinks they are doing something wrong by leaving her kids with a responsible adult (family member, daycare etc...), that is not what I am saying. I was raised by 2 working parents and don't think I turned out all that bad. It is your choice and I believe it is a choice you and your spouse need to make and both agree on. I firmly believe you are a better mom if you are happily working then if you are miserably "stuck" at home with the kids all day. I don't even know what to say about the moms who want to be home but for financial reasons can't. I can say when I started to stay home the salary I was leaving would have just barely began to cover child care so it was easy to say well no reason to make the money if the only reason we need it is to sign the check and hand it over to the daycare.

It did mean sacrifices, we lived the first year in our house with no Internet, home phone, cable/satellite TV, and with the only items in our home that we purchased ourselves being our bed and couches. We didn't live a glamorous life but we lived a happy one. And still do.

Now thanks to some answers to prayer and good budgeting on our part we have Internet. Yup that's what changed. We have a little more in the bank and a chance to get to send our older daughter to pre-school for 2 mornings a week this fall. Still no cable/satellite TV, no new furniture, no home phone. But happiness is in abundance around here, and I couldn't ask for more.